The Counterfeit Peacemaker

Remember. The word is written in Hebrew in front of six flames which perpetually burn above the main courtyard of the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a memorial of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust by the Germans.

Clearly, Israel and Germany have a tainted past. In fact, it was anti-Semitic persecution in Germany and other parts of Europe that precipitated the greatest flood of Jewish immigrants to Israel before its establishment as a state in 1948. Israel’s existence, at least in part, is a product of German hatred for Jews.

That is why what is happening today between Europe and Israel is so extraordinary.

The United States has been the primary arbiter of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians for almost a decade. But now, as violence between Jews and Palestinians wears on, as the prospect of a solution disappears over a dimming horizon, as every tried method of re-establishing order fails, the search for alternatives is growing more desperate.

In this context, new evidence is surfacing of the European Union’s subtle efforts to capture the Middle East peace process. In fact, the German-dominated EU is increasingly showing its true colors, particularly in relation to its desire to “Europeanize” the principal protagonist in the Middle Eastern quagmire—the tiny nation of Israel.

What is amazing in this scenario is that Israeli leaders are of the same mind! Israel is increasingly looking to Europe—and, yes, to Germany—as an ally, a benefactor, a peacemaker. A savior.

It may appear that the Palestinians and Israelis disagree on much. But one thing they do agree on is the involvement of the EU and the Vatican in a “final solution” to the Middle East peace process.

Why? Of all conceivable solutions, why this? What draws Israel to its former arch-enemy? Does Israel not remember? Do those six flames not burn for a purpose?

What should be obvious to objective observers, and what Trumpet readers must understand, is that Europe is no casual third party trying to find the best solution for both sides of the conflict. And where America has been mostly talk, Europe is sure to be hands on.

The fact is, the EU wants to “Europeanize” Israel. They want to take over!

That fact does not bode well for the Jewish state. There are sinister forces at work beyond the understanding of most of the Jews in Israel. As much as Israel wants to believe that there will never be another Holocaust—that today’s Germany, today’s Europe, is different—they are in fact setting themselves up for the fulfillment of all their worst fears.

In this article we document the terrible facts—and explain the widely overlooked and hidden reasons why this unimaginable association is being pursued.

The New Mideast Heavyweight

Many Arabs accuse the United States of being unfair—pro-Jew. Their efforts to find support for their cause, and, more importantly, a more Arab-friendly referee in the peace process, have brought Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on bended knee before heads of state all over the world.

Arafat has found particularly favorable reception in Europe. On the whole, Europe, in assigning blame for Mideast problems, habitually points to Israel.

In 1996, French President Jacques Chirac became the first head of state to speak to the Palestinian legislative council. He was loudly cheered for “treating the Palestinians to a rare feast of support and succor,” according to the New York Times. In his speech he called for Israel to concede all of the Palestinians’ main demands.

Who would have thought such a power play possible in the dark years following World War ii? Europe—particularly Germany, soaked in Jewish blood—wanted to stay as far away from anything resembling anti-Semitism as possible.

Nevertheless, in the five years since, while occasionally deferring to U.S. dominance of new peace measures, Europe has demonstrated what appears to be an anti-Jew bias with increasing frequency.

Here are the prophetic words Trumpet Editor in Chief Gerald Flurry wrote in response to Chirac’s 1996 speech: “This is not just a serious slap at Israel. It’s also a strong move against the Israel-American axis. It’s a power move to take over the peace process for Europe’s great benefit. The European Union is moving to be the heavyweight in the Middle East.

“Europe is moving not only to be a co-sponsor in the peace process—they want to gain control of it!”

As time progresses, we are watching as these profound and revelatory words are proved true!

Europe Appears Pro-Arab

The European Union is the largest foreign donor to the Palestinian Authority, contributing more than $150 million a year. It puts another $550 million annually toward peace initiatives in neighboring Arab states Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. These funds Europe writes off as donations to the Middle East peace effort.

Meanwhile, headlines detailing Europe’s pressure on Israel—to halt settlement activity, to tone down military responses to Arab attacks—have been steady and sustained since the Chirac visit. The EU and its member nations have repeatedly called for the formation of an independent Palestinian state, formally declaring their support of the move in a 1999 Berlin summit.

Consider this excerpt from the May 24 European Report (emphasis mine here and throughout), typical of what is emerging from Europe: “The EU and its member states, including Germany, which for historic reasons [the Holocaust] has until now adopted a low profile regarding any condemnation of Israel, have called on Tel Aviv to put an immediate end to its settlement activities in the Palestinian Territories. They have also denounced Israel’s disproportionate use of force against Palestine’s civilian population.” Germany—which fueled the furnace of the Holocaust—is once again showing itself unafraid to bully Israel!

Also in May, the European Parliament took up the nagging issue of whether to ban certain imports from Israel. The EU buys up almost a third of Israel’s exports, making it Israel’s biggest trade partner. Because Europe considers the West Bank and Gaza Strip illegally occupied territory, some officials insist that goods manufactured there should not carry the “Made in Israel” label that exempts them from customs duties, as most Israeli imports are. Thus, Europe is reviewing the origins of all sorts of imports from Israel, and may consider revoking Israel’s duty-free status altogether.

Despite assertions to the contrary from European officials, they are most certainly exploiting this matter to turn the screws on Israel.

EU Observers

It is a portent of things to come. On this front, the Europeans are already moving in on the Middle East peace process.

Throughout the present conflict, Israel has been resistant to official international observation, arguing—not without reason—that the observers would be biased in favor of the Palestinians. Nevertheless, the Christian Science Monitor of June 5 revealed that European officials have rented rooms in a particularly volatile West Bank town, Beit Jala. Why? In the words of an unnamed European official, “to be able to get an objective view of what efforts are being made to implement the cease-fire and to have the ability…to be witnesses at the most sensitive points.” They say they are not official observers—merely “witnesses.”

Evidently, Europe cares not that this move directly opposes Israel’s outspoken wishes!

“The European move will likely provoke Israeli ire and Palestinian delight,” the article said. “While Palestinians have long called for international observers, the Israelis have rejected the idea, saying such monitoring would be one-sided, impractical, and possibly provocative. But the European effort appears to be taking place on the Palestinian side alone, without explicit Israeli approval.”

One would think that a party so interested in the responsibility of arbitrating peace would at least be more careful to appear objective!

Europe in Israel’s Politics

These issues rankle many Jews. But far more alarming and underhanded is increasing evidence that Europe is trying to destabilize Israel by influencing its politics.

A Ma’ariv reporter revealed in June that the EU Support Committee had earmarked $342,000 for a committee dedicated to “preventing left-leaning new Russian immigrants from swinging to the right.” Over $200,000 was also committed to the liberal Four Mothers movement, which dissolved before the money could reach it. “Hundreds of thousands of euros are scheduled to soon reach Peace Now, the Committee Against Razing Homes, and the far-left group Ir Shalem”—a collection of radically liberal political groups (Arutz Sheva News, June 22).

Arutz Sheva further disclosed in its June 27 edition that the list of left-wing groups receiving EU money was even longer. “This is unbelievable,” Knesset member Benny Elon was quoted as saying. “There is a whole network that looked for the weak links in Israeli society, and then started bankrolling them.… [O]fficial nations—not some private millionaire—were directly involved in Israeli politics….” This is precisely the pattern of double-dealing that Germany has repeatedly followed.

Remember how the EU clearly has exploited the liberal politics of Israeli Nobel laureate Shimon Peres to its advantage. As we detailed in our March-April issue, Mr. Peres has always placed great faith in the land-for-peace formula, cutting back-alley deals with the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Vatican for Israeli real estate, all with the firm approval of the European Union.

Now carrying the political clout of the foreign ministership within the conservative Israeli government of Ariel Sharon, Peres recently revealed himself as a deserter! July 3, he warned “that he could step down from his post if the Israeli government does not stop trying to undermine Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat…. ‘I will not be able to continue in my role if you keep trying to delegitimize Yasser Arafat’ [he told] parliament’s committee on defense and foreign affairs” (Agence France Presse, July 3).

Nothing could have made Europe more proud! Mr. Peres is surely dancing to the EU’s tune as he virtually blackmails his own government into dealing with Arafat, a confirmed terrorist, on his own terms.

Realize the significance of these allegations. While publicly funding one side in the dispute—the Palestinian “government in exile”—Europe stealthily has cut the other side, Israel, down at the knees! Today’s Israel is a fractious shell of its former self, ruptured through dozens of political parties, riven by a chaotic mess of political infighting even at the highest levels, never able to find consensus on how to approach peace with its neighbors because it cannot find peace within itself!

As in former Yugoslavia, so in Israel: Europe has created a monster, and now will offer to step in and smooth things over with its unique version of “peacekeeping”—that is, moving in and setting up camp.

Romancing the Jews

Consider now the regrettable fact of Israel’s continued openness to Europe’s overtures.

Conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked to keep Europe out of the Mideast, undoubtedly because of a clear-eyed view of their anti-Jew orientation. It was during his term in office that Europe was secretly working to fortify the left-wing elements in Israeli politics.

Predictably enough, Netanyahu’s successor, the appeasing Ehud Barak, welcomed Europe with open arms.

During an official visit to Israel by German President Johannes Rau in February 2000 for example, Barak spoke of the “genuine friendship” between Israel and “the new Germany of Adenauer and his successors.” How much Israel wants to believe that Germany is a changed country!

“The Germany of today is one of Israel’s most important friends in Europe,” Mr. Barak said. He praised Germany for its “searing soul-searching” since World War ii, a process that has “strengthened German democracy and returned Germany to the family of nations as a free society, open, pluralistic and humane.”

In June of 2000, with Barak in office, Israel was granted Associate Member status of the European Union. That gave them preferential status in relations with the EU, a position ensuring “extensive co-operation in finance, information exchanges, scientific relations and other matters” (Israel’s Business Arena, March 16, 2000). Here the love affair with Europe was taken to a new level.

Some would consider this association a mark of the great progress made since the Second World War. But the truth is that Israel’s dangerous romance with Europe will end in a nation-threatening betrayal!

Soon after, when Barak’s liberal peace policies exploded in his face, he was deserted politically and ousted after completing less than half his term. A conservative backlash in Israel’s electorate put the hawkish Sharon in office.

But even Sharon has proved to be someone with whom Europe can work. Not only did he position Europe’s point man Peres at his side as foreign minister, but he himself seems open to dealing with Germany and the EU. Witness his July visit to Germany and France, at which he praised Germany’s “balanced approach to the Middle East”—while being advised by Germany to stop illegal settlements and instructed by France to stop undermining Arafat!

As for Mr. Peres, he wears his love for Europe on his sleeve. In April, he visited the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, another Middle East enclave that Europe seems intent on incorporating. He praised the Cypriots for taking advantage of EU moves toward “the Europeanization of the island in the heart of the Mediterranean.” He was happy, he said, that Israel and Cyprus shared the goal of “Europeanizing the Middle East,” a trend he believes will secure peace and freedom in the region. “Europeanization will change everything,” he said.

Mr. Peres laid out his dream of the future for Israel—a future in which Israel is, of all things, “Europeanized”! Peres’s deal with the Vatican to give away half of Jerusalem to Rome had been made in secret, during the previous decade, at a time when it was not fashionable to talk of “Europeanizing” Israel. Now it is out in the open and the subject of a public lecture by Peres.

What a strange situation!

Think of it! Jews and Arabs are embroiled in insoluble conflict. Thus, Germany, the country responsible for the massacre of so many Jews, now makes a pretense of coming to their aid, wrapped in the cloak of European Union. Yet in so doing, it stands exposed as decidedly anti-Jew. And still, Israel increasingly clamors for its help, going so far as to want to become “Europeanized”! It is almost too surreal to be believed.

Nevertheless, these current events ironically echo the prophetic inevitability of events foreshadowed in the writings of the biblical prophets, which are now leaping into clear focus!

Why Israel Trusts Europe

We come now to a tough question: Why, given 20th-century history between Israel and Europe, and taking into account present-day EU statements on the Mideast, would Israel trust Europe as an ally? It is a true enigma in Mideast politics!

At its heart, the reason is essentially Israel’s fatal weakness.

Mr. Flurry has written extensively on the biblically prophesied collapse of will being witnessed in modern-day Israel. The nation that was born and sustained in a hostile climate by miraculous protection has since turned on the God who made possible its existence. Like the ancient, biblical nation of Israel, it has taken to trusting in men—even, to its own peril, enemy nations—rather than the all-powerful God.

This faithlessness is the cause for Israel’s trust in the impotent, vain and terribly misnamed peace process. It has obliged Israel to give up site after biblically significant site to the Palestinians. All of Israel’s hopes are pinned on a negotiation policy that has proved to be an utter catastrophe! And with U.S. measures proving inadequate, Israel is so weak, so desperate for another mediator to turn to, they believe their only remaining option is to look to Germany and the European Union.

Biblical prophecy illuminates Israel’s deplorable posture. As Mr. Flurry has explained, the Bible refers to the present nation of Israel as “Judah” (hence the name Jew). Hosea 5:13 reveals the true nature of the peace process by calling it Judah’s “wound.” “When…Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian [the biblical name for modern Germany], and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.” Judah’s wound is incurable—and it takes them right into the waiting arms of Germany. Gesenius’ Lexicon defines wound, “the pressing together, binding up of a wound; here used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wounds of the state.” In other words, the remedy is the wound!

Could a single word better describe Israel’s “peace” process? Is there any more grievous wound than the naive, strength-sapping negotiation that now has Israel going cap-in-hand to Europe for salvation from its troubles?

The Reason for the Holocaust

Now, our second tough question: Why Europe’s meddling in the Middle East? Why its apparent Palestinian bias? Given 20th century history, why is it not more careful to be even-handed?

To answer, we raise another issue: The true cause of the Holocaust.

Volumes have been written exploring this grim, mysterious question. But what those books lack is understanding of the spiritual dimension—without which the very heart of the problem cannot be grasped.

There is an invisible spirit realm! The Bible reveals that mankind is fundamentally swayed by Satan the devil, the god of this world (ii Cor. 4:4), who has tangled the minds of “the whole world” in deceit (Rev. 12:9). This supernatural being hates human beings, because it is in our race that God has planted the seeds of the eternal future—a transcendent potential that far surpasses any that Satan was ever offered.

In past Trumpet articles we have spelled out scriptures that show how God will one day unite all the nations of Israel—and eventually the world—under the throne of David, the Jewish king (i.e. Jer. 33:14-16). God will accomplish this by grafting the Gentile nations into Israel (i.e. Rom. 11:17). Jesus Christ Himself—the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David (Rev. 5:5)—said that salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22); yet elsewhere, the Bible shows that God wills that all men be saved (i Tim. 2:4). In short, the biblical teaching is that in God’s soon-coming Kingdom, people of every nation and race will become spiritual Jews (which has nothing to do with race—Rom. 2:28-29). That is our future. This remarkable truth requires much biblical proof, which may be found in our coming book The Key of David Vision.

It is Satan’s hatred for that truth that fuels his hatred for the Jewish race today!

What caused the Holocaust? It was human nature under the influence of the devil, playing out in horrific genocide his vicious, brutal program.

The Bible also reveals that the devil’s most effective instrument of destruction, historically, has been the Holy Roman Empire—referred to biblically as a terrible beast with many heads, or resurrections (Dan. 7:23; Rev. 13:1-4). The German-Italian axis that produced the Holocaust represented the next-to-last resurrection of that beast power.

Before the present age of man ends, Satan will use that same tool once more!

The well-known prophecy of an end-time “abomination of desolation” (i.e. Matt. 24:15) is describing a European “peacekeeping” army moving into Israel—most likely at the invitation of the Jews! “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh (Luke 21:20). That army will be directed by a powerful church with religious designs on the holiest of cities. And what will appear to be Jerusalem’s ultimate salvation will suddenly become Israel’s bloodiest holocaust!

It is for this reason that we must trumpet the alarm over Europe’s increasing boldness in stepping into the Middle East peace process! Their appearance as a peacemaker is a deadly counterfeit!

Pity the poor Jews who fail to recognize the resurrected spirit of the Holocaust, as events are marching inexorably in this very direction.

Taking Over the Peace Process

We conclude with an overview of chilling present-day events.

In a flurry of diplomatic activity during June, the EU, and Germany in particular, moved to cement its role in what is now emerging as the final act of the “peace process” being played out amid the violence of civil war.

After a pattern of U.S. failure, the Bush administration says it will not be as active in the Mideast as President Clinton was. The Christian Science Monitor of June 5 spoke of the frustration with America’s lack of success. “Recent meetings brokered by the U.S. apparently have proved fruitless. But where U.S. efforts have stalled or been limited to phone conversations, the Europeans have been more visible and more successful.” Yes, count on Europe to be waiting and ready to stand in the breach.

International perceptions are already shifting: Perhaps Europe will succeed where the U.S. could not. Even Israel, while being slapped, undermined and ignored by Europe, still appears to be grasping at this impossible hope!

In an uncanny coincidence, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer happened to be in town when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a Tel Aviv disco, killing 20 Israelis, on June 1. Fischer immediately moved to negotiate a cease fire between the Israelis and Palestinians. “As one Western diplomat put it, speaking on condition of anonymity, ‘the EU is in the right place at the right time’” (ibid.).

Ten days later, EU representatives met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Minister for International Cooperation. Shaath commented publicly that the cease fire negotiated by Fischer proved that “Europe does not always have to play second fiddle” in the peace process. Associated Press commented that “The EU suddenly finds itself in a Mideast spotlight after Fischer crafted a cease-fire accord” (AP, Worldstream, June 11).

Not two weeks after that meeting, Shaath visited Fischer in Berlin and personally requested him “to return to the Middle East to represent the European Union in peace talks and to help…stabilize the peace process” (Agence France Presse, June 20).

Yet, as eager as they are to invite the EU in, even the Palestinians are wholly unaware of Europe’s real intent. Prophecy reveals that they too will be blindsided when Europe’s armies march into the Holy Land.

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south [an Islamic consortium that will likely include a Palestinian contingent] push at him: and the king of the north [the German-led European Union] shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships [probably launched from a European outpost in Cyprus]; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land [Israel], and many countries shall be overthrown …” (Dan. 11:40-41).

This is the terrifying end awaiting the inhabitants of the land of Israel! This is the terrible trap into which the Jews of Israel are directly walking! This will be the final “peacemaking” legacy left by today’s rising unholy European empire! A worse massacre than Jerusalem has ever seen.

Events are hurtling toward this crisis at the close. Time is desperately short. The Trumpet is to serve as a warning. God promises protection for the truly repentant. “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, o house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11).

Heed God’s warning—and live!