Appeal

H.E. BENIGNO AQUINO III

PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES MALACAÑAN PALACE, MANILA 

Dear President Aquino,

In recent weeks, Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders have made numerous statements indicating that they plan to ask the United Nations to unilaterally declare a new Palestinian State within Israel's borders by September 2011.

We respectfully appeal to H.E. the President to reject this resolution and direct the Philippine delegation to cast a NO vote, when it is tabled for votation in the UN General Assembly.

As concerned citizens in a nation of believers who accept Scriptures as Truth, we are of one heart and mind, that regarding the Chosen People of God and His Land, Israel, mere legal, political and moral considerations attached to the issue are superseded by the authority of the Scriptures. We believe that the partitioning of the land of Israel goes directly against the expressed will of the Almighty who gave the land to the people of Israel as a permanent possession (Genesis 17:7-8). Speaking of Jerusalem in particular, the prophet Zecharaiah declared, “...for he who touches you (Zion) touches the apple of His (God`s) eye.” (Zecharaiah 2:8). God Himself declares “I will enter into judgment with them (the nations)...on behalf of My people...whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.” (Joel 3:2).

Israel faces once again another critical juncture in its beleaguered history.

It is our prayer that the Holy One of Israel and God of all the earth will graciously grant wisdom to the President, the leader of the Philippines, to take the just and righteous stand with and for Israel and the Chosen People.

As the President heeds God`s special call on his life and his presidency for such a time as this, may the President and our country see and experience in this lifetime and in the coming generations, the fulfillment of the God of Israel`s covenant blessings, “For I will bless those who bless you [Israel] and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-4).

Thank you.

Very truly yours,
Project NOYP EXECUTIVE BOARD and PARTNERS

Re: The Proposed UN General Assembly Resolution to Recognize a Palestinian State “within the 1967 Borders”

Dear President Aquino:

The resolution to recognize a Palestinian state “within the 1967 borders” will be on the table for votation in the forthcoming 66th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2011. If the resolution is adopted, a Palestinian state thus created will be carved out from the ancient Bible lands of Judea and Samaria, including more than half of Jerusalem, and further reduce Israel to a mere tiny dot in a mass of Arab land 650 times its size.

We respectfully appeal to H.E. the President, to use his authority to prevent the adoption of the resolution with a NO vote cast by the Philippines, for the reasons laid out in this document.

The Scriptural Perspective

The Philippines is a nation of believers who accept Scriptures as Truth. Hence, a complete and correct perspective of the issues around the land of Israel goes beyond the purely secular, diplomatic, and political to include the scriptural.

The votation in the UN for a Palestinian state is a God-given opportunity for our nation to vote for or against God`s expressed will and purpose.

The Jews as a people are unique in that God chose them as His own treasure among all peoples and tongues. The Land of Israel is likewise uniquely chosen, unconditionally and irrevocably promised by God as an eternal possession to Abraham and to his descendants through Isaac, and to the Israelites through Jacob [Israel], Abraham`s grandson.

  • Genesis 15: 18
    In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates...
  • Genesis 17:7-8
    I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now foreigners, all the land of Canaan, as a permanent possession.
  • Genesis 35:10-12
    God said to him...`Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name...And the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, I will give to you and to your seed after you will I give the land.’

Jerusalem, in particular, is the city God Himself chose for His name to dwell.

  • 2 Chronicles 6:5-6
    ...but I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there...
  • Psalm 132:13-14
    For Adonai has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is my resting place forever and ever, here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
  • Psalm 122:6
    Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you.

Those nations that choose to go against Israel or to divide God’s land do so at their own peril, opening up their nations to God’s fierce judgment in the form of all kinds of disasters.

  • Zechariah 12:2-3; 9
    This is the message from the Lord, the Lord who spread out the skies, created the earth, and gave life to man. He says, "I will make Jerusalem like a cup of poison; the nations around her will drink and stagger like drunks. And when they besiege Jerusalem...I will make Jerusalem like a heavy stone...Any nation that tries to lift it will be hurt.
  • Zechariah 12:9
    When that day comes, I will seek to destroy all nations attacking Jerusalem.
  • Isaiah 60:12
    For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you (Israel) will perish; it will be utterly ruined.
  • Joel 3:2
    I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.

Filipinos, as a people, “invested” in the kingdom of God when the Philippines supported the Jews during critical moments in their beleaguered history, and then in 1958, signed a treaty of friendship with the State of Israel.

  • In 1939, the Philippines was the only country in Asia to open its doors to Jews fleeing the Holocaust in Europe. As part of his Open Doors Policy, then President Manuel L. Quezon issued 10,000 visas for Jewish refugees, established a housing community for them in Marikina, and even donated a large portion of his personal estate in Mindanao for a farm settlement for them.
  • On November 29, 1947, the Philippines was the only Asian country to cast a “Yes” vote to approve UN Resolution 181 creating the State of Israel.
  • President Carlos Garcia signed a Treaty of Friendship between Israel and the Philippines in 1958.
  • We do not want to lose our standing with the God of Israel and find ourselves instead on a collision course with His expressed will and purpose.

Let us be forewarned: The Philippines was a signatory to the nowretracted Goldstone Report, which condemned Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The United Nations released the report on September 15, 2009. Exactly nine (9) days later, on September 24, 2009, Super-Typhoon Ondoy struck the Philippines with horrific devastating force that left almost the entire country staggering and reeling with hundreds dead and missing, entire towns of people homeless, and billions of pesos lost in infrastructure and property damages. In Hebrew Gematria, the number 9 represents judgment.

Regarding His people, Israel, God declares in His Word both a blessing and a curse that we would do well to heed: “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3).

The Legal Perspective

The Palestinian Resolution is inherently illegal.1
  • A resolution unanimously adopted by the League of Nations in 1922 legally established a national home for the Jewish People in the historical areas of the Land of Israel. This included the areas of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, and close Jewish settlements. As the League resolution remains valid by virtue of Article 80 of the UN Charter, the 650,000 Jews who currently reside in the areas of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, do so legitimately.
  • A Palestinian state did not exist in June 1967, and had never existed before then. Neither had there ever been a distinct people group known as Palestinians. The Arabs living in the partially recreated state of Israel in 1948 called themselves “Arabs”, adopting the nationality of the Arab state (Jordan, Egypt or Syria) claiming sovereignty over that part of Israel they lived in.2 In contrast, however, as a people, the Jews have lived as natives of the Middle East for centuries. Today, the Mizrahi Middle Eastern Jews comprise the majority of Jews in Israel, and are not as commonly and erroneously presented, recent immigrants from Europe, the Soviet Union, or America.
  • The creation of a Palestinian state, proposed by the UN in 1947, was utterly rejected by the Arab world because it would have meant the recognition of a Jewish state alongside it.3 The Arab rejection of the partition plan, backed by their subsequent aggressive action in a “war of extermination”against the nascent state of Israel , effectively voided the UN recommendation of any legal basis and made it irrelevant.4
  • The "1967 borders" do not exist, and have never existed. What is referred to are nothing more than military armistice lines, familiarly known as the Green Line, dating back to 1949. These lines were drawn after five Arab armies attacked the newly formed state of Israel in 1948 but failed to destroy it. It is generally recognized that the Armistice Lines did not fix formal boundaries, only lines of demarcation, beyond which the armies of the parties involved cannot move. Therefore, these lines cannot be accepted or declared to be the international boundaries of a Palestinian state.
  • While in the months towards the end of 2010, the Palestinian Authority called for “negotiations”, these were really nothing more than demands for Israel to withdraw to the “1967 borders” without negotiation.
  • The anticipated Palestinian proposal is a unilateral attempt to change the status of the territory. As such, it runs against UN Security Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), both of which stress the need to negotiate to achieve “secure and recognized boundaries”. It would be a fundamental breach of the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in which the parties undertook to negotiate the issue of borders, and not act to change the status of the territories pending the outcome of permanent status negotiations.
  • Despite Israel`s historic rights to the city, the UN has maintained a persistent policy of non-recognition of Israel`s sovereignty over Jerusalem pending a negotiated solution. It would be the ultimate in hypocrisy, double standards, and discrimination, for the UN to recognize a unilaterally declared Palestinian state whose borders would include Eastern Jerusalem .

1“A UN Resolution to recognize a Palestinian State within the `1967 Borders` would be illegal”, Legal Forum for Israel and Amb. Alan Baker, www.aish.com, June 1, 2011

2“Israel, Palestine, and the Peace Pieties,” Barbara Lerner, The Jerusalem Connection Report, June 20 2011

3“Why the Six Day War Still Matters”, David Harris, www.aish.com, June 12, 2011

4“A People Have No Need to Annex What Is Already Theirs”, www.aish.com, November 24, 2010

The Political Perspective

The 1967 Armistice Lines, which the proposal seeks to establish as the borders of the Palestinian state, represent militarily indefensible borders for Israel

  • Israel is a very small state - smaller than the island of Palawan - surrounded by five Arab nations 650 times its size and 60 times its population, several of which are bound by a united passion to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
  • Returning to the armistice lines would leave Israel with a width of only nine miles at its most populous region. Enemy aircraft could cross the country in less than four minutes, penetrating Israeli airspace via the Jordan Valley from the east to reach Jerusalem in less than two minutes.
  • A greater withdrawal by Israel would only provide its hostile neighbors with a larger base from which to attack Israel.

The Moral Perspective

The creation of a terrorist Palestinian State in Judea, Samaria and Gaza endangers the very existence of Israel.

  • In its English messages to the West, the Palestinian Authority (PA) glorifies an independent Palestinian state peacefully co-existing beside Israel. To Arab audiences, the PA declares that there will be no Israel at all, but rather one large Arab Palestine.
  • The Fatah-Hamas Palestinian government partnership in April 2011 should set off alarms about the true nature of any Palestinian state created. Hamas is a terror organization. As explicitly stated in its charter, its avowed, primary aim is the destruction of Israel.
  • The past 17 years have shown that the “land for peace” policy does not work, and will never work. The issue has never really been about borders, but about the existence of the Jewish state of Israel and the Arabs’ refusal to recognize it.

Our Prayerful Appeal to the President

H.E. the President today stands at a defining moment in his presidency and in Philippine history, where the President is called upon to act with supreme courage and moral strength to keep faith and stand with Israel.

We pray that the President will not align himself and, thus our entire country, with groups and political entities that are and have always been committed to terrorism and the destruction of Israel.

We pray that the President will not bend to any form of pressure for political expediency, but remain steadfast in refusing to endorse any initiative that would undermine the state of Israel`s very existence, by political cunning if not by force.

We prayerfully and respectfully urge the President to support Israel by voting against any UN resolution that would divide the land of Israel, or enable in anyway the creation of a terrorist state of Palestine.

As H.E. the President and leader of the Philippines takes this just and righteous stand with and for Israel, may the President and our country see and experience in this lifetime and in the coming generations, the fulfillment of the God of Israel`s covenant blessings, “For I will bless those who bless you [Israel] and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3).

Thank you.

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