The Train Wreck
With tensions rising rapidly, a disaster suddenly occurred in U.S.–Israel relations. The media in Israel and the U.S. began reporting that despite a possible major war in the Middle East so close at hand, President Obama had turned down not one but two possibilities for a personal meeting with Netanyahu when the Israeli premier was scheduled to arrive in the U.S. for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s fall session.
Netanyahu’s aides asked the White House for a meeting in Manhattan but were told the president would be too busy. The aides then suggested Netanyahu would be willing to go to Washington to meet the president, but again Mr. Obama’s aides said the president simply did not have time on his schedule for Netanyahu.
Time, however, was not the issue. The president appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and on The View with Whoopi Goldberg and company during this period. The real issue was one of priority. President Obama chose to send a very public message to Israel—and to Iran—that he did not consider talks with Netanyahu important, even on the eve of war.
The president’s decision came the same week that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. refused to set “red lines” or deadlines for Iran to stop its illegal nuclear activity before the U.S. would consider diplomacy and sanctions worthless and take military action. In some of his strongest comments to date—comments that struck me as suggesting the Israeli leader was so fed up with the White House’s inaction that he was ready to go it alone against Iran—Netanyahu told reporters that because the international community was refusing to set “red lines,” the world had “no moral right” to tell the Israeli government it cannot take military action to defend its people.
“The world tells Israel: ‘Wait. There’s still time,’” Netanyahu said. “And I say, ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”111
On September 16, a twenty-five-nation naval armada—including three American carrier battle groups—headed to the Persian Gulf, anticipating the possible breakout of an Israel-Iran war and the need to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to oil shipping.
Three days later, the IDF launched massive, surprise live-fire military exercises on the Golan Heights amid growing concerns regarding the implosion of the Syrian government and the risk of Syrian chemical and biological weapons falling into the hands of Israel’s enemies.112
The next day, Iran’s top nuclear official publicly admitted that his nation had repeatedly and purposefully lied to the IAEA about the progress of its nuclear program, confirming what many critics of Iran already suspected and raising new questions about just how much more advanced Iran’s nuclear program was than the world knew.113
Then Ahmadinejad came to New York and gave his stunningly clear speech to the U.N. General Assembly, indicating that the American and Israeli governments would not last long and the Twelfth Imam would soon come to rule the world.
Netanyahu then told the gathered leaders of the world that Iran was 70 percent of the way to having the Bomb and would be 90 percent of the way there by spring or summer of 2013. He warned the world to take decisive action to stop Iran soon and clearly implied Israel would take action if the world did not.
That very same month, the world began to learn of a curious new development at Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment plant, the one being built in tunnels deep under a mountain near the religious city of Qom. First we learned through Iranian officials that an explosion occurred near the Fordow plant in mid-August. The explosion was so severe that it destroyed the power lines that fed the plant with electricity from a power station in Qom, apparently shutting down the plant that the Israelis most feared could move Iran into the “zone of immunity.”
Then we slowly began to learn more details from Western intelligence officials about how the explosion occurred. “A monitoring device disguised as a rock exploded last month when Iranian troops near Fordow nuclear plant disturbed it,” the Sunday Times of London and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. “According to the report, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were on patrol last month to check terminals connecting data and telephone links at the underground nuclear enrichment plant, when they saw the rock and tried to move it. ‘Iranian experts who examined the scene of the explosion found the remains of a device capable of intercepting data from computers at the plant, where uranium is being enriched in centrifuges,’ said the report.”114
A secret rock that was spying on Iran, intercepting sensitive phone calls, e-mails, and other important communications? A rock that when moved blew up and not only destroyed evidence of who might have put the device there but also severed the power lines into the Iranian nuclear facility? The war in the shadows was getting more interesting by the day, regardless of whether it was the Israelis or the Americans who were behind this latest intriguing twist.
The larger question was whether the explosion at Fordow had done significant enough damage to Iran’s uranium enrichment process that it bought Israel more time. Had it relieved Netanyahu of the need to order a strike before the American presidential and congressional elections?
Other questions were arising as well. What would the effects be if Netanyahu dissolved the government and called for early elections? How would a suddenly electrified political environment put new strains on Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet? How would the relationship between Netanyahu and Ehud Barak be affected?
All this remains to be seen, but we will know soon enough. If the last few years—indeed, if the last few months—are any guide, there will be more intriguing twists and turns on the road to war. But by the fall of 2012, evidence was mounting that the final countdown to war seemed to be under way.
Chapter Seven
What Does the Future Hold?
In January 2010, my wife, Lynn, and I were in Edmonton, Canada. As I prepared to speak at a Christian conference on the biblical prophecies of Ezekiel 36–39 about the future of Israel and her neighbors, I awoke to news coverage of a major Netanyahu address in Poland, commemorating the sixty-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I was both stunned and encouraged.
Speaking on the actual site of the Nazi death camp, the prime minister warned the world of new genocidal threats against the Jewish people and the importance of acting early enough to prevent such threats from coming to pass. He also declared to the people of Europe and the world that the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled. It was an extraordinary moment. Rarely has any world leader given an address on an international stage declaring End Times prophecies from the Bible have come true. Rarer still is an Israeli leader making such a pronouncement; most Israeli prime ministers tend to be quite secular, reflecting of the majority of Israeli people, who are rather secular as well. Yet that is exactly what Netanyahu did.
“The most important lesson of the Holocaust is that a murderous evil must be stopped early, when it is still in its infancy and before it can carry out its designs,” Netanyahu told the visiting dignitaries. “The enlightened nations of the world must learn this lesson. We, the Jewish nation, who lost a third of our people on Europe’s blood-soaked soil, have learned that the only guarantee for defending our people is a strong State of Israel and the army of Israel. We have learned to warn the nations of the world of impending danger but at the same time to prepare to defend ourselves. As the head of the Jewish State, I pledge to you today: we will never again permit evil to snuff out the life of our people and the life of our own country.”115
After the Holocaust, Netanyahu continued, “the Jewish people rose from ashes and destruction, from a terrible pain that can never be healed. Armed with the Jewish spirit, the justice of man, and the vision of the prophets, we sprouted new branches and grew deep roots. Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet. As Ezekiel prophesied: ‘Then He said unto me: These bones are the whole House of Israel
. They say, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.” Prophesy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of your graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel.’ I stand here today on the ground where so many of my people perished—and I am not alone. The State of Israel and all the Jewish people stand with me. We bow our heads to honor your memory and lift our heads as we raise our flag—a flag of blue and white with a Star of David in its center. And everyone sees. And everyone hears. And everyone knows that our hope is not lost.”
It was a powerful moment—an Israeli leader telling the world that ancient biblical prophecies were coming true before their very eyes. I was intrigued. Netanyahu’s speech begged the question: If the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have come true in our time, what other prophecies about the future of Israel and the people of the epicenter might come true in our lifetime as well?
“I Read from the Bible with My Younger Boy”
Two months later, this headline in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz caught my eye: “Netanyahu’s Son Avner Wins National Bible Quiz.” The article noted that Avner Netanyahu defeated twelve finalists—out of twelve thousand students who originally entered the competition—to win Israel’s National Bible Quiz.
“I don’t remember feeling this much tension since the [Likud] primaries,” the prime minister quipped as he beamed with pride at his son’s accomplishment.116
I had no idea that Avner was such a student of the Bible. Until then, few people outside the Netanyahu family knew.117 And the article went on to share other fascinating pieces of the story I didn’t know.
“Avner Netanyahu’s first-place finish had his family swelling with pride,” Haaretz reported. “His win comes with an impressive family pedigree—three of Sara Netanyahu’s siblings won both the National Bible Quiz and the International Bible Quiz. ‘Until now, I’ve always said that I’m a member of a family with Bible quiz champions,’ said Sara Netanyahu. ‘But now I have a son who is a champion.’ The premier and his wife repeatedly embraced their son, who said he would have enjoyed the contest even if he had finished in last place.”118
In April 2010, Avner went on to compete in the World Bible Quiz competition, held at the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts. In this he placed third, but his parents were just as thrilled, as was the rest of his extended family. In fact, Avner’s maternal uncle Hagai Ben-Artzi (one of Sara’s brothers) noted that it was his father, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, who had made Bible study such an important part of their family’s life.
“I’m saluting my father here; it’s all thanks to him,” Ben-Artzi told the Jerusalem Post. “They [Avner and his grandfather Shmuel] meet every day to study the Bible.”119
The prime minister handed out the prizes to each of the top three finishers, including his son. “David Ben Gurion said that the foundation of our existence here is the Bible,” Netanyahu said. “I was brought up studying the Bible; so were my brothers. The Bible has once again become the Book of books for all of Israel. . . . The Bible is the basis for the existence of the people of Israel and the State of Israel.”
A few months later, in July 2010, a friend e-mailed me to ask if I had seen Netanyahu interviewed on Larry King Live on CNN the night before. I had not, but at his prompting, I found the intriguing interview online.
“You’re prime minister of Israel,” Larry King noted. “A previous prime minister was assassinated. You live in the center of a hostile world. Are you ever able to really relax?”
“Yeah—you know, yes,” Netanyahu replied. “And I’ll tell you when. Every Saturday, our Sabbath, we have a day off. It’s a very good idea that this institution was brought into the world. So I have a day off. And every Saturday, I take an hour and a half, and I read from the Bible with my younger boy. He has just won the National Bible Championship in Israel, and he came third in the international. It’s like the big spelling bee, you know, huge. I relax then. I draw a lot of spiritual strength. You know, I used to teach him. He is now fifteen. But in the last couple of years, he teaches me. So, yes, I draw enormous reservoirs of strength, and I think that is needed for all leaders, but especially for the leaders of Israel.”120
A Bible Study at the Prime Minister’s House
In the fall of 2011, sadness struck the Netanyahu home. Sara’s father, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, passed away. In December of that year, the prime minister honored his father-in-law in a very special way.
“Taking a page out of David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin’s playbook, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu will begin hosting a regular Bible study group in his official residence for researchers, public officials, and invited guests,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Netanyahu announced the establishment of the study circle on Friday at a ceremony marking thirty days since the passing of his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi. The study group will be named after Ben-Artzi, a noted poet and Bible teacher. Both Ben-Gurion and Begin, when they each served as prime minister, hosted regular Bible study groups. Netanyahu said he was establishing the class to perpetuate love of the Bible.”121
I wrote about this development at the time and noted that “these are excellent steps by the prime minister, and he should be commended for them. Indeed, let us pray that the study of the Word of God has a powerful, personal impact on the prime minister and his family and each of his colleagues and guests. Let’s pray that many Israelis would follow the prime minister’s lead and begin reading the Holy Scriptures again and that Bible studies in people’s homes would spring up all over the land of Israel. Let’s pray that more and more Israelis would develop a new and deeper curiosity about Bible prophecy, both the dramatic prophecies in the Scriptures that have already been fulfilled and those that will come to pass soon, including the all-important prophecies about the Messiah.”122
Such a national reawakening to the importance of the Scriptures has happened before in Israel’s history. Men of old like Nehemiah, Ezra, Josiah, and Joel were beloved Israeli governors, priests, kings, and prophets whom the Lord used to turn the Jewish people back to the Scriptures and the need for national and individual prayer, fasting, and repentance.
One of my favorite examples is found in 2 Kings 22—the remarkable story of King Josiah. I’d encourage you to read it. At the age of eight, Josiah took the throne. A few years later, he instructed that the Temple be cleaned and renovated. In so doing, he learned that a long-forgotten copy of the Scriptures had been found in the Temple. Indeed, someone brought him the dusty scrolls and read the Word of God to the king. “When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes” (v. 11) in repentance for all of Israel’s sinful ways, as well as his own. Then King Josiah commanded Hilkiah the priest and several other servants, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us” (v. 13).
In 2 Kings 23, then, comes the equally amazing story of King Josiah gathering all the people of Israel and reading the Word of the Lord to them. Then the king proceeded to make major national reforms in accordance with the Scriptures. “Before him,” the Bible says in verse 25, “there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.” May Israel once again experience a national renaissance of hunger for the Word of the Lord.123
“The Bible Is . . . a Map and Compass”
War planning and preparations dominated Netanyahu’s schedule for the next few months. Then sadness struck the Netanyahu family again.
Benzion Netanyahu, the prime minister’s father, passed away on Monday, April 30, 2012, at the remarkable age of 102. The loss of the highly respected historian, author, and Zionist was felt deeply by Bibi, his younger brother, Iddo, and the rest of his family.
But it did not dissuade the prime minister from moving forward with the Bible study in honor of his father-in-law.
On Wednesday, May 23, Netanyahu, Sara, their sons, close friends, and numerous Jewish scholars kicked off their first home Bible study. It was scheduled to last for an hour but went on for two, and it focused on the book of Ruth.
“On Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad, a few thousand kilometers away from the prime minister’s Jerusalem residence, the world powers known as the P5+1—the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain, and Germany—sat down for much-anticipated talks with the Iranians about their nuclear program,” reported the Jerusalem Post.124 “And all the while, for two hours on a mild afternoon, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu—with a small black kippa on his head—sat in the covered courtyard of his home with sixteen rabbis, academics, Bible scholars, archeologists, and linguists and discussed the meaning of the book of Ruth, which will be read on Shavuot on Sunday in synagogues around the world. His wife, Sara, sat next to him, and his two sons sat on a bank of chairs set to the side.
“There was something at once heartening and slightly humorous about Netanyahu setting aside precious time in the late afternoon to talk about biblical figures . . . while Iran loomed so large and domestic issues beckoned so seriously,” the Post continued. “It was heartening in that it is uniquely elevating seeing the prime minister of the Jewish state taking time out to study the Bible, the heart of Jewish existence. One cannot talk about Jewish historic rights to this place, which the prime minister does constantly, without appreciating and understanding the Bible. . . . [The rabbi] wanted to read only a few verses from the book of Ruth, but the prime minister urged him on to read more. This is better than the usual matters he has to deal with, Netanyahu quipped.”