What now for Israel?

Over the past few days there’s been a lot noise about the agreement reached between the United States and Iran, with most commentators assessing it to be a failure despite desperate attempts by the White House to spin it as some sort of strategic win.

For me – the facts speak for themselves. What began as a matter of strong principle – removing the threat posed by the Iranian regime and ensuring that Iran could never become a nuclear power – has collapsed into an undignified US surrender which leaves the Iranian regime in place with its ideology intact, the knowledge and capacity required to build nuclear weapons still in Iranian hands, and a Middle East that is now more dangerous than it was before the United States became directly involved.

So why has the US capitulated? Some suggest that it simply reflects domestic political realities in America. Inflation is rising, the economy has stalled and the midterm elections are approaching later this year – all exerting their own pressure on the administration. Others suggest that it reflects Trump’s instinctive preference for striking ‘deals’ and declaring victories.

Whatever the reason, these events also raise a second question: What does this all mean for relations between the US and Israel? In the immediate term, there are three broad possibilities.

The first is that this agreement becomes compartmentalised and that America and Israel simply agree to disagree over Iran. Under this scenario the relationship broadly continues as it has for decades, Israel continues to act in what it perceives to be its own security interests, and America continues to support Israel in most other areas. That would be the cleanest outcome. It would allow Washington to claim its diplomatic success, while Israel quietly gets on with the business of defending itself against a regime that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy it.

The second possibility is considerably more serious. In this scenario the US failure creates a deep rupture. Trump has never responded particularly well to criticism so the fact that a lot of the disagreement around this ‘deal’ is coming from Republican members of Congress and parts of his own political base will sting. This may lead to a situation where US support for Israel not only collapses, but where the current administration becomes antagonistic toward Israeli goals and actions. (we’ve already seen an example of that in Trumps recent bizarre criticism of Israeli actions in Beirut as well as overnight threats to Israel from VP Vance regarding ‘losing their last ally’ if they don’t support the Trump deal).

The third possibility – and probably the most likely – lies somewhere between those two because the strategic alliance between America and Israel is simply too important to both countries to be casually discarded. This doesn’t mean that nothing has changed – trust has been damaged and the relationship is likely to be cooler and more transactional – but military cooperation, intelligence sharing, regional strategy and domestic political support for Israel in the United States will not vanish overnight.

But – on the surface – that still appears to leave Israel in an unsettled and dangerous position. Its greatest ally has signed a weak agreement with its most dangerous enemy and the nuclear threat from an ideologically fanatical regime still remains.

It’s a frightening geopolitical scenario – but It isn’t the only way to view the conflict.

I understand that not everybody believes in Bible prophecy or accepts that Scripture has laid out world history in advance – but in respect to Israel and the Jewish people, the evidence is overwhelming that this is exactly what it has done.

Readers of Prophecy Shock will know that the Biblical Books of Daniel and Revelation are primarily concerned with the history and eventual fate of the Jewish people. These books (almost all of Daniel and a significant portion of Revelation) are the story of events that culminate in the reestablishment of Israel in 1948 and the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967.

The book details how those prophecies unfold, how the timelines work, and why those fulfilments are no longer matters of opinion or denominational preference. They are established facts for anyone prepared to examine them with a calculator, an open Bible and an open enough mind to consider what is actually written in scripture.

But that’s not the end of the prophetic story. Daniel is complete, but Revelation still contains future material – and when that remaining material is read alongside the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament, a remarkably cohesive and consistent picture emerges of what happens next.

The Old Testament Prophets refer to this period as ‘the restoration’ – not as a spiritual metaphor for the Church – but as a term which consistently refers to the physical restoration of the Jewish people to their land and the restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish control, prior to their eventual ‘cleansing’. In other words, the aforementioned events of 1948 and 1967.

That means we are not waiting for this part of the prophetic story to begin. We are already about eighty years into it. Since 1948 Israel has been doing precisely what the prophets said restored Israel would do. It has survived repeated attempts to destroy it. It has rebuilt its national life. It has gathered Jews from the nations. It has prospered against extraordinary odds. It has become economically, technologically and militarily formidable. It has remained the focal point of international controversy. And it has done all of this while still being surrounded by hostility.

So Israel hasn’t somehow entered an unknowable future. We may not know how Washington and Jerusalem will manage the consequences of these latest events – but we can have absolute confidence in the broad picture that Scripture laid out in advance.

But if all of this was predicted in scripture – what still lies ahead? Here’s a spoiler – none of it involves the things we’ve been told to believe over the past 50+ years. There’s no tribulation of Western Christians or coming evil world leader. Instead, according to the Prophets:

• Israel and Jerusalem will remain at the centre of world attention and controversy
• The Middle East will become more turbulent
• Israel will be increasingly alone in a hostile world
• The nations of the west will increasingly define themselves by their posture toward Israel and will be comprehensively judged for this prior to the return of Christ
• The Islamic nations of the Middle East will also ultimately be judged – but not before a final attempt to eradicate Israel
• Then, God will intervene

We don’t yet know the detail or timing of these events – but we absolutely know their shape and their inevitability.

All that matters now is where YOU stand in relation to them….

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