Hundreds of Christian families are fleeing their homes in the Egyptian territory of the North Sinai due to threats and killings by ISIS. On February 19, the Egypt chapter of ISIS released a video calling Coptic Orthodox Christians, who are most prominent in Egypt, “our priority and our preferred prey.” Most are fleeing for Cairo or thereabouts.
I have blogged before about this increasing turmoil in the North Sinai. I suspect that it is another development leading to the eventual formation of a future Palestinian state. I claim in my 1990 book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, a Palestinian state will be created in the coastal plain, thus not in the West Bank. It will result in an expanded Gaza Strip that will likely include the North Sinai to the south, from Gaza to El Arish. The Wadi el Arish was the northern boundary of ancient Egypt during much of its history. In the Bible, it is call “the river of Egypt” (not to be confused with the Nile River). This scenario is obvious from both the title of my book and its front cover image. In such a development, Israel will annex all of the West Bank.
That is actually what David Friedman, U.S. President Trump’s new Jewish ambassador to Israel, has been advocating for years. He demands that Israel do so unilaterally. But that could cause war. I suspect it more likely will happen through negotiation resulting in the creation of a Palestinian state. Accordingly, it will be a land swap. That is, Israel gets the West Bank and Palestinians get some present land in Israel (formerly “land of the Philistines”) and perhaps North Sinai. For all of this to happen, Egypt would be a participant in these negotiations.
I make this proposal in my book based my interpretations of ten biblical prophecies in the Old Testament, with the foremost being Isaiah 11.14 and Zechariah 9.5-8. I believe these texts indicate that not only a revived Philistia will exist in the latter days, but Philistines will exist as well. I have since speculated that especially Palestinians who have descended from families that lived in the Levant for centuries have a stronger genetic link to the ancient Philistines than to any other people group. It is now possible to learn if that is indeed true. The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon announced last summer that it has discovered over 200 Philistine skeletons in a cemetery (first certain Philistine remains ever discovered). And international team of DNA experts are now carrying analysis of these remains and comparing them with other DNA.
See the following related posts on this blog:
“Trump Moves the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Closer to Bible Prophecy”
“Palestinians Need DNA Match to Get Their State”
“Trump Picks Friedman as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt”
“Egypt–Forfeit the North Sinai to Create a Palestinian State”
“Will Ancient Philistia Be Revived?”
“Should Egypt Give the Restive North Sinai to Palestinians?”
“More Turmoil in the Lawless Northern Sinai Peninsula”
“Eastern Mediterranean Mineral Rights of the New Philistia Proposal“
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