Israel has been waging a 22-month war in the Gaza Strip, having killed over 60,000 Palestinians. Israel wants to unilaterally transfer all of the Palestinians there, which is nearly 2 million, to war-torn South Sudan in Africa. I’m saying that, according to Bible prophecy, it ain’t gonna happen! Just read my book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia.
Israel Viewing Sudan Is Like Herzl With Uganda
This reminds me of the plan put forth by Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, for Jews’ to have their own nation again. Herzl, an irreligious man, was a journalist in Vienna. In 1896, he got the idea to try to solve “the Jewish problem” by writing a book entitled The Jewish State. In it, he advocated locating Jews in tiny Uganda, Africa. He hoped to establish a community there that might lead to the formation of a Jewish state. As the above map shows, Uganda and South Sudan share the same border.
When Herzl was confronted by a large portion of Jews about his choice of Uganda, they argued for a Jewish settlement in The Levant, where ancient Israel used to exist. Herzl claimed that would be too difficult to achieve and that Uganda was the better choice.
Jews Argued Rightly for Their Ancestral Land
Well, some of those Jews arguing against Herzl’s location of Uganda were religious. They argued that the Jews’ holy scriptures, which Christians call the Old Testament, have many prophecies indicating Jews will reestablish their nation in their “ancestral land” before “the end of days,” meaning the end of this age. Of course, history has proved them right and Herzl wrong about this location of modern Israel.
I maintain that, as those religious Jews rightly cited biblical prophecies indicating the restoration of their nation, biblical prophecies do likewise regarding the Philistines and their nation of ancient Philistia. Isaiah 11.14 is foremost. It says that at the end, when Messiah comes (v. 4), Jews will swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west” in a military assault upon that Gentile nation.
That is a quotation from the NRSV, the favored English translation by Bible scholars. But the NIV has a better translation, “They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west.” Those slopes refer to The Shephelah. It still, with this name, divides the coastal plain from the upper hill country of ancient Judea, which is part of Israel today.
Palestinians Are Genetically Linked to Philistines
I believe that pelestim in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 11.14, which means “Philistines,” indicates that God predicted through the prophet Isaiah that Philistines would still exist in the end times. This is not understood by hardly any Bible interpreters, whether professional or not. What does it mean? I believe it indicates that modern Palestinians, especially those who derive from families who have lived in The Levant for centuries, have a stronger genetic link to the ancient Philistines than to any other people group. I have written many blog posts about this. And DNA analysis of remains (bones in graves) of ancient Canaanites in Lebanon seem to support what I’m saying.
Regardless of this genetics issue, I believe there cannot possibly be any other people group that Isaiah 11.14 refers to than people nowadays called “Palestinians.”
So, according to the Bible, like Jews regaining their nation in their ancestral land 1,700 years later, and not in Uganda, Palestinians will regain the nation of the Philistines over two millennia later in its former homeland, and not in Sudan. Africa therefore has no destiny to supplant Jews or Palestinians. According to the Bible, they both will regain their ancient nations in The Levant, which many people refer to as “the holy land.”
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