I spent a few days in Jerusalem walking around the city and leading my group along the top of the city wall. I remember walking alone after dark in the Old City without fear. I stayed in the Palace Hotel, not as elegant as the King David Hotel, but everyone was thrilled to have any guests–even “ugly Americans.” A Kennedy half-dollar would get anything done.

Jerusalem today is a city of 870,000 citizens including 37 percent Arabs although not one Jew is permitted in Saudi Araba! It is long past time for the U.S. to obey our law and move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. After all, the whole world knows Jerusalem has always been the capital of Israel. King David captured the city from the Jebusites in 1004, making it his capital. (By the way, where were all the “Palestinians” at that time?)

In 1995, Congress passed a bill that allowed the U.S. to recognize Jerusalem as the capital and move our embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City. However, that has not happened because the law permitted the president to delay the move for national security reasons. Every president since then has been too cowardly to do the right thing. Maybe they forgot, but forgetting is bad news.

A few days ago, Trump “kicked the can down the road” as other presidents have done. He hopes to arrange a solution to the “Palestinian” problem. He not only kicked the can down the road but he kicked Jews and Christians down the road. The Jew has been the whipping boy of the world for thousands of years.

When the Jews were in their 70-year captivity in Babylon–500 miles from Jerusalem, their Temple destroyed, the sacrifices ceased, the priests silent–they sat on the banks of the Euphrates River and wept as they remembered Zion. David quoted those captive Jews saying, “We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof…If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” They had lost their song but not their salvation. And they remembered Jerusalem.

We will see if President Trump will keep his word in six months and recognize Jerusalem as the undivided and eternal capital of Israel thereby telling the Muslim world they will not drag East Jerusalem into their orbit.

“Palestinians” have no history, no culture, no coinage, and no king list. Archeologists will never dig up artifacts revealing their past since they have no past. It is pathetic that people have bought into this myth. “Palestinians” are displaced Egyptians, Syrians, and Jordanians that have proclaimed themselves descendants of people who never existed before 1948. Of course, they are people who need help but their help should come from Jordan or Egypt. If they want a separate nation then the UN or the Arab League can carve out a piece of land from Jordan or the Saudi desert. Then, let’s see if they can do with that what Israel has done with the barren, rocky land they started with. It seems Arabs have little desire or ability to make the desert blossom like a rose.

But let us leave fantasy and return to Jerusalem.

Radical Muslims demand that East Jerusalem be turned over to them as their capital of a Palestinian state that would include Judea and Samaria. However, the Jewish leaders can’t be that stupid. But then, they have agreed to a two-state solution with a “Palestinian” state alongside Israel! Of course, Israel would have to surrender East Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria originally conquered by Joshua in 1400 B.C. Why would sane Israelis agree to give up their own homeland for a promise of peace from people who have callously, constantly, and consistently threatened to drive them into the sea?

Moreover, why didn’t the politicians who tell Israelis to be so forgiving and high-minded demand that the old Soviet Union return its vast territories it confiscated after WW II?

Furthermore, with the “Palestinians’” history of terror, intrigue, and peace-breaking, why would Jews trade their land (at one place only nine miles wide from the West Bank to the Mediterranean Sea!) for a nebulous peace? Additionally, why is Israel, who won the Six-Day War, negotiating with the enemy? Normally, the victor dictates the terms. Moreover, it is unusual for a victorious nation to give back land taken in a war, especially in a war not of their making!

Furthermore, when Israel, seeking peace, permitted Hamas in 2005 to have Gaza, Muslim terrorists launched thousands of rockets into Israel. That trade of land for peace sure didn’t work then, so why now? One reason may be that Israelis are simply tired of living under the threat of constant attack. Another reason is leftists in the Knesset.

Also, which terrorist faction would control this “Palestinian” state? Fatah, founded by terrorist Yasser Arafat in 1965, controls the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and retains control of the Palestinian National Authority (PLO) in the West Bank. Hamas, founded in 1987, controls the Gaza Strip and is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood with the stated goal of establishing an Islamic state in Israel–all of Israel. They have demanded that “Palestinian” refugees and their descendants from 1948 have a right to return to modern day Israel. Of course, that means that Israel would be inundated with potential terrorists and if they got citizenship the Israeli government would be voted out of existence with the first election when the new arrivals do with ballots what they could not do with bullets and bombs.

Muslims believe that when Islam conquers a nation, that nation forever must be controlled by Islam; so Muslims think they have a right to return to any land they ever conquered and must re-conquer it. So, the Muslims who left Israel during their wars want to return to “their” land; however, they lost the war and the right to their land. On the other hand, Israel has the Law of Return granting Israeli citizenship to any Jew from anywhere in the world who returns to Israel. But Arabs are not Jews. They have no right of return to Israel; however, they can return to the desert.

It seems that land for peace will become a reality but I predict catastrophic repercussions because of the history of the Muslim Jew-haters. After the Six-Day War, Israel offered land for peace and after a meeting in Khartoum, Sudan the Muslims gave their reply: No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel.”

It is time for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say “no” to land for peace and to say it from their capital city of Jerusalem with the American Ambassador David M. Friedman standing beside him.

David, Israel’s greatest king, wrote in Ps. 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” Christians love Jerusalem and the Jews; after all, our salvation came through a Jew!

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

However, another empire was gathering influence down in the river town of Babylon about 55 miles south of modern Baghdad between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Babylon was ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar II who became a Jewish proselyte after losing his mind for seven years.

Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from 605 to 562 B.C. and he conquered Jerusalem in 597, taking into captivity the craftsmen, smiths, warriors, and intellectuals. Daniel (a young man of purpose, prayer, and prophecy) and Ezekiel were among the captives. Daniel played a major role in Nebuchadnezzar’s administration and Ezekiel was a prophet who compared his friend to Noah and Job!

In 586, Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem again and the captain of his bodyguards ordered that Solomon’s Temple, the royal palace, and all homes in the city of Jerusalem be torched. The surviving inhabitants of the city (a total of about 50,000) were taken captive to Babylon. Jerusalem was totally destroyed! It should be noted that about 100,000 Jews still occupied Judah while Jerusalem’s leaders, intellectuals, and craftsmen were sent into exile for 70 years.

Babylon defeated, destroyed, and demoralized Jerusalem and surrounding cities; but payday was coming for Babylon in a few years.

It was 539 B.C., that mighty Babylon fell to the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great who diverted the Euphrates River that flowed through the city. Upstream from the city, he channeled the river into a large basin, thereby permitting his army to wade waist deep down the riverbed into the city. The Babylonians could have easily frustrated Cyrus but they were having a drunken party given by King Belshazzar. He and his officers thought that there was no way any army could capture the impregnable city on the Euphrates. That night proved that drinkers are not the best thinkers.

When Cyrus the Persian defeated Babylon, he killed Belshazzar, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Cyrus is perhaps most widely known for allowing the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple in 538. Following Babylon’s defeat, Darius the Mede was appointed by Cyrus to rule Babylon as recorded in Daniel 6. The prophet Daniel, past 80-years-old, had his lions’ den experience during the rule of Darius.

When Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem, he even returned the sacred, golden vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken in his conquest of the city and he helped finance the rebuilding of the Temple! It was finished in 515. Zerubbable led 42,360 Jewish exiles back home; very few out of an estimated one million that then lived in the former Babylonian Empire! What a trek south through 500 miles of desert! But they were going home after 70 years.

Darius the Great ruled Persia from 521-486 and his is son, Xerxes I, ruled from 485-465 and was killed by a bodyguard. Xerxes I is the Bible’s King Ahasuerus who ruled Persia and chose Esther as his queen in 473 B.C., after Queen Vashti refused his command to parade her beauty to a large host of drunken men. She knew that drunks are often skunks, however the king was angry and embarrassed at her refusal. After all, he controlled a world empire yet he could not control his own wife! He didn’t like his buddies and underlings snickering at his impotence. So he chose Esther as his queen, but did not know that she was a Jew.

Haman was a Persian official who hated Jews, especially Queen Esther’s uncle who was a minor government official. Haman devised a plan to kill all the Jews in the empire but when Esther discovered the plan, she risked her life by asking the king’s help without his permission. She bravely said, “If I perish, I perish.” Ahasuerus granted her access and discovered Haman was not a worthy official and had him hanged upon the very gallows that he had built for Esther’s uncle who had angered Haman by refusing to bow to him.

The King’s Jew-killing order had already been sent to all the provinces authorizing the Jews to be slaughtered on a specific day and Persian law did not permit any changes in their laws. However, the king permitted another law that gave information to the Jews so they could defend themselves on their day of slaughter.

So the Jewish nation was saved (again) in 473 B.C. because a Jewish queen had courage, character, and convictions. Jews today celebrate this miraculous deliverance at the Feast of Purim.

Artaxerxes, the son of Ahasuerus, ruled from 465 to 424 B.C. Under his rule, Ezra returned to Jerusalem with exiles in 458. Nehemiah led another group in 445 and succeeded in building walls that protected the Second Temple and the returned Jews who were now home. Artaxerxes provided the timber to build the walls!

The Jews were back in their land faithfully serving the one true God, having constructed the Second Temple and rebuilt the city walls. Meanwhile, the Greeks in Athens had built their Parthenon, a pagan temple to Athena.

Jewish History should send a message to even the dullest of tyrants: Don’t mess with Israel, the apple of God’s eye.

In Genesis 12:3 God promised Abraham, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” That verse has not been abrogated and, much to the chagrin of Jew-haters, it is working as I write. It is dangerous to mistreat the Jews. Zechariah 2:8 promised, “for he that toucheth you (Jews) toucheth the apple of his eye.” Jew-haters cringe when they hear those verses.

Some have asked why Jews are God’s chosen people and the reason is simple: God chose Abraham and promised to bless him and make of him “a great nation”! It was not because of any personal merits but because of His sovereign desire, design, and delight. Christians look at Israel with great appreciation, friendship, and love since Christ Himself was a Jew and came to the world through the Jewish people.

God gave the Jews the land from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia (Iraq), although most people, even Christians, think the Holy Land consists of land between the Mediterranean Sea east to the Jordan River.

Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for about 3,000 years since David moved there from Hebron. David’s son, Solomon, ruled over the entire kingdom and built the first Temple that was known all over the world for it beauty and magnificence.

Following the death of Solomon in 930 B.C., his son, Rehoboam became king and the nation split like a ripe watermelon into two kingdoms: Israel the Northern Kingdom, (including the northern cities of Shechem and Samaria) and Judah the Southern Kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital. The kingdom split because Rehoboam, like most politicians, was a tax and spend liberal who refused to listen to older and wiser heads.

Solomon had spent lavishly on building the Temple, gated cities, stables, his palaces, and other building projects, and the people cried for tax relief, but young Rehoboam refused to listen. Splitsville! I know of another young “king” who is making that mistake as I write.

Israel, the Northern Kingdom, led by a competent but corrupt Jeroboam, constantly disobeyed God. Israel had 19 kings, all bad, in its 240 year history. In 722, the Assyrians (inhabiting the area of Iraq, Turkey, and Syria) invaded the Northern Kingdom and took Israel into captivity. They are known as “the ten lost tribes” and have been lost to history. Disobedience to God is costly!

Judah, the Southern Kingdom, was more faithful to God and their kings reigned about twice as long as those in Israel. Hezekiah was Judah’s greatest king and was married to Isaiah’s daughter. During his reign, the Assyrians captured the Northern Kingdom so Hezekiah expected the Assyrians to come after Judah. They did. However, Hezekiah was ready for them because he fortified the city and also constructed a 600 yard-long tunnel from outside the walls to a reservoir inside the city providing water for the people.

It is still an incredible engineering job with workers starting at the two ends and meeting in the middle. I have walked through that tunnel a few times.

Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem in 701 but God sent a plague that struck the Assyrian camp and their army was decimated overnight–185,000 men! Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah 14:25: “That I will break the Assyrian in my land and upon my mountains tread him under foot.” And that He did.

A failed Sennacherib led his army back to Assyria where his bloodthirsty sons slaughtered him a few years later. Like all politicians Sennacherib boasted of his “success”: “Hezekiah, King of Judah, I locked in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage.” Like most politicians he did not tell the whole truth which was that he fled back to Nineveh without taking the city! Ancient politicians, like leaders today, didn’t often record their failures.

Sennacherib sadistically enjoyed torturing his enemies by skinning them alive and nailing their skins to walls as a gentle warning to others: “Don’t mess with me!” But he didn’t skin one Jew in that famous battle; rather, God “skinned” Sennacherib and he discovered, too late, that the Jews are special people.