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As this issue is being circulated, the world’s religious Jews are observing a period in the Jewish calendar known as "The Dark Time." This is the three-week period of fasting and mourning, marking the destruction of Israel’s First and Second Temples. The period, itself, is marked off by two fasts – opening on the 17th of Tammuz and concluding on the 9th of Av. This year, the Gregorian calendar dates for these events are July 3rd through July 24th. For Jews, it is a critical time, a low point in their annual calendar, when they expect something dreadful might happen. Later, after laying out the current situation in Israel, we shall take a close look at the importance of these two Jewish fasts.

As if to fulfill the gloomy portent of these days, a grim reality has entered Israeli politics. Now, in the fortieth year since the historic Six-Day War, Israel is experiencing another wave of darkness – an ominous, foreboding sense of unease is once again clouding the landscape.

This time, it comes in the form of an increasing drive by the leaders of the Olmert government to divest Israel, not only of Judea and Samaria, but of the strategic Golan Heights! The sweeping panorama of Jewish farms is laid out like a map below this elevated terrain above the Sea of Galilee. Those who have followed Israel’s history will immediately recall that its phenomenal victory in the 1967 war was dramatically concluded with the heroic capture of this very territory.

It is impossible to overestimate its strategic importance. Looking down from the area east of the Sea of Galilee, It provides the perfect high ground from which to launch an assault. The Syrians used it for that very purpose. They considered themselves unassailable, since they were deeply dug into the heights with bunkers, supply lines and electronic intelligence at their fingertips.

Prior to the battle for the Golan Heights, Syrian artillery had continually rained death and destruction upon Israeli settlements in northern Galilee. Over two hundred farm houses were destroyed during the period from Israeli statehood to June, 1967.

But five days into the Six-Day War – on the morning of June 9th, 1967 – Israeli forces systematically attacked the entrenched Syrians, fighting uphill against resistance that under normal circumstances, would be considered impossible. Twenty-seven hours later, on the afternoon of the following day, Israeli troops had captured the Heights and marched into the town of Kuneitra. On the evening of June 10th, Syria and Israel both agreed to accept the UN Security Council’s call for a cease-fire.

A thousand Syrian troops had been killed in the struggle. On Israel’s side, a hundred and fifteen soldiers lay dead. During the battle, an estimated seventy thousand Syrians had fled the Golan region. In the years that followed, they remained in Syria as refugees, their homes deserted under a subsequent UN mandate.

Thus, after nineteen years of constant attack, Israeli settlers could rest at last. The bombardment had ceased. More importantly, the high ground had been gained, giving Israel the ability to install radar, electronic intelligence gathering equipment and visual access to terrorists and insurgents, should Syria attack in the future.

Now, after forty years of security, the Olmert government has announced that it would consider giving up this precious territory.

Secular Thinking

Ehud Olmert, a secular leftist who rose to power in the Kadima Party after Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke, has consistently advocated a policy of appeasement toward Israel’s enemies. He has already given back Gaza, with disastrous results. Hamas and Fatah, with Egyptian help, are arming themselves for a new assault upon Israel. Rockets are daily launched from there, landing on Israeli villages.

Olmert openly advocates giving up Judea and Samaria, which would become part of the new Palestinian State. He even wants to return East Jerusalem, to be used as the new Palestinian capital city!

Such is the secular way of thinking. It reasons that if your enemy wishes to wipe you out, you theoretically dampen his desire by giving him a little of what he wants. Such a policy has never worked, yet it is a continual lure to the worldly mind. Like Yitzhak Rabin, who declared many years ago that modern Israel has nothing to do with the Bible, Olmert and his ilk believe in a negotiated Israel. They also believe that their strength is in the support of powerful nations.

The list of failed "peace conferences" is long. The Rhodes Conference in 1949, the Madrid Conference in 1991 and the Oslo Accords of 1993 all came to fruitless culmination in the infamous White House event of September 13, 1993. Under Bill Clinton’s adoring embrace, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat were coerced into the most reluctant handshake in the history of the world.

This unlikely event came on the heels of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the Gulf War of 1991. After Saddam’s defeat, hopes were high that a "New World Order" was on its way. Powerful world leaders were enthusiastic. They believed that global peace was within reach. And Israel went right along with the program, casting its hopes with the Gentile world powers, rather than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

It is astonishing to watch the advancement of this belief, openly reported and proudly hailed as the solution to the Islamic offensive.

As reported on June 1, 2007, by WorldNetDaily, "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is ‘very seriously’ exploring the possibility of resuming talks with Syria aimed at giving up the Golan Heights, the Israeli media reported ... quoting top diplomatic sources.

"The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on Israeli and Syrian population centers, twice used by Damascus to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state.

"According to Israel’s Haaretz daily, Olmert tapped third parties to approach Syria to feel out whether Damascus is seriously interested in negotiations.

"Syria, which signed a military alliance with Iran, openly hosts Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. The U.S. accuses Syria of fueling and aiding the insurgency in Iraq. Israel says Syria has been allowing large quantities of weapons to be transported from its borders to the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia, which last summer engaged in a war with the Jewish state. Syria has been widely blamed for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."

These words would be absolutely unbelievable, were it not for the years of experience since the infamous capture and return of the Temple Mount in 1967. The plain truth is that Israel’s regathering is only in its initial stages. The nation’s leaders have yet to acknowledge God as their guide.

The Dark Time

It has been said that in God’s foreordained plan, there are no coincidences. Religious Jews fervently believe this to be true. They closely monitor dates in the Jewish calendar, believing them to be not just historic markers, but divine appointments for future fulfillment.

One is the day known as the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz … the opening date of the Three Weeks. This day is forever inscribed on the Jewish calendar as the day of catastrophe, marking the incident of the golden calf at Sinai. On the same calendar day, a Torah scroll was burned in the Temple. The infamous Apostomos erected an idol there.

The Fast of the 17th is also the anniversary date of the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls by the Roman army in A.D. 70. At precisely that time, the daily sacrifices at the Temple ceased, never again to be fulfilled to this day.

Finally, as mentioned above, the 17th of Tammuz initiates a mourning period that culminates three weeks later, with the Fast of the 9th of Av. Jews are now observing this period. No doubt they recall that last year it marked the exact timing of the Israeli offensive into the territory of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Traditionally, this three-week period is called bein ha-metzarim – meaning "between the straits" (between the two fast days). It is a time of gloomy recollection, when no celebrations are held, musical instruments are put away, and activities concerned with hygiene are all but eliminated. Haircuts, laundry, shaving are dropped for a time. Entertainment is curtailed.

Significantly, the first chapter of Isaiah is read on the Sabbath preceding the fast of Av. This year it falls on July 21. It is called Isaiah’s hazon, or vision, of which the following is but a small portion. Read it with Israel’s present actions in mind:

"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers" (Isaiah 1:2-7).

Here is an acknowledgment of Israel’s sin, rejection and desolation. With missiles being launched by Hamas and Fatah in Gaza, with Hezbollah rapidly rearming in Lebanon and with Syria and Iran trumpeting the necessity to eradicate Israel, Olmert wants to cultivate peace by giving up strategic land, fairly won at enormous cost from an invading enemy.

The Faithless Spies

As mentioned above, the Fast of the 9th of Av – Tisha B’Av – brings the Three Weeks to an end. It is the darkest single day on the Jewish calendar. This is the day when both Jewish temples were destroyed. The first, built by Solomon, saw its end in 586 B.C.; the second, erected by Herod was completed just prior to its destruction in A.D. 70. First, the Babylonians, then the Romans committed their atrocities, both on the same anniversary date.

This dark day also marks the tragic end of the Bar Kochba revolt in A.D 135, when the Jews were scattered to the four winds. Amazingly, it also recalls the expulsions of the Jews from England (A.D. 1290) and Spain (A.D. 1492).

Most importantly, Tisha B’Av also denotes the historical moment of perfidy when the twelve spies returned with their evil report. Moses had sent them into Canaan to report back on the best way to enter the Land of Promise. Upon their return, ten of the twelve delivered a dramatic and fearful account that denied any possibility of taking possession of the land. They had found the land to be beautiful and fertile:

"And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." (Numbers 13:25-27)

But they were afraid that its inhabitants were too strong:

"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!" (Numbers 13:30-14:2)

Because of the spies’ faithless report, Israel was doomed to wander in the wilderness for another forty years. Truly this Tisha B’Av was the bleakest of bleak days. From then till now, Israel has clear evidence of what happens when their leaders have a direct mandate to take possession of the Holy Land … then fail to do it.

Today’s religious Jews must be observing this Dark Time with exceptional sadness. They grimly observe that the Olmert government is trying to return land that constitutes a key tactical advantage to those bent upon their destruction. Through it all, God’s covenant will stand, even while those who wish to annihilate Israel laugh at the naivete of Israel’s current leaders.

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SOURCE: Prophecy In the News