NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 20, 2023: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at UN Headquarters. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Is Antonio Guterres turning the UN into an anti-Israel "peace-keeping force," whereby its international police and military are being readied against Jerusalem for the Holy Bible-fulfilling Battle of Armageddon?
It certainly looks that way, to many Christians, scholars, experts and observers. They see a world where the UN sends an international army loose against Israel, as the Bible prophesies, that will lead to WWIII and Armageddon.
This is in the wake of the latest Arab-Israeli war, sparked by the latest, grotesque terrorist attacks by Hamas.
It is easy, for some, to forget the Holocaust. The Jewish people vow "Never again."
It is easy to forget that it was the UN that helped form, and recognize, Israel as a reestablished nation in 1948. The First Arab-Israel War started the very next day.
The leaders of Israel, now involved in a war against Hamas, and other Arab groups, certainly do not like "terror apologist," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' attitude, represented they say by his anti-Jerusalem, pro-Hamas addresses to the Security Council, and subsequent social media posts to the world.
On October 25, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, asked for Guterres’ resignation.
“I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people,” Mr. Erdan said.
Israel then pointedly refused to issue visas to UN officials.
Official Christians, who follow end times prophesy, are not surprised that the perception is the UN has turned against Jerusalem: the place where Almighty God said he would put His name. (2 Chronicles 6:6)
This is not a new sentiment or perception. The Israelis have long accused the UN of bias against Jerusalem.
The latest example is, perhaps, the most egregious yet, according to Israelis.
This is what Guterres had to say, in late October, during his talk to the UN Security Council after the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel.
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation."
Yes, not such a great idea calling the ancient Jewish homeland "occupied" territory. Especially after a terrorist attack that reportedly killed over 1,000 Jewish people - including women and children.
And to even remotely suggest that the most-recent Hamas terror attacks were slightly justified, because of the "Jewish occupation" of their own ancient Hebrew homeland, granted by Almighty God, is an even worse utterance.
Especially from the mouth of the man leading the world body that sanctioned the rebirth of Israel. This is pure treason at the highest international level, to Jerusalem and others, and openly perhaps puts Israel in a precarious position where it has to defend itself against the UN "peace-keeping force" that is not above enforcing peace through war.
Guterres continued, by basically accusing Israel of playing the victim, insisting the Palestinians are victims of occupation and oppression. He qualified his remarks by condemning Hamas' attacks.
"They [Palestinians] have seen their lands steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence, their economies stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished."
"Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing, but their grievances cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Israel's leaders, serious about not allowing another Holocaust, remembering the industrial extermination of the Jews by the Nazis during World War II, are still outraged by his remarks.
After intense backlash, calls for his resignation and the snapping back of visas for UN representatives, Gutteres issued this statement:
“Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. I believe it is necessary to set the record straight — especially out of respect for the victims and their families."
He said his remarks were misinterpreted, but the Israeli's were not impressed.
Speaking from Jerusalem, former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a member of the opposition who has joined the national unity government, described Guterres as a “terror apologist.”
Guterres is certainly making his unapologetic case, to Christians, for helping to fulfill end times prophesies about the Armageddon War.
Will a united world army arrive in Israel to fight against it?
If so, the invading army will be conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ upon His return, saving Israel and ushering in the Kingdom of God.
"I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." (Joel 3:2)
"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army."(Revelation 19:19)
The word is watching to see what the UN's army will do.
Very interesting and informative article