“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking,” said a troubled Albert Einstein as he contemplated the horror of nuclear weapons. “The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”

Dr. Einstein was right in echoing what the Prophet Jeremiah wrote in the 7th century B.C.: “The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). Like the permanence of human falleness, however, the technology and reality of militarized nuclear power cannot be undone.

When, this week, the United States failed to prevent the United Nations’ Security Council from condemning Israeli settlements in “occupied Palestinian territory,” the possible use of nuclear weapons became a more vivid fear for the Jewish State, a nation Albert Einstein supported vigorously in its early years.

Attacking Israel has become a cottage industry at what supposedly is the world’s forum to prevent international conflict. In November 2015 alone, the United Nations passed no less than 20 resolutions “singling out Israel for criticism — and only 3 resolutions on the rest of the world combined.”

Yet this week’s resolution is unique in that given the opportunity, America declined to stop a one-sided, anti-Israel bill from going through the Security Council.

The Connection Between U.N. Action, U.S. Indifference and Nuclear Weapons

So, what’s the relationship between the U.N. action, America’s indifference to it, and nuclear weapons? First, some background: Israel has control of areas it took from Arab Palestinian control following the 1967 Six-Day War. Its control of this territory is hotly disputed. What is indisputable is Israel’s strategic importance to American security interests throughout the Middle East, as is our moral duty to stand by one of our truest allies and friends.

Israel’s reaction to America’s failure to stand with her was swift and devastating. “Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the U.N. and will not abide by its terms,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the vote. “At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half a million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall ‘occupied territory.’”

And in an extraordinary public criticism of President Obama, Mr. Netanyahu said, “The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes. Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution.”

Mr. Trump personally intervened earlier in the week in contacting the president of Egypt, whose Security Council representative was planning to offer the measure. Pursuant to the President-elect’s call, Egypt agreed to refrain from offering the resolution. Yet four other countries, including American ally New Zealand, took advantage of their outgoing membership on the U.N. Security Council to offer the resolution instead of Egypt.

And the Obama Administration did nothing.

Enter the threat of nuclear weapon use. Israel’s most intransigent enemy, Iran, may or may not have nuclear weapons. But clearly Iran has been pursuing the development of such for many years, and the deal struck by the Obama Administration with Iran concerning its nuclear program is hardly reassuring to close observers concerned that it contains atomic bomb-size loopholes.

America’s failure to support Israel at a time of enormous crisis in that interminably roiling region (Syria, ISIS, and Iran, to name but three continuing thorns in the world’s flesh) sends a signal of weakness and, thereby, opportunity for Israel’s dedicated foes. Although President-elect Trump promises to restore America’s unequivocal allegiance to Israel (“As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th,” the Tweetmaster-in-Chief commented last week), the West’s cowardly collusion with Israel’s enemies (among other Security Council members, France and Britain voted to condemn the settlements) only strengthens the hands of the hard-liners in Iran who want to reduce Israel to a smoking smudge on the map of the world.

A few days ago, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, “Today, the world public opinion is faced with this strong argument that the Zionist regime has never been after peace, and this argument and reasoning should be used to show that there is no way, but jihad and resistance for the Palestinians against the usurper regime.”

Israel is not for peace, and is a “usurper regime?” This from a man whose government pays for the terrorist group Islamic Jihad’s vicious violence against Israel.

Will Iran attack Israel with nuclear weapons tomorrow? No. But do American vacillation and Western anti-Israelism incentivize not only Iranian-sponsored terrorism but, in all likelihood, renewed clandestine efforts by Iran’s government to construct nuclear weapons? Almost certainly.

It can be hoped that when Donald Trump takes office, his bold support for Israel will not waver. He has promised to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and to ensure a robust U.S.-Israeli military alliance.

Let us pray that Mr. Trump’s commitment to the Jewish state will be dogged. If it is, perhaps Albert Einstein, were he still with us, would be a little less inclined to have been a watchmaker than the founder of modern physics. (For more from the author of “Dangerous Times for Israel Demand Renewed American Commitment” please click HERE)

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God certainly has his ways of getting our attention, and He got my attention this past Saturday night when I was speaking at a pre-election conference at a church in Lakeland, Florida.

The pastor and his wife have three small children, the middle one being a boy named Israel, just three years old.

His grandmother, the pastor’s mother-in-law, was babysitting for him and his sister at the pastor’s house, when suddenly, to her shock, the boy was nowhere to be found. She tried calling her son-in-law and daughter, who were at the church service, finally reaching them on the fourth try.

“Israel is missing!” she exclaimed, as they jumped in their car to head home, calling 911 on the way.

At this time, the night service was now over, and I was waiting for the pastor to drive me back to the hotel, but he had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. That’s when a church worker came up to me and said, “I’ll be driving you back,” explaining to me that the pastor had received a message that “Israel is missing.”

Thankfully, by then, he had been found, asleep in his own bed. Apparently, he had wandered somewhere else in the house, falling asleep in a closet or in the garage, somehow evading his frantically searching grandmother, only to find his way back to his bed and to a quiet night’s sleep.

But those words “Israel is missing” kept ringing in my ears, and when I woke up Sunday morning, reflecting on whether I should speak on Israel and the elections, there was an Amber Alert on my phone for a missing child in the area (obviously, not for little Israel, but the coincidence of the moment was not to be missed).

This certainly got my attention.

But given the importance of America’s relationship with Israel, I didn’t need any kind of special sign to focus on the subject, since I honestly believe that God judges nations, in part, based on how they treat Israel.

Now, before you write me off as some kind of hyper-spiritual, Zionist nut case, let me explain what I do and do not mean. (For those of you who don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word, then I’m already a hyper-spiritual nut case in your eyes. No problem!)

First, standing with Israel does not mean standing against the Palestinians or sanctioning everything Israel does.

Second, if a country stands with Israel, that does not give that country some kind of magic pass because of which God will overlook all their transgressions.

Third, we stand with Israel despite Israel’s shortcomings, not because Israel is perfect (far from it).

That being said, I believe the ancient principle spoken first to Abraham, then to his grandson Jacob, then to the nation of Israel as a whole, still applies today, namely, that God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel (see Genesis 12:3; 27:29; Numbers 24:9).

How has this worked out historically?

In Jeremiah 30:11, the Lord said to Israel,

For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Looking back, we can see that Assyria and Babylon, the mighty empires that exiled Israel and Judah in the 8th and 6th centuries, ceased to exist in the centuries that followed, while the nation of Germany suffered horrific defeat in war and was divided for decades after the Holocaust.

Are these just coincidences? I think not.

Derek Prince, an Oxford-trained, British Bible teacher (1915-2003), noted many years ago that, “Britain emerged victorious from two World Wars, retaining intact an empire that was perhaps the most extensive in human history. But in 1947–8, as the mandatory power over Palestine, Britain opposed and attempted to thwart the rebirth of Israel as a sovereign nation with her own state.” (At that time, Prince was living in Jerusalem, and so he spoke “as an eyewitness of what actually took place.”)

In his words,

From that very moment in history, Britain’s empire underwent a process of decline and disintegration so rapid and total that it cannot be accounted for merely by the relevant political, military or economic factors. Today, less than a generation later, Britain — like Spain — is a struggling, second-rate power.

It’s for you to decide whether you believe any of this, but in my humble opinion, even though America helps Israel every year with billions of dollars of military aid, I believe America needs Israel more than Israel needs America.

And since the Republican platform is much stronger on Israel than is the Democratic platform (this seems to reflect the views of Trump-Pence vs. Clinton-Kaine as well), that’s another strong reason I will vote for Trump-Pence on Tuesday, despite Mr. Trump’s many obvious and serious flaws. (For more from the author of “Factoring Israel Into Your Voting Decision” please click HERE)

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