After 11 days of fighting, 4,300 + launched missile barrages on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from the Hamas controlled Gaza strip, and at least 251 people dead from both sides, an uneasy ceasefire remains in place; the 4th major conflict between Hamas and Israel since 2008. The last battle fought on Canadian soil was the Battle of Loon Lake in 1885, yet in the last sixty years alone, Israel has faced seven different wars on soil that is part of its homeland.
That the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has said that Israel’s attacks on Gaza could constitute “war crimes” underscores how biased and deeply flawed the UN’s 47-member council has become. Imagine being scrutinized by countries like Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Pakistan, China, Hungry and Egypt. In fact, some 60% of the member nations are among the world’s worst and most egregious abusers of human rights, according to UN Watch. Since 2006, this uninfluential Human-Rights circus has adopted 90 resolutions condemning Israel — more than all the resolutions against Syria, North Korea and Iran combined. In 2020 alone there were 17 resolutions compared to 6 for all other nations. But I digress!
This is the same Bachelet whose office in Feb. 2020 published a blacklist of 112 companies doing business in the West Bank to support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).
Most reading this blog will have their points of view, armchair perspective and foreign policy wisdom to boot. Generally, it will be the same two camps and the same two tired narratives: one that Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks and for others, the article of faith that Israel is on ‘occupied land’ and Hamas has legitimate grievances. Still, I think most would agree that threatened eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which Canadian Green . . . then Liberal MP Jenica Atwin bizarrely called “ethnic cleansing” is hardly the original sin that pushed hostilities this time round.
In spite of the fog of public opinion and left / right political posturing:
· Do I think democratic Israel carries the extra burden to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties? Yes!
· Do I think improving Palestinian lives in a material way is a worthy goal and a negotiated two-state solution appropriate? For sure!
· Do I think average Palestinians are political tools leveraged by Hamas with coordination between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah to destroy the State of Israel? The answer is obvious to anyone who is informed and has read Hamas’ Charter of 1988 or its dubious 2017 Charter.
· Do I think the media reframes scenarios so that Israel is the aggressor? I’m still laughing. In the middle of the 11-day fighting, when Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing for medicines and humanitarian aid, Hamas deliberately chose to bomb it — so the crossing was closed. Whom did the media blame? You already know the answer. Israel has no obligation to maintain open borders with a hostile territory.
· And finally, do I think they should all just get along? No! I mean, we don’t in North America with its racist Critical Race Theory or Defund the Police nonsense, so what would have us think it’s different over there? The wounds on both sides are deep — and there is no easy fix. In the end, politicians and antichrist will bring ‘a’ fix ... and then God will finally bring ‘the’ solution, in that order.
Recent events in the Middle East bring me to the subject of Christian Zionism, the belief that Israel has a divine biblical right to the Promised Land and that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is consistent with biblical prophecy. Yah, I realize my non-dispensational friends, both Reformed and Pentecostal, are starting to experience body twitches, hearing me say this — but I am confident that if their condition gets really severe, they can locate a hospital nearby for medical help.
Time and again Arabs have rejected the offer of statehood
(1947, 1949, 1967, 1978, 1994, 2000, 2008 and 2014), and never failed to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Now being a Christian Zionist does not make anyone a better person or a bad person or even a pro-Israel zealot for that matter . . . but these days the term seems to be about as leprous as the words ‘fundamental’, ‘dispensational’ and ‘Pentecostal’ are in my denomination. Secularists like the term even less. Still, there is a growing body of Christians with a negative tone towards Israel, who look to portray people who believe in the establishment of the political State of Israel as narrow-minded Biblicists who misrepresent scriptural truth and stand in the way of a Palestinian State. It is this thinking that I would like to address. And ‘yes’ you can lose friends over this debate!
The idea of a homeland for the Jews was first raised in the 19th century because of growing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation. Two solutions were offered. The first was cultural assimilation, proposed by the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn; the second was Zionism as proposed by Theodore Herzl, the founder of the State of Israel. Zionism won out!
While there are multiple features to the Abrahamic Covenant, it always includes the land promises to Israel
As a general definition, Zionism itself is a national movement that believes that the Jewish people have been given the land of Israel by covenant promise by God and therefore have the current right to resume Jewish sovereignty over the land. Believers who agree with this understanding are called Christian Zionists, plain and simple. Let me shrink Middle East history into smaller, digestible bites.
What we call Israel today has been ruled over by many people following Roman rule:
· 313-636 Byzantine
· 637-1099 Muslim Arabs
· 1099-1291 Christian Crusaders
· 1291-1516 Mameluks (Muslims)
· 1517-1917 Ottoman Turks
· 1917-1948 British Rule (Mandate Palestine)
· 1948- State of Israel
After WWI the entire Middle East, which had been part of the administrative backwater of a crumbling Ottoman Empire, was split into two great parts by the Allies. Half was controlled by France (the French Mandate), the other half by England (the British Mandate). The British called their region “Palestine”, a name first given the area by the Roman Emperor Hadrian after he crushed a second Jewish revolt in 135 AD. All of those who lived in this area were called Palestinians, both Jew and Arab.
In the 67 words of the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, when Britain was spiritually stronger than it is today, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild, a leader in Britain’s Jewish community …
His Majesty's government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object …” The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917.
And with that, Britain became the first world power to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ while maintaining the social and religious rights of Palestinians, I might add.
Critiquing Israel’s government over its Palestinian policies is as warranted as a critique of any State. However, to compare Israel to Nazi
Germany or South African apartheid is illegitimate,
antisemitic and frankly, racist!
But then Britain went back on its word and started carving out Arab countries from the Ottoman Empire land. In 1921 they created Iraq. In 1922 Winston Churchill took the area of the Transjordan and in 1923, installed Abdullah ibn Hussein, a non-Palestinian, as leader ― and Jordan was created. Over 75% of ‘Palestine’ went as well and it was off-limits to Jewish settlement. Suddenly a Jewish homeland has become 75% smaller! It would shrink even more in the decades to come.
Despite all of this country-making by Britain, it broke its promise to the Jews, ignoring their own Balfour Declaration and refused to create a country called Israel. In fact, when the Jews were fleeing the Holocaust death camps, Britain would not let them come to Palestine. As evidence, consider the ship, the Exodus 1947 carrying 4,500 Jews, of mostly holocaust survivors, taken to Haifa, but returned to Germany, via France.
The British wanted out of Palestine and so they turned it over to the UN who took what was left of ‘Palestine’ and decided to divide up the remaining 25% of the land among the Arabs and Jews. On November 29, 1947, the UN voted for this partition plan: 33 nations voted yes, including USA and USSR; 13 mostly-Arab nations voted no; 11 nations abstained, including Britain.
The Jews, though not happy, accepted the UN resolution, the Arabs did not. Abd al-Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, on September 16, 1947 had already declared their position:
“The Arab world is not in a compromising mood . . . Nations never concede; they fight. You won’t get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by force of your arms . . . It may be that we shall lose Palestine. But it’s too late to talk of peaceful solutions.”
On May 14, 1948 at 4:00 p.m., when the State of Israel was established, 5 Arab countries declared war on Israel. The myth that the Arabs were prepared to compromise to avoid bloodshed dissolved! With the UN standing on the sidelines ― 600,000 Jews, with no heavy artillery, no airplanes or tanks, faced off against the military might of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq and 45 million Arabs ― and won the day. Today about 46.7% of the world's Jews live in Israel.
The land has not been sovereign in 2,000 years and has not even been a part of any State since the time of the Ottoman Empire.
I have heard pro-Palestinian Christians say, “Yes but Gaza and the West Bank are occupied territories, under the Israelis.” That statement is false and those who pay attention to the details of history know better.
Occupied territory is land that is captured in war from an established and recognized ruler or country. Before the 1967, 6-Day War, the West Bank and Gaza Strip were not under any legitimate and recognized sovereignty of any country. We might call these areas the disputed territories, but for sure we cannot call them the occupied territories. Christians need to change their vocabulary if they want to be taken seriously. Three further thoughts here:
1st, from a pragmatic point of view, since when have countries who are forced to go to war, defend themselves, and gain land ― been required to give it all back to the losers? When Jordan went to war in 1948, annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem on April 24, 1950 and expelled the Jews, until it was lost in the 6 Day War to Israel (1967), no one in the world protested . . . and there was no UN Security Council Resolution ordering Jordan to give it back to Arab Palestinians. Such is the UN’s hypocrisy! A fact often lost here is that Britain recognized the annexation.
2nd, UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted after the 6 Day War, places obligations on both Arab and Jew (as does Resolution 338, adopted following the 1973 Yom Kippur War). Resolution 242 does not call for Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the territories. I guess some Christians consistently miss this point.
3rd, June, 1967 was a war of Self-Defense, even though the left leaning media never tires of telling us that Israel attacked first. Yes, they did attack first. No debate there! So? All official media reports leave no doubt as to Arab intentions. I would like to linger here for a moment so there is no confusion about the facts.
18 May 1967― Egyptian Radio, ‘Voice of the Arabs’,
"The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence."
20 May 1967 ― Syrian Defense Minister Hafez al-Assad, later to become President in 1971, "I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation."
Imagine - after an absence of 1900 years, almost 40% of a
population of 8 million have performed aliyah from half of this world’s countries in the 73 years since securing her independence.
On 22 May, Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran, closing off Eilat, Israel's only Red Sea port, to Israeli ships and Israeli-bound ships. Trade with East Africa and Asia was cut off.
27 May 1967― Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser,
"We intend to open a general assault against Israel. This will be total war. Our basic aim will be the destruction of Israel."
Three (3) days later (30 May 1967) Nasser said,
"The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation .... the critical hour has arrived."
31 May 1967 ― Iraqi President Abdur Rahman Aref,
"The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified... Our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the map."
My point? The Arab call to war was a clear and present danger to Israel. These facts are insurmountable! Her enemies in Gaza and the West Bank were only 11 miles from Tel Aviv. Weeks earlier, Nasser had moved his armored divisions into Sinai and expelled UN Secretary-General U Thant’s UN Emergency Force peacekeepers from the Sinai, where they had been stationed since 1956 protecting Israel. When that happened, the Voice of the Arabs proclaimed: “As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.” (May 18, 1967)
What was Israel’s response to all of this bellicose talk and troop movements in May? With approximately 250,000 enemy troops, 2,000 tanks and 700 warplanes surrounding Israel ─ she waited 5 more days, hoping a diplomatic solution could be found. When it was not, only then was Egypt invaded on June 5, 1967 in an act of self-defense (Operation Focus). Christians should be careful about pushing ‘alternative facts’ which are really smug attempts to delegitimize Israel.
For the record, there has never been a Palestinian language, there is no distinct Palestinian culture and there has never been a country called Palestine. The Arabs regarded the region as southern Syria and understood it to be a province of Syria. The word ‘Palestine’ is not even Arabic. So, the idea of a Palestinian Arab nation having ancient attachments to the Holy Land is a hoax. Still, the propaganda machine keeps on making its phony cool aid and gullible people, Christians included, keep drinking the poison thoughtlessly!
Now some here might think me wrong or that I have mis-represented history. With “woke” cancel culture trying to erase the gender of a plastic Mr. Potato Head and add disclaimers to Disney Muppet ‘puppets,’ anything is possible. Still, while I’m laughing at such toxic foolishness and its pile-on mentality, see if you can answer the following:
· When was Palestine founded, and by whom?
· What were its borders?
· What was its capital?
· What was its form of government?
· Name one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
· What was the name of its currency?
· When was this Palestinian State destroyed … and by whom?
In 2017, the last Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service conducted by GlobeScan, Israel was identified as the 4th most hated country in the world, after Iran, North Korea and Pakistan.
Really? Israel and North Korea in the same sentence!
Christians who support Israel are not unsophisticated knuckle-draggers at best, or heretics at worst. Rather, they understand the divine destiny of the Jews and God’s continuing program to use them for the salvation of all those who will believe.
My Calvinist friends, including many within my Pentecostal denomination, are skeptical about Israel’s theological claim to the Holy Land. It seems they are moved less by eschatology and more by ethics. I would offer that both can be embraced. And for-the-record, NO, I do not sanctify every policy and practice of the Israeli government. Some Christians seem to forget that Israel has no state religion, so their actions can be just as secular as those in Canada. I am simply offering that an integrated vision between covenant and land is biblically and theologically sustainable.
Global Anti-Semitism continues to rise. Here in Canada, 2020 was the fifth consecutive record-setting year for antisemitism, with an 18.3% increase over 2019. Why is that? Ultimately the answer is a theological one: Satan hates the Jews. He hates them because through them, God provided the Bible and the Messiah. He hates them because God called them to be His Chosen People. He hates them because God loves them and Satan will do everything he can now . . . and again during the coming Tribulation period (Mt. 24; Dan. 12) to destroy every Jew.,,
Zechariah 8:7-8 ― “This is what the Lord Almighty says: "I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God."
Israel is the only country in the world where its destruction is being called for by a member State of the United Nations; where its Nationalist movement, Zionism, was declared racist and illegal by the United Nations. The good news, says Zechariah 8:23 is there is a new day coming . . . and it is not a Sisyphean task that God cannot achieve:
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days [future] ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.'"
Police-reported hate crimes against Jewish people accounted for the highest number of religious-based hate crimes in Canada in 2019 at 296 incidents; hate crimes against Muslims totaled 181.
Statistics Canada, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/
I am not surprised when the media perpetuates a one-sided biased narrative — vilifying Israel as the sole aggressor in the conflict with Hamas. The same goes for whether the UN adds its antisemitic voice to the world stage or politicians like IIhan Omar tweet utterly ridiculous blather . . . feebly trying to link atrocities committed by Hamas and the Taliban with those committed by the US and Israel. What is regrettable however, is that support for Israel has acquired a bad odor among an increasing number of Christians, Pentecostals included, armed with the mistaken belief that by blessing Israel one is somehow supportive of all of their governmental policies or military actions. Nothing could be further from reality.
We might be wise to read our Bibles more and deify the press less when searching to find the ‘real story’. Perhaps then, some Christians will spend less time tripping over the obvious! “OnlySaying...”
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