In light of the previous two posts, in which I tried to sketch out a brief overview of both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past hundred years, and what has transpired throughout the Middle East ever since the establishment of the State of Israel, I would like to now offer some of my thoughts regarding the best way to assess it all.
Generally speaking, I believe most Americans who care about what is going on in the Middle East fall into one of two camps: (A) the traditional Evangelical/Conservative camp that views the modern State of Israel as God’s people, the current events in the Middle East as leading up to the “End Times,” and thus believes America should support Israel; and (B) the more liberal/progressive camp that views Israel as a violator of human rights, and America as an imperialistic bully who has been the main reason why there is so much turmoil in the Middle East to begin with.
Of course, there are many people who don’t fit nicely into either camp, but generally speaking, these two positions seem to be the most prominent. And, needless to say, I believe both views are fundamentally wrong.
The State of Israel is not God’s People (but they are our allies)
Let me first address the view of the Evangelical world in which I grew up: the belief that the Jews are “God’s people,” that the formation of the State of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the precursor to the “End Times.” Perhaps one of the most prominent Evangelical leaders who is zealously pro-Israel is John Hagee. Virtually every “big name” Evangelical leader, from Jerry Falwell Jr. to Pat Robertson, and everyone in between, is fervently pro-Israel for this very reason: the Jews are God’s people, whoever blesses the Jews will be blessed, the End Times are just around the corner.
If you are familiar with Hal Lindsey’s 1970 book, The Late, Great Planet Earth, or Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series, or if you simply grew up in Evangelical churches in the 1970s-1990s and were subjected to the various “End Times” videos and movies that were out there, you know the general storyline: The Antichrist will arise and will make a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. The whole world will think he’s the savior of the world; a third Temple in Jerusalem will be built; the true believers will be raptured (either at the beginning or in the middle of the final 7-year tribulation period); and then the Antichrist will show his true colors, claim to be God, and will start unleashing hell on earth; then at the end of the 7 years, Jesus and the raptured believers will come down out of heaven and defeat the Antichrist.
Somewhere in the midst of all that, the Jews will somehow realize Jesus is the Messiah and will be saved, but for many Evangelicals, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple is significant—it will allow the Jews to recommence the Temple worship prescribed in the Torah. And that is important because it is believed that there are basically two peoples of God: the Jews, who are saved through Torah obedience and Temple worship, and the Christians, who are saved through faith in Christ.
Thus, when it comes to the current Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Evangelicals support Israel, because Israel is “God’s people,” and the Palestinians are violent Muslim extremists (who probably are prophesied about in Revelation as being the enemies of Israel).
The only problem with all of that is that it is not biblical. In fact, the notion that there are two peoples of God is completely antithetical to the Christian faith. There is only one people of God: those who put their faith in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 3:28: “There is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free…male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Throughout Paul, it is clear that the redeemed remnant of Jews who put their faith in Christ (and Paul and the other apostles are in this group) and the “full number” of Gentiles who respond to the Gospel and put their faith in Christ—together are one people, the true Israel.
Even in Revelation 7, the “144,000 of Israel” is not a reference to ethnic Jews. Yes, John says he is told they come from the 12 tribes of Israel (Rev. 7:4), but then when he looks, he sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes, peoples, and languages” (Rev. 7:9). The “144,000” is a symbolic number: 12 tribes (representing Jews who put their faith in Christ) x 12 apostles (who go out to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles) x 1,000 (a symbolic number of completion) = 144,000 (the full number of believers from all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike). John’s point is simple: believers in Christ, be they Jew or Gentile, are going to suffer tribulation. But he’s not claiming there are two different peoples of God. In addition, Revelation is not about how Christians are going to be “raptured away” from a literal 7-year tribulation people. John is told by the angel that the 144,000 have come through tribulation; they haven’t been taken away from tribulation.
But back to my original point: Evangelicals who support the modern State of Israel and who think the modern State of Israel is God’s people, and that its founding in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy are simply wrong in their interpretation of the Bible. Not only is their “End Times scenario” wrong, but the various Bible passages often quoted regarding Israel’s return to the Promised Land are passages by Old Testament prophets that were spoken about the Jews who had gone into exile in Babylon. Those “return to the land” prophecies were understood to have been fulfilled when the Jews returned to the land during the reign of Cyrus, beginning in 539 BC.
Simply put, the reason we still have those biblical prophecies about the Jews returning to the land is because they did, way back in 539 BC, and therefore they kept the writings of those prophets who prophesied about a return to the land, because those prophets were vindicated as true prophets. Therefore, to rip those passages out of their original contexts and to apply them to 1948 is to completely misinterpret them.
Sadly, the main reason why so many Evangelicals support the State of Israel is based on (A) a complete misunderstanding of biblical prophecy, (B) the wrong notion that there are two peoples of God, and (C) the acceptance of the bizarre Dispensationalist view of the End Times, as popularized by the likes of Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, John Hagee, and others. And sadly, because of their blind support for Israel, many Evangelicals don’t realize that many of the Palestinians are Christians.
Now to be clear, I am not anti-Israel. Not in the least. I believe the alliance between the US and Israel is incredibly important: Israel is one of the few democracies in the region; ever since its founding in 1948, many of the surrounding Arab countries have called for its annihilation; many Islamic clerics and leaders are anti-Jewish extremists who have continued to indoctrinate their youth with the very Nazi propaganda from the 1930s. And although Israel is by no means completely innocent in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, I don’t know how anyone can put all the blame on them. How can there be peace when the Palestinian authorities refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to even exist? When, back in 2000, Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat 90% of what he wanted in exchange for peace, and Arafat rejected the proposal, went back to the Palestinian territories and called for Jihad, whose fault is that? When the world poured millions of dollars into the Palestinian territories to help it build up an infrastructure, and Arafat took that money and bought weapons from Iran, who is at fault?
I feel horrible for the actual Palestinian people because their leaders have perpetuated this conflict and have indoctrinated an entire generation of Palestinian youth into being convinced that Jews aren’t even human beings, but rather monkeys and apes who long to drink the blood of Palestinian children. And honestly, I don’t have any answers to solve the Israel-Palestinian Conflict. I don’t know if there are any.
But the State of Israel is not a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Ethnic Jews are not the people of God. The Christian perspectives is that they are in need of salvation in Christ, just like everyone else. The entire Evangelical “End Times scenario” reason for supporting Israel is simply unbiblical and wrong.
Israel is Not a Major Human Rights Violator, and the US is Not the Reason for Turmoil in the Middle East
On March 24 of this year, the United Nations declared that Israel was the world’s #1 violator of human rights. That’s right, worse than North Korea, Iran, China, etc. Let’s cut to the chase: that is insane. And what is terrifying is that so many people actually believe it. Again, that is not to say that Israel is guiltless in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, but I have to think that the reason why so many countries in the UN have declared Israel to be the world’s #1 violator of human rights is nothing else than blatant Antisemitism.
And, as I tried to outline in the previous two posts, an honest look at the history of the conflict will realize that it was the surrounding Arab nations who attacked Israel as soon as it was established; it was the surrounding Arab nations who forcibly expelled their Jewish populations as soon as Israel became a state in 1948; it was the surrounding Arab nations that encouraged the Palestinians to leave their homes so that the Arab nations could come in and wipe out Israel quickly; and when Israel was able to hold the Arab nations off, it was those surrounding Arab nations who refused to grant the Palestinians citizenship in their own countries.
And why didn’t they? Let’s be clear: by closing their own borders to the Palestinians, and thus leaving them holed up in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the surrounding Arab countries created the refugee problem because they wanted to use the suffering of the Palestinians as justification for continuing to try to wipe Israel off the map.
And so, just as I think there is a valid challenge to the faulty Evangelical view regarding Israel, I think there is also a valid challenge to those who demonize Israel and close their eyes to the clear faults committed on the part of the Arab world, particularly the extremist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, who clearly are not interested in peace with Israel, but only its utter destruction.
The Larger Problem in the Middle East
I really do not have any clear answers for either the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict or any of the other problems in the Middle East. I think we’d all be better off admitting that there are no easy answers. On one hand, the US backed dictators for a long time; on the other hand, we’ve see the chaos and destruction that has come about once those dictators stepped down. Yes, many were cruel, but they did keep the radical extremists in check. For example, one of the disastrous consequences of the US getting rid of Saddam Hussein has been that the Christian community in Iraq has undergone horrendous persecution. Hussein actually protected them.
They say hindsight is always 20/20, but in the case of so many situations in the Middle East, I don’t really know if that’s true. I’d like to think that if the US had stayed to help rebuild Afghanistan after the USSR left, that Afghanistan would have be stabilized, and that Taliban and Al-Qaeda never would have gotten a foothold—but I’m not so sure. And yes, Bush’s invasion of Iraq probably was a mistake; and yes, Obama’s decision to completely pull out of Iraq, and then not immediately respond to Iraq’s request to help put down ISIS in its early stages, was a mistake. The list could go on…but one thing seems to be clear: damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Like I said, there’s no easy answers. We can’t allow ourselves to recklessly go to war, but at the same time, we cannot be so foolish to think that violent, radical groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, and state sponsors of terrorism like Iran, will just vanish if we leave them alone. Their fundamental ideology is one that calls for the destruction of Israel and the destruction of the West. And for that reason, sometimes war is inevitable.
And for that reason, as we are now coming near the end of the Ways of the Worldviews series, we in America (and the West as a whole) need to think long and hard regarding our worldview and actions in the Middle East. We must reject over-simplistic answers, like those of the likes of Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, and John Hagee; and we must reject the over-simplistic critiques of an ideology that blames everything on Israel and the United States, and refuses to acknowledge that the real danger of the most radical elements in the Middle East.
In many ways, I feel this post is wholly inadequate. But hopefully, it has been able to bring to light one or two points of discussion that will spur us to think more soberly and critically about, not simply the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, but about US involvement in the Middle East as a whole.
I think this is an excellent post, that really does capture the essence of the impossibility of the region. I will simply add that what makes everything in that part of the world so incredibly difficult, is that at bottom, everyone there hates everyone else. There are major divisions within the Palestinians, and civil wars have erupted often. Same thing in Israel. And of course, we have the mess in Syria, where Kurds are fighting Assad and ISIS, and the Turks who are also fighting ISIS are also fighting the Kurds, Al Qaeda hates ISIS, Hezbollah battles with Hamas, the Shiites hate the Sunnis, and this is only the surface.
Thank you in general for an amazing set of posts on the history of thought in the world. A terrific resource from everyone.
Like is the case with so many of these “Ways of the Worldviews” posts, I’m not fully satisfied with them, because I know there’s so much more one can say. But I have to keep reminding myself that the purpose of this series is really just to give a broad overview of it all, and to “open the door” to deeper investigation and discussion. Hopefully, these posts will encourage people to walk through that door and learn more about it.