This is my 6th post with regard to the present status in Israel-Palestine. And you might be thinking, “Okay, Rob we get the message. The conflict in present situation is not good. But can we move on?”
Nope. It’s like the preacher who preached the same sermon the first three weeks at his new church. Finally one of the elders came to him, certainly questioning the decision to hire this man, and asked, “Do you have anything else you could preach? We have heard this message three times now.”
To which the new preacher calmly replied, “Well, when you learn this lesson, I’ll certainly move on to another.”
The thrust of this series of posts has been that the status quo in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a true status quo and that the longer it lasts the more the oppression of the Palestinian people continues to worsen.
Now mind you the continuation of this conflict is not good for the people of Israel either–even if it benefits the state of Israel long term.
We must also understand that the US is not an innocent player in this conflict. The US annually continues to give billions to the state of Israel.
Though I understand the political reasoning behind this I am still baffled. The US has a mounting debt that will surely never be paid. And according to Forbes 20% of the children in the US go to bed hungry each night. And, yet we give billions to Israel and untold billions to other nations?
Now some might be quick to point out that Israel is not permitted to use the aid from the US to continue the occupation of the Palestinians. Well, it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to realize that the billions of dollars in US aid allows Israel to divert its own resources to fund the occupation.
The problem is that with each passing day the plight of the Palestinians worsens.
Why should the Palestinians work toward peace?
The Palestinians have every reason to desire a peaceful solution to the present conflict. The status quo simply means prolonging their oppression. In addition, the continued advancement of the settlement movement means the loss of more and more land and the further increase in the economic hardships that this brings.
They remain, however, largely powerless.
NB: There is no denying that the Palestinian leadership must bear some responsibility for the continued conflict.
What can the Palestinians do? For some, the answer is: “leave.” The more they leave, the fewer Palestinians there are for Israel to be concerned with.
Why should Israel work toward peace?
At the same time, the state of Israel has very little motivation to negotiate peace. The more time passes by the fewer Palestinians there will be to deal with. The longer they delay the peace process the more land they confiscate and the more settlements they build. The more settlements they build, the more Israelis move into the West Bank territories.
It doesn’t take a PhD in International Relations to recognize that by prolonging the status quo Israel prospers. Maintain the status quo long enough and eventually all the land will become Israel and there will be no peace to negotiate.
If this were to happen, the remaining few Palestinians, who either refused to leave their homeland or were unable to do so, would simply be absorbed into Israel proper.
Why then should Israel work towards peace? The status quo may well just grant to Israel all the land with only a sparse remnant of the people. Surely, this is a far better solution for them than any negotiated peace in the interim.
Why should the US work towards peace?
The US has been a major player in this conflict over the years. But the US and its present administration have little interest in pursuing peace within Israel-Palestine. Biden made it very clear that this conflict was of little concern to him. And why should it?
With the large support of Israel among the evangelical community, few American politicians would upset the status quo. To do so would be political suicide.
NB: unless, of course, the negotiated peace was very advantageous to Israel.
You might say that they lack the courage to do what they know is right and to correct the wrongs they have committed in this conflict.
And I would agree.
At the same time, however, this conviction simply fails to understand how politics work. Nations, and the individual members of its power structure, are rarely motivated by “what is right.” They are motivated by what keeps them in power and by what will either maintain that power or add to it.
This is a fact of how the world operates. You and I might not like it. We might have ideals with regard to doing the right thing. But for nations, this is rarely a motivation. In fact, we might even say that when a nation-state does the right thing simply because it was the right thing, there was surely an anterior motivation also.
NB: This point is huge. It speaks directly to those who have an idealized view of their nation-state. All nation-states act out of their self-interest: always. Only Jesus and the kingdom of God, which is motivated by love for the sake of the other, differ.
If only Christians would understand this point!
So, why should Christians advocate for peace?
There are plenty of reasons why Christians should be promoters of peace: especially in this particular conflict.
- First, It is Christianity 101 to affirm, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt 5:9)
NB: to be called a child of God means that this is what God does and we are His children because we are imitating Him.
- Second, Christians, especially certain tenets of evangelical Christianity, have played a central role in perpetuating this conflict. To advocate for peace is to recognize their role and becoming a promoter of peace is a vital part of the process of repentance.
- Third, for Christians in the US, our nation has been a key player in this conflict (again, largely because of the fervor for Israel that has been a vital part of some evangelical theology. Though we cannot deny the US’s own self-interest in having a key ally in this part of the world).
- Fourth, the status quo and Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories are not in the best interest of the nation of Israel. The longer Israel remains the oppressor the more anger and resentment will stew in the nations that surround Israel
NB: this is not meant to deny that the present occupation is to some degree a necessary evil for the state of Israel. Among the multitude of reasons why Israel believes this occupation is necessary includes their need to control the highlands for defense purposes. In addition, Israel remains concerned about the desire of some Palestinians to destroy them.
- People are suffering. The occupation is not good for Israelis, but it is especially not good for the Palestinians.
In my next post, I want to share with you the story of the sufferings of a particular Palestinian Christian man, whom I believe models Jesus as well as anyone I have ever known, and his family. In fact, when I think of this man, I consider what Luke said of Stephen when he was debating the Jewish leaders (which btw among those Jewish leaders had to have been the man whom we know as Paul) his face was “like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).
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