Next Sunday is Easter. Many Christians, who can financially afford it, say the ultimate Easter experience is a trip to Israel. They often testify that their faith is strengthened by visiting major sites such as the Wailing Wall of the former, ancient temple at East Jerusalem and other so-called “holy sites.” Christians, of course, are especially interested in seeing places mentioned in the New Testament gospels of which they say their Lord Jesus Christ conducted his itinerant teaching and healing ministry. But Christians especially want to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. That is where most scholars and other authorities say Jesus’ deceased body was entombed soon after his crucifixion. Yet many Christians, especially non-Catholics, are disappointed with the religious trappings inside this supposed tomb of Jesus.
The biggest industry in Israel is its $10 billion tourism trade, and Easter is its biggest payday. Yet Christian organizations take large groups of tourists to Israel not only during Easter but throughout the whole year. And perhaps thousands of church pastors from around the world take members of their congregations to Israel multiple times. No nation sends more tourists to Israel than does the USA.
Not only the State of Israel, but these Christian organizations and church pastors also realize financial income from bringing visitors to Israel. Of course, they all say they are teaching parishioners about the Christian faith during this process, and that no doubt is true. But they could do that without going to Israel, and they no doubt do that, too.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6.10). I think that applies to this situation. If Christians would protest the lack of Israel’s resolve in settling its conflict with Palestinians by Christians refusing to visit Israel as tourists, it might have a positive effect on the conflict.
Modern Israel, which began in 1948, has not always had possession of East Jerusalem, where most of the holy sites are located. It obtained possession of East Jerusalem and other “occupied territories,” including the West Bank, in the 1967 Six-Day War. Prior to that, mostly Palestinians lived in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. And the State of Jordan, on the east side of Israel, administered the governing of the Palestinians in these areas until Israel defeated Jordan, Egypt, and Syria in that Six-Day War.
Israel is a member of the United Nations. And Israel wants very much to continue to be a member of the UN. But to become a UN member, nations must subscribe to certain regulations. One is that when a nation undergoes war and thereby obtains land by force from another nation or people, that land the UN calls “occupied territory,” and the nation that continues to possess that land the UN calls an “occupier.” This victor is required to then enter into negotiation with the victim and give back that land. But Israel has a legitimate complaint about doing this. It claims that to return all of the West Bank to the Palestinians would leave the land of Israel too narrow near Tel Aviv and thus make Israel seriously susceptible to attack by a hostile nation.
Many supporters of Israel complain about Palestinians attacking Israel. Yet such supporters usually fail to acknowledge that Israel is the “occupier” of land that used to belong to the Palestinians. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Israel being “the occupier” of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It is such a tragedy that this disenfranchisement by Israel has continued this long. If you’re going to fault Palestinians for attacking Israel, I believe that to be a just and fair person you should also acknowledge that Israel remains “the occupier” in this prolonged dispute. Thus, the most important part of this problem is not Palestinian anger and hostilities directed against Israeli Jews and the State of Israel, even though I do not condone that; the main problem is THE OCCUPATION! That is why the peace process is so important; it should not be discontinued. Yet I think the traditional two-state solution is deader than a doornail!
Many Gentiles, especially a lot of Evangelical Christians in the USA, give indiscriminate, moral support to the State of Israel at the demise of the Palestinians. They believe Israel has a right to exist, as I do, but they do not believe the Palestinians have a right to have their own sovereign, independent state as Israel does, with which I strongly disagree. Such people may assert that Israel is entitled to all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem simply because Jews were the victors in the Six-Day War. Some Christians think they won because God was on their side and thus made it happen.
I don’t know about that; but I know this: God is no respecter of persons. Even though he made a covenant with Israel’s forefathers–and when Moses led their descendants out of Egypt they confirmed that covenant–God still treats Jewish people like he does all people–according to how they live their lives with respect to him and his moral principles. (Actually, the Apostle Paul teaches that God holds his people to a higher standard than he does other people. See Romans 9-11.)
Christians believe, and I think rightly so, that God sent Jesus as his agent and the Messiah of Israel. But Jews during that time pretty much rejected Jesus and got him crucified. That was a very serious transgression on the part of Israel. Even today, very few Israeli Jews believe Jesus of Nazareth was or is Israel’s Messiah.
But that is not the case with Palestinians. About 80% of citizens of Israel who identify themselves as Christian are Palestinians. And there is a much more significant number of professing Christians among all Palestinians in the world. If Christians are to assess fault in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I think they should at least acknowledge that there are far more professing Christians among the world’s entire Palestinian population than Israeli Jews, in which the two populations are about the same.
People typically are very polarized about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I wrote a book about this subject, published in 1990, entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia. In it, I propose another two-state solution as an alternative to the traditional West Bank-Gaza entity.
Because I wrote this book, I am sometimes asked if I have visited Israel. And when people say this, they very much expect a positive answer. I always answer, “no.” Sometimes people then respond, “What! I’ve even been to Israel. How can you write a book about the Israeli-Palestinian problem, yet you have never been to Israel?”
I usually reply with something like this: “In my research for that book, I read about 125 books on this subject. They included many books by authors on one side or the other of this conflict. So, I got a good dose from each side. When tourists visit Israel, they usually have a guide who takes them to view various sites and teaches them history and so forth. And even if some of those guides are Palestinians/Arabs, they are employed by the State of Israel. That’s bias. They aren’t free to say that they think Palestinians are entitled to have their own state. I think I got a much more balanced viewpoint about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from my research than any tourists ever get when they visit Israel.”
I then leave it at that. Thus, I don’t tell them another one of my convictions about this issue. I have never visited Israel because I believe the State of Israel benefits financially from its disenfranchisement of the Palestinians due to tourists and their money. When I wrote that book, I vowed to myself that I will never visit Israel until it settles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the Palestinians realizing their own sovereign, independent state somewhere in the disputed territory.
However, there has been a change in my life. I now have a daughter-in-law who is Jewish and a cute six-year old granddaughter by her. If my son and his family ever decide to visit Israel, and they ask me to go with them, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been solved, I may have to break my vow just once.
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