arab israel conflict

Free Palestine?

Do the young socialists in America ever wonder why millions of “Palestinians” are living in miserable refugee camps located in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, North Africa (and nearly every Middle Eastern country)?

The camps began in 1948 to accommodate Arabs who fled Israel after it was re-founded. There were about 400,000 then, now there are 5-million. This photo of the Shatila camp in Lebanon illustrates 12-thousand people packed into one square kilometer.

No one on the left will dare ask this important question: Why won’t these Arab nations allow their Palestinian brothers and sisters to assimilate into the various Arab/Muslim countries? It’s been nearly EIGHTY YEARS. Why do they tolerate their Arab kin living in horrid conditions? Many of these Arab nations are quite wealthy. Why won’t they at least construct decent public housing for these “refugees?”

The answer is obvious. These Palestinian people are being used as wretched propaganda pawns to gin up hatred for Israel and Jewish people at large.

And it’s working.

Free Palestine?

Sure, allow these people to be free to live amongst those with a common lineage, culture, and religion.

But again, it’s been nearly 80-years. So don’t hold your breath.

Meantime, “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem,” Psalm 122.

Why Israel has the right to exist

Forget the Left. Their minds can’t be changed.

However as a Jew who long ago placed his faith in Jesus (Yeshua) as Messiah (the Christ) I am so troubled when I meet younger followers of Jesus (as well as younger Jews not yet following Yeshua) who do not believe Israel has a definitive right to exist. They’ve bought into a gross revision of historical facts.

Let’s simply start by reviewing the secular history.

The first reason that Israel has the right to exist is because of a plethora of archeological evidence.  Every time there is a dig in Israel it does nothing but confirm the fact that Jews have had a presence in that region for over 3,000 years. The coins, the pottery, the historical buildings, the cities, and the culture indicates that the Jewish people have been dominated that region.  From thousands of years ago to present there has always been an uninterrupted population of Jews residing in within the current borders of Israel. In fact, when Israel was granted its independence in 1948 nearly all of land had been legally purchased and settled by Jewish people.

Prior to 1948 the region was known as Palestine. When Jews from all over the world began immigrating to Palestine in large numbers in 1882 fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there and the majority of them had arrived in recent decades. Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic gradually became the language of most the population after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine.

Since its independence in 1948, Israel has fought four wars: The 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Sinai campaign, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In all four cases, Israel was attacked. They were not the aggressor. They also won all four wars against impossible odds.

And then there is the Biblical history.

I believe Israel has a right to the land because God says so. In Genesis 13:14-17, we read:

The Lord said to Abram, “Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward, southward, eastward and westward: for all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever… Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee.”

That’s God talking, not me. The Bible also says that Abram dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in present day Hebron, and built an altar before the Lord. Hebron is in the West Bank.  It is at this place where God appeared to Abram and said, “I am giving you this land.”

This is not a political battle at all.  It is a contest over whether history means anything and whether or not the word of God is true.