By James Wilson
What is to be done about the UNESCO resolution declaring Jerusalem and the Temple Mount sacred to Muslims alone?
Israel severed its connection with UNESCO within the first day following the preliminary vote; this is entirely understandable. Yifat Segal of the International Justice Forum pointed out – with impeccable logic – the new UNESCO position contradicts its own mandate to preserve without prejudice the cherished traditions of all peoples. Schmuel Rabbinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall, expressed the justice issue most succinctly. “In all of world history I don’t know of an occupying power whose land is full of the relics of its ancestors…The millions of worshippers who come to pray at the Western Wall in front of the Temple Mount are the Jewish answer to UNESCO.” But what should people who love justice around the world be doing about this mockery of justice and logic?
Some Americans believe the US should simply bail on the UN. To do this would be to cut and run from a dysfunctional international structure we and our principle allies created following World War II. The UN was set up to maintain peace through an oligarchy of prime members serving their own interests; over the past half century the oligarchical balance has shifted, but the structure was never intended to effectively guarantee either peace or justice. What we ought to be doing now is demanding justice from the UN Body – not recovery of a sick status quo – and refusing to pay dues of any kind until justice is served. And we ought to be repenting as a nation for making the mess that is the United Nations before or as we attempt other remedies.
I know, I know. My calls for repentance are a loop that keeps playing every time I write. But what is repentance? It is simply abandoning wrong turns one has made and re-focusing attention on what was always the vision, path, route, goal – call it what you like. The United States was founded to make liberty and justice for all obtainable. As American Christians we understand more than liberty and justice; we get it that these things are sourced in God-in-Christ alone; we should understand this Christ is Jewish. If we have settled for less than our founding vision the sole go-spot is returning to the God who founded Israel long before He founded us. That repentance triggers a reset, but it also reveals the pragmatic steps that we can and ought to take following – or re-following – our identity as a nation.
First halting steps have already been taken in this direction by people who cannot boast the advantage of a uniquely American perspective. Mexico and Brazil originally voted in favor of the resolution; they have regretted their votes and vowed to abstain in future votes. Italy abstained and her Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has committed to no-votes in future on such resolutions. He declared, “To say that the Jewish People has no connection to Jerusalem is like saying the sun creates darkness.” This is the beginning of repentance, albeit stopping far short of the unlimited re-focus and re-commitment for which God always calls.
UNESCO Director General Irina Berkova has gone farther. Despite threats against her life she has vowed to fight efforts to deny Israel’s right to exist and to – in effect – legislate her out of existence. Even these limited actions have borne fruit. A new resolution comes before UNESCO’s Heritage Committee with somewhat watered down language regarding Jerusalem and the Holy sites located within her boundaries. The new resolution is presented by Arab nations Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia. Israeli officials believe there is some chance these same nations will work to insert conciliatory language in the final draft of the earlier resolution.
Repentance – no holds barred repentance – is potent stuff. George Washington saw his Continental Army saved more than once through obvious supernatural intervention – fog banks suddenly and inexplicably appearing and hiding his troops from the British and so forth – after he engaged in identificational repentance on their behalf. (Many scholars say there is no explanation for the success of the Revolutionary War itself without recourse to a loving God who responded to colonial repentance.) Abraham Lincoln called for a day of prayer, fasting, and humiliation in mid 1863. Seven weeks later the Battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of war irrevocably toward Union victory after two years of unrelenting defeat. Both California and Australia have seen intractable drought addressed following seasons of repentance by thousands of their people.
Mark’s Gospel calls repentance the beginning of the Gospel – the good news – in his first few verses. The prophets in Old and New Testaments call Israel the apple of God’s eye. If we as Americans would remain or restore ourselves to His presence we need to remember Israel is always center stage for Him. Jesus – Yeshua in His native Hebrew – says repeatedly and especially in John 15 we can do nothing apart from Him and in Him we can do all things needful. Given the chaos in our nation and around the world at this time – where men call evil good and good evil and seem able to exercise power in such declarations while the rest of us remain powerless or co-opted – whom shall we trust?
I know this. Israel is to Jerusalem as Batman is to Robin. And a whole lot more.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, The Holy Spirit and the End Times, and Kingdom in Pursuit – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@gmail.com
