ISRAEL: PLUMB LINE OF THE WORLD

By James Wilson

            Israel is the only nation in history to be restored after two millennia of exile and obliteration.  She is the only nation to have lost half her population in a massive act of genocide only to become the most powerful nation in her region and a world leader in multiple technologies.  She is the only nation in her region to respond to international disasters on a scale proportional to what we Americans do, and she is unique to her region as an exporter of the fruits of both agriculture and high technology. 

            Israel is the sole nuclear power in the Middle East – so far – and the only nation to live under the constant threat of annihilation at the hands of nations with twenty times her population.  She has beaten back wars of extermination five times in her sixty-five years of life.  And she is the only nation with a vital interest in the recent peace talks with Iran to be excluded by our Secretary of State from those talks.  The United States and multiple allies now seek to dictate peace to her if she gives up more than half her territory – including the portions that make possible the defense of the rest – portions won in battle when she was attacked simultaneously by five nations.  And we wonder why she views her most dependable ally – us, at least in the past – with suspicion.

            According to the Associated Press piece dated January 2, “Kerry would not impose ideas…Instead he is allowing time for debate,” but even the AP admits the US expects a final agreement by May that includes Israel giving up most of her capitol city and the site of the Temple of Yahweh along with much of Judea and Samaria.  The Palestinians would be asked to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, which in their minds compromises the right of return for their refugees and the rights of nearly two million Arabs who are Israeli citizens living in Israel.  The AP goes on to refer to Palestinians who “fled or were expelled in the war over Israel’s creation in 1948.”

            This nonsense masquerades as journalism.  Reality is the Arab-Israelis are not and have never been Palestinian in any sense; they are Israelis who live a lot better, and a lot freer, than any Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank.  Many of them drive Mercedes autos and live in high rise buildings, unlike their poverty-stricken brethren who are so frequently photographed.  I have seen this with my own eyes.  No Arabs were expelled from Israel in 1948; many left despite Israeli pleas that they remain, although it is true they have not been allowed to return after turning their backs on their neighbors who were attacked by multiple armies trained and encouraged by the escaping Nazis of a defeated Germany.  Fact is that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and their thanks has been a rain of rockets and bombers.  I have stood in a marketplace with only one exit in which Palestinians with AK47s mowed down shoppers just a few years back.  Truth is there has never been a nation called Palestine until Yasser Arafat invented it less than half a century ago.  The Arab people who left Israel were citizens of Jordan, Syria, and Egypt; their own nations refused to receive them and so they became refugees.

            A required – by John Kerry – goodwill gesture before talks begin was the release of twenty-six terrorists held in Israeli jails.  No corresponding gesture was required of the Palestinian Authority.  Those released include school bus bombers; they returned home to a heroes’ welcome.  How intelligent people can believe the Palestinians are serious about anything but destroying Israel is beyond imagination.  American citizens need to demand this mirage of a peace process be halted until the Palestinians prove they are serious about it – at a minimum.  Our decision is a plumb line of our national character.

            If you are a Christian in love with the God who became flesh in Christ – and the one does not necessarily imply the other – the fact that God promised to restore and protect Israel while destroying those who curse her in Ezekiel 16, Zechariah 12-14, Isaiah 49-54, and other places beyond count – should be enough to clarify His will in the matter.  That we Christians are grafted onto the Jewish people, and so bound to their fate and the favor God shows them, is stated simply and directly in Romans 11 and in other places.  Our responsibilities are as clear as our rights.  And if you are not a Christian it is a matter of simple justice.