Whose Land?
October 7, 2023: The bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.[1]
Infants brutally murdered.[2] The elderly dragged away as hostages.[3] Young people, gathered to celebrate peace, gunned down as they fled.[4]
And in universities across the US, pro-Palestine protestors argue for the end of Israel’s “occupation,” portraying Hamas’ incursion as a justified venture of self-defense.[5]
It’s one thing to express compassion for the millions of Palestinians who are running short of food, water, and electricity as they try to evacuate Gaza. It’s one thing to grieve the loss of Palestinian civilian lives, casualties of a war no one but Hamas wanted.
It’s quite another matter to celebrate the heinous war crimes committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians or to paint their atrocities as simple acts of war or self-defense.
Murdering an infant is not an act of self-defense.[6] Nor is it self-defense to take a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor hostage and force her to pose, holding a gun and a peace sign, beside her captor.[7]
These are acts of pure evil. Unadulterated, incomprehensible, unjustifiable evil.
Those who oppose Israel’s existence in the Land argue that the Land belongs to Palestinians, characterizing Israel as an occupying force akin to British colonialists in African countries or India.
Thoroughly addressing this issue would take much more than a single blog post, but here are some points to consider.
Biblically: God chose the Jewish people and gave them the Land forever
Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac.
He also confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,
As the portion of your inheritance.”
(1 Chronicles 16:15–18)
In Genesis 12:1–3, God promises Abram that He will make his descendants into a great nation, instructing Abram to leave his home country and travel “to the land which I will show you” (v. 1). God promises also to bless those who bless Abram and his descendants, and to curse the one who curses them. In Genesis 15, God specifies the Land He has chosen for Abram: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates” (15:18).
If Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” is not enough to persuade us that the Land Covenant still stands, Bible prophecy (e.g., Jeremiah 31) depicts Israel as still belonging to the Jewish people today, under the New Covenant, and in the end times.
The Land conflict exists because there was, and continues to be, opposition to God’s decision to gift the Land to the Jewish people as an eternal inheritance. This opposition has taken many forms over the centuries, including political opposition, military invasions, and pure antisemitism.
But we should make no mistake: opposition to God’s decision regarding Israel and the Land is a spiritual issue. Satan hates whatever God especially loves – including the Jewish people and the church.
Historically: Many false claims are made by Hamas about Israel
A variety of claims have been made to justify opposition to Israel’s existence as a nation in the Middle East. For one thing, Hamas claims Jewish people only arrived recently, in the last 100 years.
The truth is that there has always been a Jewish presence in the Land. Granted, the population has ebbed and flowed through a long history of invasion, exile, and oppression by foreign rulers – Romans, Christian Crusaders, Muslims, etc. – but there has always been some level of Jewish habitation.[8]
Another false narrative is that the Jewish people stole the land from its rightful owners.
In reality, much of the land, desolate at the time and owned by absentee landlords living in other parts of the world, was purchased by Jewish people who wished to settle the land[9] – many of them Jewish peasants fleeing brutal persecution in Czarist Russia.
Another claim is that Israel instigated the wars that have perpetually plagued this region of the Middle East, provoking its surrounding neighbors.
The truth is that, when Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, multiple surrounding Arab nations, including Iraq, Egypt, and others, expelled their Jewish citizens – creating hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees[10] – and attacked Israel.[11]
Yet another of Hamas’ claims is that the Jewish people kicked out the Arabs who were living in the Land and forced Palestinians into the Gaza Strip.
In reality, Israel offered citizenship to all Arabs who remained in the land; today, approximately two million Israelis are Arab.[12] However, many Arab residents fled at the urging of the neighboring invaders, who planned to wipe Israel off the map.
Regarding the Gaza Strip, until 2005, Jewish and Arab communities coexisted in this portion of land. Israel gave the Gaza Strip over to the Palestinians in exchange for peace.[13] Today, the Gaza Strip, one of most densely populated places in the world, is ruled by Hamas, who frequently uses its own people as human shields and political pawns.
People often claim Israel does not want peace. However, Israel has agreed to various peace deals, even agreeing to give up land. The Palestinian State has repeatedly rejected these advances.[14] Sadly, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat the Palestinian Liberation Organization instead chose the path of armed terrorism to rid the Jewish homeland of its Jewish inhabitants. Even today the successor Palestinian Authority refuses to condemn terror and instead continues its “pay for slay” policy of rewarding the families’ “martyrs” for the cause.[15]
Finally, many portray Hamas as a resistance group, simply trying to oust its Israeli oppressors. If the atrocities of October 7 weren’t enough, a quick read of Hamas’ charter should be enough to disabuse anyone of this impression. Hamas is proud of its goal to wipe out the Jewish state, the very existence of which it considers an affront.[16]
As a land that at one time in history was conquered by Muslims, Hamas views Israel as belonging forever and always to Muslims. In Hamas’ own words, “There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad [holy war]. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.”[17]
What Can We Do?
There may never be a time when Israel is not beset by antagonists – until Jesus Himself returns and establishes peace in the Land.
In the meantime:
We can “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you. May peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces’” (Psalm 122:6–7).
We can reach out in love and support to our Jewish friends and neighbors, not neglecting to communicate the message of hope we have in Messiah.
We can give to support Life in Messiah staff ministering in Israel (see link below).
We can pray that many, Israeli and Palestinian, will turn to God in their suffering and find in Him the comfort and hope they need.
Written by Levi, Executive Director
Do you view the Middle East conflict through a historical, political, social, or biblical lens?
What questions might you have in view of the current situation? Feel free to email us at office@lifeinmessiah.org.
Want to pray and give to those serving in Israel? Click here.
Endnotes:
[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-takes-foreign-journalists-to-see-massacre-site-in-kfar-aza/
[6] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/12/photo-baby-dead-hamas-israel-palestine-blinken/
[7] https://nypost.com/2023/10/08/elderly-holocaust-survivor-in-wheelchair-kidnapped-by-hamas-blinken/
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine_(region)
[9] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-arabs-in-palestine
[10] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-refugees-from-arab-countries
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab–Israeli_War
[12] https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/mediarelease/pages/2022/population-of-israel-on-the-eve-of-2023.aspx
[13] https://www.britannica.com/event/Israels-disengagement-from-Gaza
[15] https://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-under-pressure-over-martyr-stipends-it-pays-to-terrorists-families/
[16] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp (see especially Articles 3, 8, 11, 13 and 15)
[17] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp (Article 13)