DAVIDS STAR MAGAZINE
Guest Opinion
13
Thus far we have only spoken of two parties in the conflict: the Palestinians and Israelis. In reality, there are many other stakeholders in this protracted conflict, many with selfish or even destructive agendas. However, the most important party of all is God Himself. We are Christians who understand that God chose for himself a nation out of Egypt, to represent Him on earth, leading them across the desert to inherit a land He had promised to their fathers: a land to be inhabited by Israel and their descendants forever. Throughout the Bible God describes Himself as the God of Israel, a God who makes irreversible promises, such as betrothing Israel to Himself forever.
The root of the Arab-Israeli conflict is partly due to the fact that humans cannot accept God might actually have His own political plans! The Bible says many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is only the purposes of God that will prevail (Proverbs 19:21). As Christians, we must recognise that above all of man’s great ideas, politics, wars and scheming, is a divine “Masterplan.” First, people need reconciling to God, because when their ways please the Lord, He makes even their enemies to be at peace with them. (Proverbs 16:7)
Sadly today no-one seems too bothered about what God wants, only what they see as right, fair or just. God’s plans are just too far fetched for man, they do not feature in his thinking or logic: for as Isaiah wrote in chapter 55 “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.”
Yet it is His purposes that will prevail – so we need to set aside our pride and prejudice and get behind God’s plans lest we oppose our Creator.
Israel needs to wake up to the fact she was called to represent God on earth. This includes how she deals with her neighbours and those living within her wider borders. The Holocaust and centuries of persecution have created a legacy that has produced a fortress nation with a fortress mentality. Israel has had to learn the hard way – yet has lost sight of how she has experienced such remarkable success and growth during forty-four of her sixty six years in a state of war, three of which were existential.
Is this not evidence of the hand of God? If Israel was to recognise God’s plans for her, then she could rest in this knowledge and begin acting according to His will, perhaps being a little more compassionate towards neighbours who do not seek her destruction – such as the Palestinian Christians who are now caught between a rock and a hard place. Sadly the world’s media focuses mostly on the rock, Israel, giving little attention to the hard place, the Arab-Islamic culture in which Christians, peaceful Moslems and other minorities are increasingly being harmed by radical Islamic forces.
Equally, the Palestinian people must arise and challenge corruption, genuinely seek peace and stop blaming others for their own mistakes and problems.
The inherent violence in their culture must be restrained enabling them to meet the standards of the international human rights act.