Most of us who live in Europe and America want peace in the Middle East. We want to see Israel left alone to live in the world. And we want to see the Palestinian people prospering and living amiably alongside them. That is our desire. That's essentially the Two-State Solution. But what the Arab and Palestinian leadership have consistently demonstrated since 1921 is that that is not what they desire. Let’s listen to their own words at face value.

Hamas’ Charter:

The original preamble in Hamas’ Charter explicitly stated,

• “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

It goes on later to articulate their faith foundation for this objective,    

• “Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land. Resisting and quelling the enemy becomes the individual duty of every Moslem, male or female.”
  
  
• “Palestine is an Islamic land...Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be.”

It doesn’t matter that the Jews had purchased the land legally or that the Turks had lost their empire in the Great War. In the West, we care about those things. We ask the question: Did the Jews do it right? Is the State of Israel legitimate? That's not how Islam thinks. They ask, "Is it Islamic?" The local Arabs at the time wanted to go back to the good-ole days when they were ruled by an empire under Islamic law. The root of the issue isn’t political in the sense that we think of it. It is theological and ideological. In Islamic theology, once land has been conquered by Islam, it is considered 'Holy Possession' forever. 

Islam’s primary objective is the expansion of legal authority—Muhammed’s law and culture—over the entire earth. Islam’s grand vision and glory is to replace every legal system with Sharia law, from Anchorage to Tasmania and from Bangkok to Berlin. Jihad is the struggle to actualize that dream. Does anyone see the irony that Islam violently steals lands from others but cannot admit its own losses in offensive wars? For the beleaguered Jewish people in 1948 to hold sovereignty over land that once belonged to Islam was, and still is, unacceptable to them—even if it was rightfully purchased and internationally endorsed.

Yasser Arafat

Let’s go back a generation. What about Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO and Israel’s peace partner in the Oslo Peace Accords, what did he have to say? “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations.” He continues, “Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited, which applies to both the West Bank and Gaza and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis.” Doesn’t sound very collaborative, does it?

Gamal Abdel Nasser

How about during Israel’s early years as a nation? Perhaps Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser was more neutral, “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight,” and “We will not accept any...coexistence with Israel...Today, the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel....The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.” Most interestingly, he said, “There is no longer a way out of our present situation except by forging a road toward our objective, violently and by force, over a sea of blood and under a horizon blazing with fire.” He sounds like a charming fellow.

Hajj Amin al-Husayni

Maybe we need to go back even further to the original Arab leadership when the Jews were purchasing land in Israel and living under British authority. Maybe the chief Islamic legal authority of Jerusalem can shed some light on the topic. The Grand Mufti, Hajj Amin al-Husayni said, “Arise, o sons of Arabia. Fight for your sacred rights. Slaughter Jews wherever you find them. Their spilled blood pleases Allah, our history and religion. That will save our honor.” Okay, so he's not helpful. The Mufti instigated hate speech and terror campaigns against the Jewish communities from 1921 to 1937.

Koran

Perhaps we need to go all the way back to the Koran to validate that these modern men are only expressing an extremist version of Muhammed’s religion. Here are a few verses from the Koran:

• “Kill the Mushrikun (polytheists, Christian, and non-Muslims), wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush” (Surah 9:5).
  
  
• “Fighting is obligatory for you…Idolatry is worse than bloodshed” (Surah 2:216-217).
  
  
• “And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah) and worship is for Allah” (Surah 2:193).
  
  
• “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have not believed, so strike them” (Surah 8:12-14).

No liberalism to be found there. “Idolatry is worse than bloodshed.” Yike. No more God-TV for you.

Hadith (Muhamad’s Example)

Okay, so the original disciples of Muhammed would surely have accurately practiced what he taught and believed. What did they think about all this holy war stuff?

“I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah.” Muhammed (Bukhari 1.2.24)

Is anyone seeing a pattern emerging here?

Isn’t it interesting that no one else in the international community had a problem with the legality of the Jewish nation? It has only been those who held to the tenets of Islam who have a problem with Israel. Is it possible that terror and violence against Israel have nothing to do with Israel; it has to do with Islam? This is an ideological war. Anyone who does not believe in the prophet Muhammed is to be warred against. I didn’t say that; they did! 

Many in the West who no longer adhere to any faith system find this conclusion hard to believe. But for Christians who understand how faith shapes our deepest convictions, this should not surprise us. But it still leaves the question of why I’m taking time to criticize someone else’s religion instead of worrying about my own. Why? Because not all ideologies are peaceful, and some are used to promote real injustice and evil in the world.

Application:

The Apostle Paul said, “we’re not unaware of the enemy’s schemes,” and “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Islam and Christianity’s worldviews and goals are opposed to each other. The ideological lies and aspirations of Islam are obstacles that need dismantled in order for people to live in spiritual freedom and political peace.

We must ask the question, “How is Israel to make peace with people so steeped in an ideology that is bent on destroying them—and us?" That may be a question you can leave outside your door at night since you live across the ocean, but living in Israel is like living in a sardine can. They are pressed up against others who hold this violent mentality. This question is the unsolvable issue. The Kingdom of Islam is waring against the Kingdom of YHVH. 

Hamas doesn't just abuse Israel; it abuses its own people and does not value human life. Hamas does not protect free speech or religious freedoms or concern themselves with the well-being of their people. Hamas is not the good guy liberating the land from the oppressors. They are the oppressors who aren’t managing the needs of their own people. They are the ones fomenting hatred and murder in the name of their religion. They are the ones who can’t coexist with others who do not believe or practice as they do.

The West and the Western Church shouldn’t grow tired of maintaining justice or allow sympathy for the Palestinian people to subvert justice by punishing the peaceful nation of Israel. We can love the Palestinians who are being engulfed by poverty, malice, and religious envy, but also not wane in our support for Israel’s existence and way of life. I do pray for the Middle East regularly. I pray that the Palestinians find Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace, and he can transform their hearts and set them free from their hatred and animosity towards the Jewish people. And I continue to pray that Israel finds their Jewish Messiah. Jesus is the promised one--the "Desire of all nations." He will conquer us, but it won't be with the sword, it will be with his love. And Isaiah said, "of the increase of his government (of love and justice) there will be no end." 

Tags: evil, history, peace, israel, injustice, islam, jews, violence, middle east, jihad, palestinians, muhammed