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Background

Let us deal with some difficult questions regarding the war in Gaza, hostages, etc. We need to be able to have some understanding before we can pray and act effectively.

On 11 October 2023, an article was published stating that “any significant response from Israel would result in genocide”, and subsequently many more news items saying virtually the same thing.  So, about the time the first Israeli response to the Hamas brutality of 7 October 2023 started, the propaganda machine message of “it’s a genocide” had started.

The fact is the false genocide accusation gives Jew-haters a great umbrella to hide under after they do their wicked deeds.

I was in Israel at the massacre sites in March of 2024. I met with survivors and families of hostages; I saw homes where families had been burned alive, and around 1,200 vehicle wrecks (mainly burned) where people were murdered and injured (the final human remains were removed only a few weeks before I was there). Over 1,200 people were killed, and thousands more injured, as well as 250+ hostages taken. I visited Kibbutz Be’eri, the Nova Festival site, etc. I also saw images of the horrors of that day that still haunt me now.

My Dad lived in Germany under the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s, and Dad told me many stories of that time.  The Nazi regime tried to hide the crimes; Hamas published their crimes. The level of wickedness is unsurpassed, and we know at least 50% (maybe 70%) of Gazans (and other Islamists) support what Hamas did. (Warning: horrific images).

We must face the reality that Israel must destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ, et. al. for Israel’s long-term viability and the survival of the Jewish people.

The fact that so many people think that this war is “genocide” is beyond absurd. It is the product of propaganda and a general lack of understanding of many factors. In reality, the IDF would prefer not to conduct “urban warfare”, but that is not a reality given the proximity, location, and strategy with Hamas. That said, the Allies achieved victory by bringing Germany and Japan to their knees. As we all know, the US dropped not one, but two atomic bombs on Japan, decimating two cities and their inhabitants.

Personal Connections

I met Rachael Goldberg, whose son Hersh was murdered by Hamas last week, and his body recovered with five others on the weekend (1^st September 2024). As part of the IPC/ICEJ Solidarity mission in March 2024, we heard Rachel’s story. We prayed and wept with her. So, when I heard of Hersh’s demise, after he survived an arm being blown off by a grenade on 7^th October, I was in tears and in prayer, as were all the members of the mission team.

This is not just a theoretical moral discussion, but a deeply and prayerfully felt position on Israel and the Jewish people.

Current Hostage Situation

A ceasefire will NOT help the hostages. All a ceasefire will do is strengthen the terrorists. Anything that allows Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ, etc, to remain as coherent forces in the medium to long term will threaten the very existence of Israel and the Jewish people.

John Richardson writes in The Gatestone Institute:

• The Biden-Harris administration apparently sees no problem with a Palestinian state being yet another terrorist state, committed to annihilating Israel — as both Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force commander General Esmail Qaani (“Israel is a cancer that must be eliminated”), and senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad have straightforwardly vowed.
• A ceasefire might sound as if it is a “good thing” that benefits everyone — understandably, if a friend or family member is a hostage. The problem seems to be the Hamas demand that Israel should leave the “Philadelphi corridor” on the border between Gaza and Egypt, so that Hamas, backed by its patrons Qatar and Iran, can resume smuggling weapons and ammunition into Gaza, rearm, rebuild, and attack again.

His analysis is correct. Anything that allows the survival of Hamas is an existential threat to Israel and the Jewish people. John also points out:

• What many Israelis seem unwilling or unable to see is, sadly, that even with a ceasefire, the hostages will not be released. Hamas will hold onto as many of them as they can for as long as they can, to keep them in play as a weapon.
• With a ceasefire, Israel, unfortunately, will not get peace and will not get the hostages. The Israelis might see a few hostages at a time dribbled out, the living ones first, they hope, each one exchanged for hundreds, if not more, of convicted Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons, whose first job would be to go right back to terrorising.

Israel must pursue the release or rescue of the hostages by all means necessary while not compromising security or allowing Hamas to remain.

The Way Forward

For the Muslims who believe that “Israel is only 76 years old” (as is often said on social media), the word Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Quran. Israel is not “younger than your grandma”, but Israel is older than Islam itself.

I do not know how this entire conflict will end, given how ingrained anti-semitism is within the Islamic world. However, demonstrating to the Palestinian people that their “River to the Sea” (pipe) dream is only going to make their future more and more bleak. They need to be shown (by force if necessary) that the land for a future state will only get smaller, not bigger, if they do not end their real genocidal pursuit of eradicating Jews from the Middle East.

We must pray, intercede, and take political action to bring about real solutions to the horror of what is really going on against Israel and the Jewish people.

If people around the globe really cared about the Palestinians, this is the narrative they would push (i.e., settle for what you have now or start thinking about emigrating to other Arab states). This is the only practical, real long-term solution. While difficult, the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 was needed for the stability of that region. The 1922 partition plan of Israel, including Judea & Samaria (West Bank) and Trans-Jordan (now Jordan), is what we still need today.

“The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.”
— King Hussein I of Jordan in a newspaper interview, 26^th November 1981

While unpopular, I cannot see any other way that allows long-term security and peace in the region.

In 1920, the Great Powers, under the auspices of the League of Nations, agreed at a summit in San Remo that the Jewish people should have a state of their own in Mandate Palestine. This was ratified in 1922.

The land was to be all the land from the Mediterranean Sea to what is now Jordan. Because of pressure from the Arabs, the British government reneged on this agreement and created Transjordan for the Hashemite kingdom. So effectively the proposed Jewish state was cut in half (actually 27% — 73%).

Following World War II, Partition was mooted at the United Nations, giving an even smaller amount of land to the Jews. The Jews accepted; the Arabs rejected. A vote at the UN brought Israel into existence, and Israel declared Independence. Five Arab armies started war on the new state. The army of Jordan, with British officers, drove all Jews out of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

So, in summary, the “promised land” was cut in half, then cut in half again, and then its long-term Jewish residents were ethnically cleansed.

Following the end of the War of Independence (1948), hundreds of thousands of Arabs became refugees in the surrounding states of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of Jews (nearly 1 million) living in Arab lands also became refugees, mainly in Israel.

The Arab League created a policy denying citizenship, passports or meaningful employment to refugee Arabs in any Arab state, effectively making all original refugees and their successors stateless. Add to that the venality of “Palestinian” leaders, who in reality act as gangsters, stealing aid money and using their own people as human shields, glorifying the killing of Israelis and paying bounties to those who attempt murder, and you will understand that one side has firmly and indisputably been the main negative actor throughout the history.

The 1922 plan was continued by UN Article 80, and no Arabs have ever agreed to any other plan than that Israel should include Golan, Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank), and Gaza.

I pray for the peace of Jerusalem according to Psalm 122:6. May all those within its walls have security. May shalom (peace and well-being) be known on every street corner. And Lord, I am willing to seek what is best for Jerusalem’s sake.

Addendum — A Few Forgotten Facts

1. Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years, with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in AD 635 lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Tanakh, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Quran. Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Quran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. In 1948, the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. 68% left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution, and slaughter.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

12. Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people’s lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

13. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

14. The PLO’s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.

15. Under Jordanian rule (Judea & Samaria — West Bank — 1949-67), Jewish holy sites were desecrated, and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel (which is insane).

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians between 1949—1967.

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Disaster Victim Identification after 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.