Putting a Lens Over the Israel vs Hamas/Hezbollah War

In the Genesis 12 account of Abram’s calling, God says, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and… I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse (vs 1-2). That nation, Israel is now at war with Hamas and Hezbollah. Does God’s promise of blessings and curses mean that Christians should blindly support candidates from the Republican party who are staunchly pro-Israel? What about Palestinian Christians who were killed while taking refuge in a church, which was bombed by Israeli jets in what many Christians consider reckless overkill? This episode seeks to set forth some facts about Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Christian theory of just war, giving you a lens to evaluate the stands of the two parties, yourself.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre by the terrorist group Hamas of some 1200 Israeli babies, children, women and men, many after torturing them. It was the worst day of slaughter of Jews since the holocaust. Hamas didn’t just commit atrocities: they filmed, celebrated, and broadcast them. As we try to get our minds around how to think biblically about Israel’s response to this attack. we need quite a few facts. Let’s begin with some history.

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT UP TO 2005

• Jews were dispersed across the world after 70 AD when Jerusalem was pillaged.
• In 1917, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire with less than 10% of the population Jewish.
• During WWI, Britain passed the Balfour Declaration, in 1917, to establish a "national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.”
• The declaration called for “safeguarding the civil and religious rights for the Palestinian Arabs” who composed the vast majority of the population.
• After Britain’s army drove the Ottoman Turks out of the Middle East (WW1) the Britts set up a political entity called Mandatory Palestine under its rule.
• Meanwhile, in Europe the Jewish Zionist movement called for Jews to migrate to Palestine to repatriate Israel.
• Arab nationalists naturally opposed this effort, asserting Arab rights over the former Ottoman territories and seeking to prevent Jewish migration.
•  After World War II, in 1945, the United States took up the Zionist cause.
• Britain, unable to find a practical solution for the rule of Palestine referred the problem to the United Nations, which in 1947 approved a plan for 1) an independent Arab State, 2) an independent Jewish State, and 3) the city of Jerusalem to be under an international trusteeship system.
• The UN’s vote caused joy among Jews and anger in the Arab community. The next day Arab League members, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq marched their forces into what had, until the previous day, been the British Mandate for Palestine, to attack the Jewish state.
• After an initial loss of territory by the Jewish state, the tide turned in the Israelis' favor and they pushed the Arab armies back beyond the borders of the proposed Arab state.
• The departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from Israel during the war left the country with a substantial Jewish majority.
• Hostility towards Israel among the Arabs smoldered for twenty years leading the Arab league in 1967 to plan another attack. Israeli intelligence learned of it and the Israeli air force launched pre-emptive strikes destroying the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian air forces on the same day.
• It then defeated Egypt, Jordan and Syria in this Six-Day War. Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. 
• In 1979 Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt based on the Camp David Accords.
• In 1993, Israel signed the Oslo I Accord I with the Palestine Liberation Organization, followed by the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty.
• In 2005, Israel gave up its occupation of the Gaza Strip. All Jewish settlers were evacuated from Gaza and it set up free elections there.

The Rise of Hamas

• Hamas won the free 2006 Palestinian election with 75% of the vote.
• Hamas then staged a bloody coup against the Palestinian Authority which had won the other 25%, seized control of Gaza, and turned it into a base for attacking Israel with rockets, tunnel infiltrations, and incendiary balloons.
• After Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip from other elected Palestinians, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip.
• Hamas’ organizing documents state its intent to annihilate Israel and impose Islam on Palestine. Consider the actual words of this document.

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement 18 August 1988

In The Name of The Most Merciful Allah

• There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad (holy war). Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time.
• Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.
• The Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty. The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.
• The slogan of Hamas: The Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.
• Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions--Islam, Christianity and Judaism--to coexist in peace with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam. It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam.

Identity of Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist militant group founded by Lebanese clerics primarily to fight Israel in 1982. It was created with the support of 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps instructors from Iran. The group's stated goals: the expulsion of Western influences, the establishment of allegiance to Iran's supreme leader, and the establishment of an Iran-influenced Islamist government.

Hamas and Hezbollah Will Always Reject Peace with Israel

• The founding documents of Hamas, Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy) and Iran, itself, demonstrate that their clear purpose is to annihilate Israel.
• Since the 2005, Hamas terrorists have fired more than 18,000 rockets and mortars at Israel’s civilian population.
• To date, Hezbollah, from Lebanon, has launched over 5,000 attacks against civilian and military targets in Israel.
• Ali Laijani, head of the Iranian Parliament stated, "We [Iran] explicitly support Hamas and Hezbollah and the oppressed and Muslim people of Palestine, and we do not hide this support … Israel is a cancerous tumor in the region, and we are helping the people of Palestine, and we even send them weapons.”
• As recently as 2020, Hamas rejected the Trump middle east peace plan that was embraced by the Arab states, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Morocco. The plan provided for Israeli security needs, and cleared the way for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over many settlements and Jewish holy sites in the territory of the West Bank. It also included important benefits for Palestinians, who were offered the opportunity to build a state of their own, supported by a $50 billion regional development plan for the Palestinian territories and nearby Arab states.
• Despite the economic benefits and the diplomatic pathway to a Palestinian state the Islamic extremists, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran rejected the plan.

ATTEMPTING TO LOOK THROUGH A BIBLICAL LENS

A. Muslim dissatisfaction over Britain’s division of Palestine into an Arab State and Jewish State does NOT justify seeking the annihilation of Israel.  Civilized people work out disputes over land, which have happened all through history. An important parallel to the British and UN’s decision to partition Palestine is India.  After WW II, Britain sought to return the rule of British India to its inhabitants. In 1947, the UK Parliament passed The Indian Independence Act that partitioned British India into the two new independent countries of India and Pakistan. Since most of the Muslim population was in the northwest portion of British India, these majority Muslim districts were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim districts to India.

The plan to partition British-owned India, was a two-state solution as was the plan to divide British-owned Palestine. Although, there is certainly hostility between India and Pakistan today, the Pakistani military is not firing thousands of rockets at Indian civilians, demanding that India has no right to exist. Only evil, radical, hate-filled ideologues (like Radical Islamists and Nazis) insist on settling land disputes by the extermination of their opponents. When I visited Israel I saw how normal Palestinians, be they Christian, Arab or secular, don’t want Israeli eradication. They favor a kind of two-state solution not unlike that proposed by the Trump administration. However, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other adherents to radical Islam WILL NEVER COMPROMISE. Israel must be annihilated, “from the river to the sea” so that radical Islam can impose the Caliphate, forcing Islam on all Palestinians. Muhamad was a warrior who spread Islam through the might of his sword. Islam’s method of spreading its faith is jihad, holy war. Once an enemy was militarily defeated, Islam was forced on the population through Sharia law, from the top down. The spread of Islam is done by slaughtering its opponents, especially Jews and Christians. That is why, when it comes to the persecution of Christians across the world you see statistics like these:

• In Pakistan the number of Christians persecuted by Islamic oppression is 4,194,000 (The Gospel Coalition).
• In Nigeria, the estimated number of Christians persecuted by Islamic oppression is 1,420,000 (Ibid)
• Since the year 2000, 70,000 black Christians have been murdered in Africa by Muslim extremists. (Dennis Prager).

Contrast this to Christianity whose founder gave his life for others, prayed from his cross for the forgiveness of his enemies, and is building a kingdom whose core value is loving and serving others. The conflict in the middle east is not caused by a land dispute; it is caused by Islam.

B. There is NO moral equivalency between the actions of Hamas and the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. None. In the 13th century, theologian Thomas Aquinas synthesized biblical teachings on peace and war, proposing what was called Just War Theory. His thinking had a lasting impact on later generations and became the basis for the humane treatment of civilians and prisoners required by the Geneva Conventions. Here is a summary of Hamas’ violations of the Geneva Conventions.

• Specifically, those captured must be “treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex.”
• The killing of all civilians is prohibited.
• Beating, rape, cruel treatment of any soldier or civilian is prohibited.
• Mutilation, torture, outrages upon dignity…humiliating and degrading treatment are forbidden.
• Taking civilian hostages of any kind is forbidden.

Hamas gets an A+ for committing viscious war crimes. It could not be waging a more immoral war. It breaks all international laws by hiding among civilians and firing its weapons next to hospitals, schools and mosques. While Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties, Hamas fires thousands of indiscriminate missiles in order to maximize Israeli civilian casualties. Hamas has made it clear that its goal is the destruction of Israel and the extermination of its seven million Jewish inhabitants.

This contrasts in the greatest possible way with the Israeli Defense Force actions. The IDF has hamstrung themselves because of Israel’s adherence to the Geneva Conventions. In response to Hamas atrocities against its children, Israel did what every country in the world would justly do; it took military action to secure its territory and entered Gaza to rescue its hostages and eliminate the threat on its border. Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas can be compared to the Allied invasion to end WW II. The Allies drove all the way to Berlin to destroy the Nazi party. As Israel seeks to destroy Hamas, it, like America is morally committed to keeping the Geneva Conventions. The former Supreme Commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Richard Kemp, has testified that, in Israel's battle against Hamas in Gaza, “The Israel Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.”

This is not to say that abuse of Muslims is not taking place by the IDF forces. It certainly is. In fact, some IDF whistle blowers called attention to prisoners held at an Israeli detention camp in the Negev desert that were being subjected to widespread physical and mental abuses. This parallels the whistle blowers of the American military who called attention to American abuse of Muslim detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during the Iraq war. But contrast Israeli whistle blowers with Hamas who videotaped and celebrated its horrific war crimes on October 7. There is zero moral equivalency here.

C. Hatred of the Jews is a worldwide phenomenon that is best understood as Satan’s hatred of God’s chosen people. Romans 9-11 make clear that God’s covenant made with Abraham continues through Abraham’s line of descent, but that line of descent was the faithful remnant of Israel who trusted God’s provision for their sin, foreseen in the temple sacrifices, but ultimately accomplished by Christ. “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world,” writes Paul, “did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith (Rom 4:13). God’s covenant, by which He promised to save Abraham, always belonged to the descendants of Abraham who had faith, the faithful remnant within ethnic Israel. That remnant and covenant promises come into the NT era as the church. Abraham is the father of the Christian faith.

But what about God’s commitment to ethnic Israel? The re-formation of Israel in 1948, after Jews were dispersed over all the earth for 2000 years is without precedent in history. So is the antisemitism that accompanied them everywhere, which I can’t help but see as Satan’s hatred of the ethnic group God chose. Admittedly the rebirth of Israel has led to wild eschatological views with which I strongly disagree Nevertheless, I believe that this historic fact—the reconstitution of Israel in Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem—is consistent with what Paul teaches. In Romans 11, Paul uses the analogy of the olive tree to say that God has grafted the Gentiles into God’s covenant community. Then he writes, “a partial hardening has come upon Israel, UNTIL the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins (vs25-27). I agree with the ESV Study Bible footnotes that argue that the best interpretation of Paul’s phrase “all of Israel will be saved” in context is that after the ingrafting of the Gentiles, before Christ returns there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit in the nation of Israel, leading to millions of Jews coming to faith in Christ. God's covenant people were clearly the remnant; but God's call to Abram and Romans 9-11 seem to suggest a commitment God has also made to ethnic Israel. That is not the only reason, but a good reason to elect those who are pro-Israel.

DEMOCRATE AND REPUBLICAN SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

Is there a difference between Republican and Democrat support for the nation of Israel? Trump's support while in office was notorious. On December 6, 2017, he officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and announced his plan to move the American embassy to this city. It is unfair and untrue to say that all Democrats are anti-Israel. But the facts are that pro-Hamas politicians in the Democrat Party have caused a historic weakening in its support for Israel. Here are some of those facts.

• One month after taken office, the Biden-Harris Administration rescinded Trump’s restoration of U.N. sanctions on Iran concerning its sale of oil. The enforcement of these sanctions led to a reduction in Iran's oil procuction from 1 million barrels/day to 300,000. The refusal of the Harris/Biden administration to enforce these sanctions has caused Iranian oil production to skyrocket to 2 million barrels/day flooding over one hundred billion dollars into Iran’s coffers since Boden and Harris took office. That money funds HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH rockets.
• On March 14, 2024, Senate Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu should be replaced because of Netanyahu’s determination to root out and destroy Hamas. Such public criticism of an ally’s leader during wartime is an unprecedented violation of diplomatic protocol.
• In May 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration decided to hold up certain arms sales to Israel without consulting Congress. The administration threatened Israel on network television suggesting that it is more concerned with satisfying the anti-Israel left-wing part of their party than supporting our close ally who neded the weapons immediately.
• Vice President Kamala Harris has recklessly called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, when contrary to all international law Hamas is still holding hostages.
• May 7th 2024 U.S. Senator Tim Scott submitted to the US Senate a resolution to condemn the explosion of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. In an effort to call out university presidents who have enabled and refused to take action against this antisemitism, Senator Scott filed a motion to pass the resolution via Unanimous Consent, which was blocked by Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders.

Christians must continue to call Israel to follow the Geneva Conventions. But it is also necessary in 2024 to explore which candidates actually are pro-Israel, because God has said, I will bless those who bless Abraham’s descendants and curse those who curse his descendants.  

For Further Prayerful Thought:

1. What are some thoughts that might come to your mind now if you heard someone say, “The middle east conflict is because Jews took Arab land.”
2. How would you respond to someone attempting to equate the IDF’s military response as just as morally reprehensible as Hamas’ October 7th attack?
3. How would you respond to one who said, “the Democrats say that Israel has a right to defend itself. They are just as supportive of Israel as Republicans."