Arab and Israeli Conflict
Dear Editor:
The hostility between Israel and her Arab neighbors is ancient, deep and bitter.
There were two sons of Abraham: Ishmael, born of his concubine Hagar (Genesis 16:3-4,15), and Isaac, born of his wife Sarah (Genesis 21:1-3). God chose Isaac to bear his covenant promise. Enmity soon arose between the two women (Genesis 16:3-6).
Later young Ishmael mocked his half-brother Isaac (Genesis 21:8-11). Of Ishmael, Jehovah said, "His hand shall be against every man" (Genesis 16:12). His descendants, the Ishmaelites, hated those of Isaac.
Isaac, fathered twins, Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:21-26). Being first born, Esau should have been the chief heir, but not cherishing the privilege, he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob in exchange for a meal of stew (Genesis 25:27-34).
Later, when Esau saw his father's blessing go to his brother Jacob, he was filled with hated and vowed to kill him (Genesis 27). From Esau sprang the Edomites who were perpetual enemies of the Israelites.
From the descendants of Ishmael and Esau have grown the people that are now raging against the Jews who are descended from Isaac and Jacob. The enmity has never subsided.
Another source of antagonism is of modern origin.
- When the Jews were defeated and driven out of their homeland by the Romans (70 A.D.), the land was soon occupied by those whom we now call Palestinians or Arabs. Upon its rise, these people embraced the religion of Islam (ca, 600 A.D.), becoming the most zealous of its adherents. For some 1800 years they claimed it as their homeland.
- Following World War I, the Balfour Declaration placed the administration of Palestine in the hands of the British. In 1922 a mandate was published by the League of Nations affirming that Palestine should become a Jewish National Home with self-government. This allowed and encouraged a large and steady immigration stream of Jews to Palestine.
- In 1947 the United Nations recommended the partitioning of Palestine between Jews and Palestinians. These political moves were made without Palestinian approval.
- On May 14, 1948 the modern state of Israel was born. At that time, Palestinians in the land outnumbered Jews two to one. With statehood for Israel, over a million Jewish immigrants flooded in.
- The Arabs were driven from their ancestral homeland and watched as foreigners swarmed in to occupy it. Old wounds were reopened and they were infuriated.
The Jews, with the backing of their European and American brethren and the political and financial support of Western Europe and the USA, turned the barren land into a thriving, modern nation. This generated envy among their poor Arab neighbors. Arab demigods and heavy-handed dealing by the Jews have kept the fires of hatred white hot.
When Ariel Sharon, the hawkish Jewish leader, recently took his band of Israeli troops and entered the sacred Moslem shrines in Jerusalem, it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Predictably, the Palestinians went on a violent rampage.
Jacob and Esau are still in conflict. Let us pray that our leaders will not allow them to drag us into their never-ending war.
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