Israel - Palestinian War

The sound of weeping mothers fill the streets in Gaza as the Israel-Palestinian war continues. Hamas has provoked the wrath of Israel by attacking them with rockets. Such violence has plagued this land for centuries.

The Jews first conquered the land after fleeing slavery in Egypt. The Jews were then conquered by the Babylonians, later the Persians and later by the Romans. Arabs didn’t make it onto the scene until the seventh century. Since then control has passed from Arabs to Christian crusaders, to Arabs again, to the Turks, to the British and now back to the Jews.

The Arabs and the Jews both claim they have a right to this land. The Arabs say they were there first. Of course if we go back far enough in history we know that isn’t true. The Jews say they are entitled to the land because God promised the land to Abraham. Yet the Apostle Paul taught that Christians, not biological descendents of Abraham are the real heirs. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children… That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Galatians 3:29; Romans 9:7, 8). These “children of the promise” are under the new covenant with heaven as their Promised Land. So it seems neither the Jews nor the Arabs have any fundamental right to it and it is probably overvalued. Of course there are many that disagree with that.

At the heart of this problem is religion. Consider the United States. The US has a secular form of government that treasures separation of church and state. The First Amendment bans the government from establishing a church or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The idea behind this is simple. Each of us must give an accounting unto God for our religious beliefs. Therefore man has no authority over another man in such things. Government has the right to pass laws that govern man’s behavior to the degree that behavior impacts other men. That is the horizontal relationship; - man to man. Government has no right to regulate man’s behavior as it relates to God. That is the vertical relationship – man to God. Under this form of government Christians, Jews and Muslims all live together in peace.

In Israel the Jewish religion is the official state religion. Its judicial system incorporates Jewish law into it. There are a host of laws for Sabbath observance including no bus service and bans commercial and industrial activity. Jews are automatically entitled to Israeli citizenship when they immigrate regardless where they are coming from.

The Palestinian government is made up of the terrorist group Hamas that was elected by the people in 2006. Hamas is an Islamic Resistance Movement. Their charter calls for the establishment of a Palestinian Islamic state and the destruction of Israel. They are obviously not big fans of Thomas Jefferson and the separation of church and state.

Throughout history whenever there is a union of church and state persecution follows. Clearly there is persecution of the Arab Muslims in Palestine by the Israel. Equally clear is the violence against Jews caused by a quasi Islamic Palestinians state. This is what happens when church and state unite. A civil government is a necessary evil. The civil government should never be the arm of any religion used to try and do God’s work on earth.