Understanding Palestine and Israel | In Focus |

History, faith and politics intertwine in this century-old dispute

This past May, Palestinian Hamas began shooting rockets into Israeli residential areas from the Gaza Strip, eventually totaling over 4,000 rockets. Thirteen Israeli civilians died. Israel retaliated with hundreds of jet fighter sorties that killed over 256 Palestinians civilians, many of whom died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 11-day war came because of a dispute over six Palestinian families being evicted from their homes in the West Bank by Israeli police. Palestinians took to the Temple Mount where 600 Palestinians and Israelis were injured in riots. Hamas, the Arab Palestinian organization that controls the Gaza Strip, issued an ultimatum to Israel to either leave the Temple Mount and the Arab suburb where the evictions were to occur or face retaliation.

Israel, of course, ignored the ultimatum and the rocket attacks commenced.

Who is to blame? If you’re on the American political/religious left, it was the bullying Israelis’ fault; the Palestinians were the victims. If you’re on the political/religious right, Hamas and the Palestinians were the aggressors. If you were President Biden, you support Israel’s right to protect itself with one hand, and with the other you offer to help rebuild Gaza.

Whom you support depends mainly on how, when, and on what authority you frame your narrative.

If you support the Palestinians, the story begins 1,000 years ago when Arabs settled in Palestine. If you favor the Israeli perspective, which began with God’s promise to the Patriarch Abraham and his descendants— in about 1880 B.C.E., the Jews have the earlier claim to the land.

Those on the religious left tend to doubt the miracles of the Bible, while those on the right believe in the inerrancy of scripture. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son, but Isaac was deemed to be the rightful heir. From Ishmael Arabs and Islam descended, while from Isaac came Judah and Judaism. In other words, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is really the result of a millennia-long family feud inflamed by competing religious beliefs.

The Jews began to return to Palestine in the late 19th century after their diaspora by the conquering Romans between 66-73 CE. Wealthy European Jews purchased land from wealthy Ottoman Turks who controlled most of it. The Arab Palestinians didn’t own very much property. They were considered second-class citizens and were very poor.

The Jews called the movement to return to Palestine Zionism. This movement gained the support of two religiously conservative presidents: Presbyterian Woodrow Wilson and Baptist Harry Truman. These two presidents believed that for Jesus to return, there had to be a state of Israel in Palestine. They were both instrumental in the nation’s birth in 1948.

Had the Episcopalian Franklin Roosevelt survived World War II, it is likely that there would be no Jewish state in Palestine today and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would not be a festering sore.

Why did Hamas unleash 4,000 rockets on Israel over a relatively minor property dispute?

Part of the answer was an attempt to influence the recently elected President Joe Biden. If enough Palestinians died in the conflict, then American sympathies on the political left might shift from Israel to the Palestinians and rouse the rest of the Arab world to support their cause. That’s why the rocket launchers were placed in residential areas in Gaza. The more innocent Palestinian dead, the greater the outrage.

Unfortunately for Hamas and the Gaza Palestinians, Catholic Biden is more of a moderate than a left-leaning progressive. Besides that, the Palestinians, the rest of the Sunni Arab world is more concerned about the ambitions and aggressive rise of the Persian/Shia Muslim Iran than they are with the fate of the Palestinians.

The Arabs lost three wars they fought against Israel: in 1947-48, 1967, and 1973. They have lost interest in the Palestinian cause. Israel is now the regional superpower that can keep Iran at bay. That’s why Israel was able to ally with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in the Abraham Accords.

Understanding how and when the political and religious American right and left decided to frame their narrative about the Palestinian/Israeli dispute tells them whom to support. Palestinians are the victims to the left while Jews are God’s chosen people who rightly own the land for the right.

Two great thinkers said it best: “I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s” (Mark Twain). “Those who believe religion and politics do not mix, understand neither” (Albert Einstein).