Israel...Again
Sun., July 16, 10:34 AM
In light of what’s going on in the Middle East, I was just going to link back to what I’ve written before; but then I realized that some people don’t follow links and would never read it. There’s material here that needs to be repeated until it is absorbed by some very thick skulls.
Most people know I have strong emotional ties to the state of Israel. It was part of the curriculum in Sunday School. I had relatives there. And I still have many friends in Israel. (Before you ask, I have stronger ties to the United States. It is not a unique position.)
In 1948, the partition of Palestine that created the state of Israel gave the West Bank to what was then called Trans-Jordan. I’m not making this up; it was in all the newspapers. And Jordan held that territory until the 1967 wars, when Israel seized it. To cement their hold on the territory, the Israelis built settlements; the Palestinians yelled, “Foul! That’s ours. We demand a Palestinian state.”
If a Palestinian state is so important, why didn’t Jordan create one? The land was there, the people were on it. Arab terrorists were using it as a convenient pied-á-terre, from which they could cross the border each night and kill a few more Israelis. (Y’know, that wasn’t mentioned in the newspapers so much.)
The people who settled in the new state used water from the Jordan River to help irrigate the dry farmlands. (Evidently that was stealing from the Palestinians, even though they never attempted to plant their own side of the river.) They drained swamps and planted crops, and the land blossomed. Today a large part of the Israeli economy is built on providing fruit, vegetables, and flowers to Europe.
Israel is also a highly technical society, and its technology is used all over the world. I mention these accomplishments because they came about despite the fact that Israel has been on the defensive for nearly sixty years now. On this tiny sliver of land, they may try just to mind their own business, but still they are attacked from all sides.
The 1948 War, 1967 War, the Yom Kippur War – and still it goes on. God made Moses lead the Israelites through the desert for forty years in order to bring a new generation into the Promised Land. At least they were all on the same side. Even God didn’t know it would take more than fifty years this time.
A Christian friend asked me for my opinion when settlers were moved out of Gaza. It was heartbreaking to see these people moved out of their homes, but I thought, “we have to give the Palestinians a chance to do what’s right. Maybe a peaceful gesture from Israel will evoke a similar response.”
Of course, it did not, and I probably should have known better. (But I would have given them the chance anyhow.) For every agreement brokered by foreign countries, both Israel and one or more Arab countries have signed. And Arabs continually break their word.
If you think, for one minute, that Israel should give up any more land – West Bank or anywhere else – you are sadly misinformed. There is one other piece of sabotage in the works.
Whenever there is trouble in Israel, the price of oil goes up. Do you think this is accidental? OPEC – or whatever cartel is controlling oil now – is purposely raising the rates in the hope of forcing the rest of the world to discipline Israel.
I’m not playing that game. It’s about a month since I last put gas in my car. I’ll drive less, walk more, use public transportation when I can, shop from catalogues. I’m only one person, but I can try.
