Jews Vs. Muslims - A Christian Perspective
Jews Vs. Muslims - A Christian Perspective
Finally: An absolutely and totally definitive decision on who should get the Holy Land for all time…
What this article is not
I’ve been to Israel and Palestine. I not only like both places, but I like both people. Strip them of their religious dress-up clothes and they basically look the same. They eat basically the same food, work basically the same jobs, live in basically the same way.
Their DNA, however, isn’t basically the same — it’s ~99.53% identical.
Accordingly:
This is not an article in favor of a Jewish one-state solution.
This is not an article in favor of a Muslim one-state solution.
This is not an article in favor of a two-state solution. Or a 10-state solution.
I’m a Jesus follower, so I don’t have any dogs in this fight for three reasons:
As a Christian, I laugh at the silly idea of human ownership. Like omniscience, perfection, and omnipotence, ownership is not a human category. Temporary matter cannot own permanent matter. (More on this later.)
Nations are legal fictions. God calls them dust. Borders are imaginary lines in the sand.
As a thinking person, I abhor false dichotomies. When given two dumb options — IE the wholesale eradication of Israelis versus the wholesale eradication of Palestinians — choose neither. You and I don’t have to choose a “side” in genocide. Heck, even God doesn’t choose sides. The Bible says He is no respector of persons.
So what’s the point of this article?
To point out a few of the illogical fallacies, creative lies, and downright absurdities of the arguments surrounding this horrible war.
If that sounds like fun, keep reading…
“Free Palestine” = hate speech?
There’s a two-word slogan plastered all over Twitter and the signs of Muslim protestors right now: “Free Palestine.”
It sounds nice — who doesn’t love freedom? — but what does that actually mean?
Does it mean letting the poor folks who are caged in Gaza escape to one of the dozen surrounding Muslim countries? (Even though Egypt is currently strengthening their border wall.)
Does it mean letting the poor folks who are caged in Gaza live anywhere in Israel?
Does it mean changing the name of Israel to Palestine and letting both groups live in peace?
Or does it mean something significantly more sinister?
I had a good long chat with a Palestinian this week about “Free Palestine.”
I asked what Palestinians want, exactly. I fairly posited that “Free Palestine” is too disingenuous to be either meaningful or actionable.
My thesis is: like all political slogans in history (think: “Hope”, “Change,” and “Make America Great Again”) this one is purposefully manipulative and vague.
The Palestinian replied:
“They want ceasefire and peace for Gaza. Free Palestine 🇵🇸”
In other words, when I asked what the slogan meant… they just repeated the slogan.
Useless!
I continued to press, again and again.
They kept dodging their real answer.
“I want freedom for Palestine Human rights, the right to have an ordinary life where children can dream.”
Well sure, who wouldn’t want that?
I kept pressing, they kept deflecting.
But eventually we got to the unsurprising truth:
They want the Israelis dead or gone from the Middle East.
Anyone with a fully-developed brain (sorry Boomers and Gen Z!) can see how “Free Palestine” is just really weak propaganda. As a Millennial, this embarrassing slogan smacks of nothing more than manipulative and dangerous Millennial marketerspeak.
Because in reality, “Free Palestine” is code for “dead or homeless Jews.”
Israel = promised land?
Okay, now let’s pick on the Jews for a bit.
What was Yahweh’s deal with Abram ben Terah?
The covenant was abundantly clear: Obey my commands and I will bless you to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Disobey me and I will withhold my blessing.
Clearly, Israel is not being a blessing to all the families of the earth.
Clearly, Israel is ignoring the covenant command to limit retribution to an “eye for an eye” — Hamas murdered 1,400 Jews, and Israel has now killed more than three times that amount. Enough is enough.
(As a Christian I would add that Israel has also ignored the Messiah’s command to turn the other cheek.)
One could argue that Israel’s continued disobedience to Yahweh (plus the rejection of Jesus as Messiah) negates any claim to the physical Promised Land.
The reality is that the land and temple no longer matter anyway — followers of God are His temple and His kingdom is here.
“But Western nations support Palestine”
Another ridiculous myth that’s swirling around in this fog of war is the notion that people around the world are “standing with Palestine.”
Twitter is awash with these misleading slogans:
“Sweden stands with Palestine”
No — Muslims in Sweden stand with Palestine.
“Britain stands with Palestine.”
No — British Islamists stand with Palestine.
Remember, the fundamental principle of Islam is that the caliphate must expand.
But the global Nation of Islam knows it can’t beat America and its nuclear-armed allies, so its modern game plan seems to be:
Take over a country or area.
Make it so miserable for the masses that millions emigrate to less harsh countries
Islam takes root in those nations.
It’s brilliant, really. There are now…
5.7 million Muslims living in France
4.1 million living in the UK
3.5 million living in the US
1.1 million living in Canada
Nearly 1 million living in Sweden
There are more Muslims living in Russia and China than in Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia combined.
Given these figures, it’s easy to pretend like “France stands with Palestine” even though that’s not even remotely true.
But it makes you wonder…
If Islam is so great, then why are so many people trying to leave Muslim nations?
If sharia law is so wonderful, then why are the vast majority of the world’s refugees escaping from Muslim-majority countries?
These are questions that demand answers, because the lives of innocent Muslims — especially non-combatant men, women, and children — are on the line.
But Israelis/Palestinians were there first!
Both sides claim they were there first.
Adorable.
As if arriving first matters to any culture in world history.
The 613+ first nations were in Canada before the Canadians arrived
The 574+ native tribes were in America before the Americans arrived
The Celtic tribes where in the UK before the continental Britons arrived
The Gauls where in France before the Franks arrived
The Etruscans were in Italy before the Italians arrived
The Slavs were in Russia before the Russians arrived
The Sumerians were in Iraq before the Iraqis arrived
The Bactrians were in Afghanistan before the Afghans arrived
Now let’s get really spicy…
The Canaanites were in Israel before the Israelis arrived
The Egyptians were in Gaza before the Gazans arrived
The Indo-European-speaking Aegean Philistines were in Palestine before the Palestinians arrived
Folks: Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were the first in the land.
Arriving first is literally irrelevant. This isn’t a Christ-honoring theocracy where every single human being has land rights and is allotted an equal portion in order to meet their needs.
We live in secularist post-modernity, where might is right and it’s dog-eat-dog-survival-of-the-fittest Darwinism. Welcome to the post-God world.
Seriously, friends — anyone who says “but X was here first!” is not a serious person.
(And I don’t say this as some white colonialist living on stolen land — I was born in Canada, got my DNA tested which came back as majority British, then emigrated back to the UK.)
Who arrived first is literally irrelevant to world politics and the settlement of human beings.
It’s a dumb as telling Canadian geese to stop migrating to Mexico.
DNA
Let’s get really silly for a minute.
The Palestinian claim to be the “original” inhabitants of the land currently known as Israel is extremely tenuous at best.
Is there any hard evidence that today’s Israelis or Palestinians have been consecutive inhabitants for thousands of years?
Nah, bruh.
Both people groups, like all people, are genetic mutts.
The land they’re fighting over was once home to “Canaanites, Philistines, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mongols, Mamluks, Ottomans, British, Egyptians and Israelis.”
Let’s make things even more awkward:
Today’s Palestinians have a substantial genetic affinity with other Levantine populations, such as Jews, Syrians and Lebanese. Other studies suggest that Palestinians have a significant genetic contribution from Arab populations that migrated to the region after the Islamic conquests in the seventh century AD. 🥶
Okay, so most Palestinians now living in Gaza hail from Syria, Lebanon, Jewish Israel, and a Muslim invasion in the 700s. Meanwhile, Gaza was under Israelite rule as far back as the early 11th century BC.
So what’s the solution here?
Should every Jew and Palestinian get a DNA test and then get assigned to certain areas like a Hogwarts sorting hat?
Should everyone on earth get a DNA test, and whoever has the most DNA from the OG peoples get to claim their ancestral land?
I was born in Canada, and live in Wales, but am 2/3rds Scottish and 1/3rd French. Should this entitle me to kick out all the half-Scots and quarter-Frenchies and move into a lochside castle or an Alpine chateau?
I hope you’re starting to see how silly this war is…
“Palestine is being occupied by Israel”
This is another argument founded on a false premise.
It’s founded on the notion that they were the first inhabitants and thus perpetually the rightful “owners” of the land. It bears repeating: We know for a fact that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were the first to dwell in this land, and that first-dwelling is irrelevant anyway.
Plus, this twisted logic opens up a huge can of worms for Muslims around the world:
If “Israel the invading nation” is supposed to give the land back to the Palestinians… then what happens to all the countries that Muslims have invaded and conquered since 634AD?
Oopsies.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the countries where we know with historical certainty that Islam violently and brutally invaded and continue to occupy:
Syria — 634 AD
Iraq — 636 AD
Egypt — 641 AD
Iran — 642 AD
Libya — 642 AD
Azerbaijan — 643 AD
Tunisia — 647 AD
Afghanistan — 651 AD
Algeria — 670 AD
Morocco — 682 AD
India — 711 AD
Pakistan — 711 AD
Turkey — 1071 AD
Bangladesh — 1204 AD
Palestinians make the argument that Israel is occupying “their” land.
History shows very clearly that the same case can be made about dozens of currently-Muslim-occupied nations.
Should we wave a flag that says “Free Syria?” “Free Egypt?” “Free Jordan?” “Free Libya?”
This just isn’t how reality works.
Ownership is a false gospel
This Israel-Gaza war is once again revealing the utter absurdity, delusion, and conceit of perpetual human ownership of land.
Christians absolutely believe in private property — “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” God owns it all. We’re just stewards. There is simply no biblical theology for permanent private property.
But do you know what is extremely clear?
Every acre of land is God’s (Leviticus 25:23).
Every fathom of sea is God’s (Psalm 95:5).
Every foot of sky is God’s (Genesis 14:19).
Every inch of Earth is God’s (Psalm 50:12).
Everything the Earth contains is God’s (Psalm 24:1).
Every wild animal is God’s (Psalm 50:10).
Every cow is God’s (Psalm 50:10).
Everything that moves in the fields is God’s (Psalm 50:10).
Every house is God’s (Hebrews 3:4).
Every ounce of gold is God’s (Haggai 2:8).
Every ounce of silver is God’s (Haggai 2:8).
Every possession is God’s (Psalm 104:24).
Every gift is God’s (James 1:17).
Every throne is God’s (Colossians 1:16.)
Every piece of clothing is God’s (Job 1:12).
Every physical body is God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
Every ounce of fat is God’s (Leviticus 3:16).
Every hour of the day is God’s (Psalm 74:16.)
Every second of night is God’s (Psalm 74:16).
Every word of wisdom is God’s (Daniel 2:20).
Every act of power is God’s (Daniel 2:20).
Every notion of vengeance is God’s (Romans 12:19).
Every child is God’s (Psalm 127:3).
Every soul is God’s (Ezekiel 18:4).
As you can see, Christians take an extremely different view on the Middle East conflict: All the land belongs to God. He allots portions as an inheritance to those who follow His word, will, and way, and takes it away from those who reject His sovereign kingship.
Neither the Jews nor the Muslims are currently entitled to dwell in the sandbox which these ancient boy-cousins are currently murdering each other over.
They have both rejected the son of the owner — perhaps it is time for a new tenant.
A swift end to this war is blindingly obvious
You see it.
I see it.
Most Palestinians see it.
Most Jews and even Israeli politicians see it.
This whole war could come to an end by the weekend if one simple thing happened:
If Hamas dissolved their anti-democratic government and let everyday Palestinians have a new, free, and fair democratic election.
Remember: These two sides are not apples to apples. Only one side is has a long history of suicide bombing, raping women, beheading people, kidnapping children en masse, and purposefully and knowingly murdering civilians.
Most Palestinians are just normal people trying to live their lives, but if we’re really being honest, Hamas is, as one reporter put it this week, “like Isis on steroids.”
Remember: Hamas staged a civil war, got voted in with just 44.45% of the votes in 2006, and then stopped holding elections.
If Hamas was genuinely serious about the safety of Palestinians — which their refusal to let Gazans escape says they’re not — they would announce their decision to call an election and ask Israel, the UN, etc, for a ceasefire.
And they would get it.
America and the rest of Israel’s allies are already pressuring her to chill out. If Hamas gave up their con, Israel would have no choice by the cease fire.
Then, if Hamas was really as popular as they claim, they’d get handily re-elected. (Which they obviously aren’t — political parties that use civilians as human shields rarely nab the popular vote.)
Only cowards are afraid of democracy.
In conclusion
So, friends — Should the Jews get the land? Should the Muslims get the land?
Drumroll please…
…
…
Who gets the land isn’t even the point.
The point is that we should hate dumb arguments.
Nothing will change until the dumb arguments change.
Nothing will change unless people stop pretending to be dumb.
Because we all know what’s actually going on here.
There is a will to murder in the Middle Eastern air.
Until we address the suicidal-homicidal elephant in the room, nothing changes.
Just more lies.
Just more war.
Just more innocents killed.
Just more bad-faith arguments.
Just more history repeating itself.