Why Believers Must Pray for Peace in the Middle East During High Holy Days
U.S. House Representative and “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who is Palestinian-American and the only member of Congress who opposes Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state, introduced a resolution in May of this year that would make Palestinian Nakba (“Catastrophe”) Day a national observance.
The resolution promotes the false narrative that Israel’s statehood in 1948 prevented Palestinian Arabs from achieving independence.
More recently Tlaib, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, claimed that Israel has an “apartheid system” and that U.S. policies towards it must change, along with those of “progressives” who are pro-Israel.
Unquestionably, the “two-state solution” for Jews and Palestinians is complex and unlikely to happen under current Palestinian leadership. You see, it was in fact Arab refusal to accept the U.N. Partition Plan of “two states for two peoples” that created the problem.
Jordanian and Egyptian monarchs stole the land designated by the U.N. for Palestinians—Transjordan, on the eastern side of the Jordan River and the Negev—for their own purposes, creating perpetual generations of victims among the Palestinians.
I say this based on a review of a convincing, fact-based paid editorial, called “The Palestinian Catastrophe,” which recently ran in key U.S. newspapers and other media nationwide. It spells out how entrenched Arab Palestinian leaders have outright refused various co-existent, “land-for-peace” arrangements for decades!
Until the Palestinian leaders love their grandchildren more than they hate Jews, and are willing to renounce the same deal-breaking demands which have halted two-state solutions for generations, genuine peace initiatives are bound to fail. That’s the real “catastrophe” in the Middle East today.
Until Palestinian dictatorships (1) abandon the so-called right of return of millions of their post-1948 descendants, (2) accept the Jewish state, (3) agree to stop all aggression toward Israel once peace is negotiated—and (4) above all, relinquish their obsession to “drive all Jews into the sea” —no genuine peace solution is possible with the Palestinians.
At this Jewish “High Holy Days” season, let us all pray for peace in the Holy Land. {eoa}
Gary Curtis served in full-time ministry for 50 years, the last 27 years of which he was part of the pastoral staff of The Church on The Way, the Van Nuys, California, Foursquare church. Now retired, Gary continues to write a weekly blog at worshipontheway.wordpress.com and frequent articles for digital and print platforms.
