February 13, 2024
Over four months after Hamas murdered 1200 innocent Israeli civilians and took over 200 hostages inside the Gaza Strip, the current US administration is contemplating the idea of recognizing Palestine. Again, they are pushing for the “Two-State Solution” that Elliott Abrams of Tablet Magazine rightfully recently called the “Two-State Delusion.” These days, it seems that most of the world is asking for a Two-State solution, mostly with the hope that it would bring the Gaza War to an end. What are the requirements for Palestine to be recognized and for the region to be split into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state? Is that even possible?
• Palestinians must be a real people group: Prior to 1948, the Palestinian narrative was not much of a narrative at all. Those calling themselves Palestinians today were calling themselves Arabs back then, and for very good reasons–This is exactly who they were. The claim that Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanites is a false claim. The Canaanites, along with many other people groups, disappeared a long time ago. Today, Palestinians speak Arabic, not “Palestinian.” Their customs and traditions are Arab traditions, not “Palestinian.” Incidentally, the word Palestine (introduced by emperor Hadrian in the first century to humiliate the Jewish people) was never meant to describe anything but a land mass in the Middle East. It was hijacked by Yasir Arafat and repurposed over several decades to introduce a new politically charged narrative. Palestinian coins from decades prior to 1948 all have the two Hebrew letters aleph and yod (initials for Eretz Yisrael, meaning the land of Israel.) Palestine was nothing but a geographical description of the land of Israel. To be sure, Palestinians are real people with real needs, the first of those needs being a belief in Yeshua for their salvation. What they are not is an indigenous people from the land of Canaan, later known as Palestine and known today as the State of Israel. None of this is meant to devalue their worth as human beings in God’s eyes but simply to assess factual truth.
• Palestinians must want peace with Israel: Another elephant in the room is the ongoing desire from most Palestinians to eradicate all Israelis from Israel. I am not saying that all Palestinians have genocidal tendencies, but considering that Hamas does want all Jews dead and that 70% of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip voted for Hamas, one has to wonder what the real agenda is when peace is discussed. Incidentally, about 90% of all Palestinians want more moderate, US-backed Mahmoud Abbas to resign from being the leader of Fatah. While many describe him as a moderate, I question his political integrity simply from the fact that he is in the 19th year of a four-year term as leader of Fatah. As to his academic integrity, I question it even more, considering that his doctoral dissertation covered such topics as anti-Zionism and holocaust denial. Additionally, “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” doesn’t inspire peace but genocide- something that all millennials and GenZs around the world should know as they chant the motto of annihilation, thinking that they are promoting social justice.
• Palestinians must properly use funds sent to them for humanitarian reasons: Many countries of the world for decades have sent money to the Palestinian Authority for humanitarian relief. Almost all of the money allocated to Gaza was repurposed to build tunnels–some of those tunnels leading directly to the area of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. The recent discovery and exposure of UNRWA’s mishandling of funds and even participation in the attack could be a game changer. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency had already lost funding from sixteen countries in light of their involvement on October 7. It might only be 10% of the 12,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza who had ties to the terror attack, but that is still 1,200 people. Frankly, the numbers do not matter as much as the fact that this misuse of funds has probably taken place for a longer time than we realize. Not to mention how Hamas positions their weapons in mosques, hospitals and schools all over the Gaza Strip.
History has shown us that the desire for peaceful co-existence is more of a reality on the Israeli side than it is on the Palestinian side. The facts are here in spite of the media bias, the UN bias, the academic bias, and the Hollywood bias. There are a lot more Arabs in Israel today than there were prior to 1948, even though the “Palestinians” call May 14, 1948, the nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic. The other side of that coin is that there are still only 15,000.000 Jews around the world today when there were 18,000,000 before the Holocaust, also known as the “Shoah,” also meaning “catastrophe” in Hebrew. Which of these events was a real catastrophe? Let the numbers speak, not the media, and then you can decide when and where the crimes against humanity were committed.
It is impossible to come to a peaceful agreement of any sort when one side respects the sanctity of life of all human beings, and the other side worships death. For those who keep demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, let me remind you that there has been a ceasefire since 2005, when Hamas took full control, until October 6, 2023. That ceasefire was broken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis and took over 200 hostages. They created a monster that will be very hard to control because as much as the Israelis worked with Palestinians and tolerated a less-than-ideal status quo, the thin trust that existed between the two groups has now vanished. It is going to be a while before Israel trusts the “Palestinians” again, and this is mostly going to hurt the “Palestinians.” Based on these three criteria that appear far from being within reach, a Palestinian state seems very unlikely.
This being said, there will be peace in Israel one day. That is when Sar Shalom, “the Prince of Peace,” returns to reign in Jerusalem from the throne of King David. His name is Yeshua (Jesus), and only He has the power to make the two (Arabs and Jews) into one new man (Ephesians 2). Until then, we ought to do the best we can to introduce people to Yeshua and His message of salvation (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). He came 2,000 years ago to die for Jews, Arabs and the rest of humanity. He rose again and ascended to Heaven, and today, He awaits His return to take charge on Earth. All that one has to do is to believe in His atonement as a free gift and become part of God’s family. I have seen Jews and Arabs getting along in Yeshua; it is a beautiful sight, and it should really be one of our main focal points until He returns.