For an antonym of peace, look at the land of the Prince of Peace. Hardly a
place on earth exists where convulsive conflict rules more than in Palestine,
the land that is now home of Israel and the Israeli occupied land of the Palestinians.
For an antonym of peace, look at the land of the Prince of Peace. Hardly a
place on earth exists where convulsive conflict rules more than in Palestine,
the land that is now home of Israel and the Israeli occupied land of the Palestinians.
The Land of the Bible is filled with the stuff of ongoing, intense conflict
– two distinctly different cultures, two languages, two religions, two heritages,
two worldviews in one land to which both claim divine right. Millions of people
on both sides are packed into a land less than 300 miles long and about 70 miles
wide at its broadest point – much of the land too arid to sustain life. Within
these very limited borders rest the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity and
two of the holiest sites of Islam.
The intensity of the two groups living in such a small area puts more and more
pressure on the volatile situation. The only questions become how much will
the pressure build before conflict erupts, where will it erupt and how destructive
will it be? Right now, the conflict and destruction are as intense as they have
been for years and at more places.
While the Palestinians are overwhelmingly outgunned militarily, they have demonstrated
their willingness to strike at Israel in whatever way possible, including terrorists
acts of suicide bombings.
The conflict in Israel is not only strategic within itself, it has far greater
implications on the world stage. The United States has tied itself closely to
Israel, and it is the United States closest ally in the Middle East. Israel,
because of heavy immigration from Western Europe and the United States and Canada
in its formative years, is far more Western than Middle Eastern. Presently,
the United States supports Israel in total aid of about $3 billion a year.
The Palestinians as Moslem Arabs are closely tied to the other Arab countries.
Actually, Israel is surrounded by Arab nations, most of whom claim land Israel
now occupies. These nations join with most other Arab nations who have, to this
point, refused to grant Israel the right to exist, regardless of what the United
Nations decreed.
One can understand why what happens in Israel is closely watched by the entire
world. Regardless of which side of the conflict a nation may stand, it stands
on a side that may quickly be engulfed in war.
Solutions to the conflict seem humanly impossible. The Jewish leadership does
not trust the Palestinian leadership, and the Palestinian leadership does not
trust the Jewish leadership. A proposal for a solution that pleases one side
automatically displeases the other side. To this point, it seems the only peace
anyone has been able to broker there has involved paying both sides with United
States dollars to stop fighting. Money is running out of steam as a motivator.
Certainly, concerned Louisiana Baptists would serve the land of Palestine and
the world well to pray intently for peace to prevail in the land where the Prince
of Peace walked in human form. Regardless of ones theology about the place
of the nation of Israel in the return of Christ to earth, peace in Israel is
a primary concern to the world. Hopefully, every Louisiana Baptist congregation
will pray for peace in the land of Palestine and the nations locked in conflict
there. Peace in that region will take a miracle of God.
Interestingly, if peace comes to Israel, it will be through the power of Jesus
Christ whom Israel rejected, and still rejects, and whom Moslems accept only
as one of many prophets.