You have likely heard the phrase “two-state solution” about Palestine.
Believe it or not, there was a time when the United Nations declared that there should be two new states in Palestine. The UN announced that the Jews would have their own state, and the Arabs would have their own separate state. (An international body would oversee Jerusalem.)
To paraphrase, the Jews responded, “Great! Sounds good,” while the Arabs said, “No way!”
Let me unpack that a little. In 1947, the United Nations announced a plan to name a specific area in the Middle East for the Jews of the world to live in. Arabs would live in an adjoining section of land alongside the Jews. The UN would maintain international authority over Jerusalem. Remember that the United Nations—the world organization—made this declaration.
The Jews accepted the proposal. However, the plan did not go over well with a large group of Arabs in the Middle East, and they rebelled against it. The British had already declared they would pull out, and in 1948, they did.
On May 14, 1948, Israel declared their independence and established their new state. The next day, a consortium of Arabs, including those from the nations of Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, attacked these Jews.
Thousands of Arabs (they weren’t referred to as “Palestinians” yet) fled as the fight began. They did not want to get caught up in the backwash of war. They figured it would not take their compadres long to defeat the Jews. After a big win, they planned on returning and enjoying the spoils of victory. But, in a huge upset, Israel won.
That meant many of the Arabs of that region felt they could not return to their old homes. Since they had already rejected the UN plan for coexistence with the Jews, they scattered throughout the Arab world. Unfortunately, the surrounding Arabs did not want to take them in. So, these Arabs migrated from country to country over the following decades. They were political refugees from their own race.
Make no mistake, some of today’s Palestinians have ancestors who were militant rebels. They wanted to destroy Israel, take over their land, and return to the areas where they once lived. Jimmy Carter wrote that it was “all or nothing” with them. No compromise with Israel or the United Nations.
By the 1960s, most of this refugee population was living in Jordan. With the rise of the charismatic leader Yasser Arafat, they began to refer to themselves as Palestinians. This was a political move deployed to help this group accumulate power and overthrow the Israeli government. You can observe an example of their rebelliousness in an event in 1970. Palestinians living in Jordan tried to overthrow King Hussain’s government. Hussain’s forces prevailed, and the Palestinians had to flee.
Not all Palestinians have been rebellious revolutionaries. I have grave concerns about them. We always speak of the need for “justice” or “social justice,” and for good reason. The prophets of the Old Testament preached many times on this subject. One can spot Jesus’ heart for the oppressed throughout the gospels, especially in the book of Luke.
In many ways, other Arab groups have used the Palestinians and abused them. Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, the sultan of Oman, once said that “for years, Arab leaders had deliberately stoked the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to deflect attention from their own domestic shortcomings and to rally popular support…I feel badly for the Palestinian people; they carry with them the burden of the Muslim world.”
Two decades ago, Israel dedicated itself to pulling out of the Gaza Strip and leaving that land to the Palestinians. In 2007, the terrorist group Hamas emerged to gain control of the region and has held it ever since. As I wrote last week, they have continually seized money, food, and aid for their military purposes. As the New York Times has noted, they have built the most remarkable network of underground tunnels in history for their terrorist fighters.*
This comes at the expense of the civilian Palestinians, who have suffered tremendously in their everyday lives. Hamas has mistreated many civilian Palestinians like foster children in Ceaușescu’s Romanian orphanage. At the very best, they’re like spouses or children living in domestic abuse. And it will always, I believe, be this way.
This mindset has retarded the Palestinian cause of independence and self-government. Self-government would be difficult for these people made in the image of God. Again, the irony of ironies is that Israel is the safest (and, at this time—the most self-fulfilling) place for Palestinian civilians to live.
You have heard the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” chanted over the past few months. This is nothing more than a celebrated appeal to the destruction of Israel and all Jews. Nothing has united the Arab world like the shared hatred of the Jews. Unfortunately, in the United States and the West, a small but loud minority has made it known that they believe the same.
And to think, Hamas unleashed this spiritual hatred in their October 7 attack. It was the most animalistic and murderous rampage against Jews since the Holocaust. How is it possible that such evil against the Jews turned so many—to Hamas?
Next week, I want to write on the underlying spiritual issues confronting the Arabs. They can be a cautionary tale for us.
I’m Mark Edge. Thanks for reading.
Here are three background reading sources written over the past forty years for further reading. They represent the political spectrum:
The Blood of Abraham by Jimmy Carter
The Columbia History of the World (ironic, I know) 1989 version
Breaking History: A White House Memoir by Jared Kushner
Buy Mark’s new book Holy Chaos How To Walk with God in a Frenzied World here: