Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace

By Jan Markell 
February 26, 2013 
Reblogged from: www.olivetreeviews.org

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We are nearing the second anniversary of a terrible event -- the killing of many members of the Fogel family in Israel by Palestinian terrorists. The intruders were unmerciful, going from room to room in their act of evil, thankfully overlooking two small children. A third was out for the evening but had to return to the scene.   

Subsequently, after their capture, the two terrorists expressed no remorse for their actions, saying that had they known that two other children had been sleeping in the Fogel home at the time, they would have murdered them as well.

Many Palestinians reacted with sheer joy to news of the massacre, handing out sweets in the streets of Rafah to passersby as though their team had just won the World Cup. And a poll taken shortly afterwards found that a whopping 32%  of Palestinians said they supported this despicable act of murder.

  

But let's be frank: All of these folks are in need of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. And while Newt Gingrich's history of the Palestinians as an "invented people" is more right than wrong, no Bible-believing Christian wants to see them suffer as they are, although it is at the hands of their own leadership and not the Israelis.

Enter Wheaton College's Gary Burge and Christianity Today magazine. Recently Christianity Today, the prominent evangelical journal that has been leaning Left for years, spotlighted the, "Top 5 Books on Israel & Palestine," as asserted by Gary Burge.

Burge is a crusader for trying to shift evangelicals away from their typically pro-Israel stance.  All five books naturally tout a pro-Palestinian perspective to varying degrees. It would have been right and honorable to feature a pro-Israel book as well but that likely found no favor. Should the magazine be titled Christianity Astray with it's Left-leaning agenda of the last 20 years?

Let's consider two of the featured books:

  

On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend by Timothy Weber, explains "why America and its evangelical communities are so ardently pro-Israel." He is not even subtle. The fact that evangelicals stand with Israel has apocalyptic overtones! It smacks of Armageddon! It would be nice if Burge and Christianity Today would insert that evangelicals are Israel's ONLY friend. The torment of the Jewish state by the Obama administration has just begun. And that will truly lead to the real, biblical Armageddon! 

Another book reviewed is Colin Chapman's Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Crisis over Israel and Palestine. Chapman parrots the new party line claiming that Islamic Fundamentalism is a carbon copy of Jewish Fundamentalism, blaming the Jews, yet again, for everything.   

  

He says, "I have to say that I think I can understand what motivates a person to be a suicide bomber. If my situation were intolerable and couldn't get any worse, and if my religious teachers told me that by blowing myself up and killing some of the enemy in the process I would be guaranteed instant access to Paradise, I might think seriously about going down that road." 

Thanks to Gary Burge's leadership, Wheaton is headed down the same rocky road that my alma mater is, Bethel University. I attended their seminar in September with the most visible pro-Palestinian advocate, Lynne Hybels, making tragic false claims about the "ongoing Middle East conflict."

Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy says, "Burge's book selection for Christianity Today asserts his overall narrative of Israel as an imperialist intrusion on indigenous Palestinians, for which America and especially America's pro-Israel evangelicals are especially culpable.  By telling stories of victim-hood by Palestinians, especially the tiny Christian minority, Burge hopes to influence evangelicals towards neutrality or, better yet, pro-Palestinian advocacy."

Tooley concludes, "Burge and fellow Evangelical Left anti-Israel crusaders, of course, assume that Israeli intransigence is the primary blockage to peace. But what if Israel unilaterally withdrew to its pre-1967 borders, abandoned Jerusalem, and allowed an unlimited right of return for all Palestinians claiming descent from original Palestinian residents in what is now Israel?  Would these unilateral concessions completely appease most Palestinians? Or would they not feed thirsts for even greater victory, to include the eradication of Israel as a Jewish nation?"

And none of these outfits or individuals, not Gary Burge, Wheaton College, Bethel University, Colin Chapman, Timothy Weber, Lynn Hybels, or Christianity Today, wants to reference the Fogel family. That is my point. Only the "brutality" of the Israelis is on their mind. The blame game in the Middle East drama always has their villains out of sync. They're usually Jews and evangelical Christians.

The Palestinians do not wish to live in peace with Israel. They have had ample opportunity to do so, but have rejected every offer, even the most generous.  

It's time for their defenders to do a reality check.