The Riddle of the Middle East Conflict
Look at the People, Understand the Plight, then Light a Few Candles of Hope.
In 1994 I took my first trip to the Holy Land. It was one of the most impactful experiences of my ministry and life. I saw firsthand that the land had a story of its own to tell. Some called it “The Fifth Gospel” because the arid deserts, coastal plains, high mountains, and plunging valleys told their own version of Salvation alongside the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
I saw the topography of the Bible’s account of God’s love for us and his plan for our salvation. Since then, I have visited Israel nearly 40 times, bringing fellow Christians on pilgrimages to see the holy sites, interact with local people, and try to understand the culture, the truth and hope of the Gospel, and the pernicious tensions in the land.
Over the nearly forty years of travel, I have tried to piece together a cogent understanding of the tensions felt by anyone visiting the Holy Land. The Israelis and the Palestinians are always at odds. It often doesn’t seem this way for the tourist/pilgrim — we interface with vendors, hoteliers, servers, and shopkeepers. These common everyday interchanges are done under the watchful eye of armed IDF soldiers who are close by. That is because the tensions are close by. As we saw on October 7th, the outbreak of war is always only a sunrise away.
Here in the United States, these troubles are cloaked in a mystery of history. Why can’t everyone get along? we wonder. Even when peace has been achieved in the past, it has always been an unsteady peace. Why? Why has it disintegrated into war or some lesser version of it (skirmish, suicide bombing, conflict, rocket exchange) repeatedly?
Remember the Roots of the Rage
This conflict in the region is not new at all. Winston Church spoke about the Palestine area in 1922. He said, “It is a riddle from the East out of which the cruelty and fanaticism of the Ages has not yet perished.” How right he was.
Let’s take a quick look at the history of the area going back to the early part of the last century.
In the early 20th century, when Palestine was under British control, it was inhabited by an Arab majority and a Jewish minority. However, Palestine (the area; there was no state or nation called Palestine) held deep significance for the Jewish people as an ancestral and spiritual homeland. Also, Zionism, which has a long timeline going back to the 16th century, arose as a movement calling for Jewish self-determination in the area.
Then, three forces converged on the land of Palestine in the last century. The Zionist movement called Jews back to their ancient homeland. The Palestinians remained unorganized as a nascent state but under the colonial rule of the British Empire. And worldwide violence against the Jews, particularly in Russia and Europe, brought vast numbers of Jews to Israel to find a home.
Some 40,000 Jews living in Russia fled persecution between 1904 and 1914, just before WWI. Violent clashes emerged in the 1920s and 1930s as Jews sought their own state and Palestinians sought independence from colonial rule. The urgent need for a Jewish homeland intensified after the Holocaust, strengthening international support for Zionism.
After the Second World War, it was clear to most Jews that they needed to have a home, a land, and a nation that was a self-governed, self-determined entity. Israel’s creation was largely motivated by the desire to create a homeland in the wake of the Holocaust and long-running anti-Semitism in other parts of the world.
Then, in 1947, the UN put forth a partition plan dividing Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. Jewish leaders accepted the compromise, while Palestinians rejected the proposal, arguing it unfairly gave most of the land to the Jewish state. When the British mandate ended in 1948, Israel declared independence, sparking an immediate war with surrounding Arab states and Palestinian nationalists.
As a result, 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled. They left their homes behind, and the homeless Jews moved in. To the persecuted Jews, they had found a home. To displaced Palestinians, their homes were seized as booty from the war. And their land was occupied.
No independent Palestinian state emerged from the 1948 war.
The 1970s saw the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat. Militant groups under the PLO umbrella launched attacks against Israeli targets in pursuit of Palestinian statehood. Israel denounced these as terrorist activities.
The Oslo Accords of the 1990s offered the first real glimmer of hope for peace, establishing Palestinian self-rule in parts of the territories under the new Palestinian Authority. But final status issues like borders, refugees, settlements, and Jerusalem remained unresolved.
Today, the West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation administered by the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas rulers in Gaza have misappropriated funds meant to alleviate poverty and ignorance. Instead, this military regime has forced its people to live with poverty, isolation, and recurrent war. Efforts at a two-state solution have stalled as both sides remain divided.
With entrenched positions on both sides, peace remains elusive.
An Echo of Our Native American Story
For Americans to understand this sad state of affairs, we need only to think about the plight of the Native Americans and the “reservations” across the United States. The similarities between the two groups of people — the Native Americans living on the reservations and the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank — are sadly similar. Both have experienced displacement from ancestral lands, military occupation of their territories, demographic shifts due to conflict, and a non-state status with limited self-governance.
The analogy is not perfect, but most know the history of the Native Americans to know it is a Trail of Tears. Mark Twain wrote, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” We can see it.
The exiled European Jews who sought self-determination after the Holocaust faced resistance from an indigenous Arab population also seeking independence from colonial rule. A confluence of world events lent urgency to the Zionist cause and enabled Israel’s founding. But in that process, the Palestinian story turned out to be one of displacement and occupation.
On all my trips, I have tried to open my heart to understand the humanity beneath the dividing lines. Most Israelis and Palestinians still desire the same basic things — security, freedom, and prosperity. However, now, the children and grandchildren of those who have borne this conflict’s costs live in its shadow, absorbing inherited prejudices. Another generation comes of age in Gaza never knowing freedom and without knowing their Palestinian neighbors except as enemies.
Light a Candle
It is the tendency of American Christians to read about this particular conflict with a Bible in one hand and a map in the other and propose an easy solution. And then call it biblical. Some say that the Bible gives the land to the Jews. Case closed. Some argue that since there was never a formal Palestinian state, it’s “finder’s keepers.” The Israelis won the race for statehood. Except the Palestinians have inhabited the land for centuries under Ottoman and British rule. Others look at end times prophecy, trying to fit puzzle pieces together to determine if this heralds the end times foretold in Revelation.
We must understand real people with real families are involved here. Simplistic religious justifications ignore the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians today — the poverty, exile, and despair bred by displacement. But still, the recent attacks on the Jewish people prove a point beyond question: Hamas is an evil organization that has brainwashed men to commit wicked unspeakable acts of violence. They must be eliminated.
A Christian ethic should uphold justice, mercy, and compassion for those suffering, not legalistic arguments and rigid eschatology used to justify oppression in the Holy Land. We must see the Palestinian plight through the eyes of Jesus, who preached good news to the poor and oppressed. A balanced solution affirming dignity and security for both peoples is challenging but badly needed.
Also damaging is the endless sloganeering on both sides.
- “Free Palestine” is an unrealistic demand chanted by ignorant people. It is not possible to free Palestine until Israel can secure a lasting peace. Doing otherwise would be suicidal for the Israelis. Freeing Palestine would unleash the horrors of October 7th again and again and again.
- “Stop the genocide” is inflammatory rhetoric — while Palestinian suffering is real, Israel is not systematically trying to eliminate it. The Israelis want to eliminate Hamas. We all should. But Hamas is not a race of people. It is not even a culture. It is a violent military organization that should be taken down. Palestinians are not all Hamas any more than Germans were all Nazis.
- “From the River to the Sea” advocates the exclusion of Jews, which is equally unethical. Israel is a recognized state with a right to exist, whatever its flaws.
Whenever people live in darkness, Christians should try to light candles to find a way forward. I can think of three candles of belief to light, three principles to adhere to.
- All human life is sacred. This applies to people of any ethnicity, whether Arab or Israeli, and of any religion, Muslim or Jewish.
- Hamas does not stand for all Palestinians. The vicious, barbaric actions of Hamas must be condemned, but they do not define the Palestinian people. Not all Palestinians support Hamas. However, Hamas leaders and fighters — estimated at around 50,000 men — must be stopped, whether by being killed or brought to trial.
- Israel has the right to eliminate Hamas. War brings all kinds of ethical dilemmas to the forefront. I believe that Israel has the right and the duty to eliminate Hamas, but they must do so and, at the same time, attempt to minimize civilian casualties. Palestinians who do not sympathize with Hamas should evacuate conflict zones for their own safety. If Gazan civilians choose to remain in harm’s way and are killed, the ethical responsibility for their lives is with Hamas.
Once the threat of Hamas is eliminated, Israel should work the international community to develop a treaty with the Palestinian people, granting them rights, freedom of movement, trade, and progress towards nationhood. This will likely take many decades, if not generations, to resolve fully. However, gradual reconciliation through ethical policies is the only viable path forward.
We must look beyond the darkness to see our common hopes for justice, security, and peace. And light candles of hope.
DAVID ROSEBERRY lives in North Dallas with his wife, Fran. David leads a non-profit ministry called LeaderWorks and consults and teaches church leaders nationwide. David has written many books that are available on Amazon. He has five children and five grandchildren.
