What's upset me most about this whole, horrible war between Israel and Hamas has been your response. You claim to be Bible-believing, except when it comes to what the Bible says about Israel. You claim to be godly, but on the topic of Israel you are worldly. Since the invasion of Israel by Hamas on October 7th 2023, a beautiful old friend of mine has assured me that she trusts the ABC to report the conflict, and I fancy that my many Christian friends who lay the blame for Palestinian suffering at Israel's door, do too.
But the ABC and SBS have proved themselves as effective propaganda machines as the media of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Their narrative from the beginning has been that Israel is always the aggressor and the Palestinians are always the victims and they will neither publish nor give air time to alternate points of view. I've read dozens of war books that tell the same story of carnage as On Democracies and Death Cults by Douglas Murray and he contradicts our Australian media as effectively as light dispels the darkness. It seems to me that he gives a straightforward account of the conflict based on his observations and witness statements.
I admire his composure. Perhaps it's my Yugoslav genes, but I cannot remain calm while reading about the violence of Hamas towards their own people. The Balkans, after all, is the home of conflict and holds revenge as a sacred duty.
So, Australian Christians, you can discuss who's to blame for the casualties in Gaza or who owns the land until the cows come home but, if you claim to believe the Bible, then you must first address the following points.
Israel is part of God's plan for the salvation of the world. Jesus himself said that salvation is through the Jews (John 4: 22) and their involvement is ongoing. Jesus was born 'to be a light for revelation to the gentiles and glory to [his] people Israel. [He was] destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel ( Luke 2:32 and 34)'. He remains the Lion of Judah (Rev 5:5) and cannot be separated from his Jewish roots. Romans 11, furthermore, reminds Christians that Israel is the root onto which they are grafted and not merely one of the world's three monotheistic religions, as we so often hear. God promised to restore Israel to His land not once (Ezekiel 36) but twice (Isaiah 11:11) and to watch over her like a shepherd (Jeremiah 31:10).This is why every foreign army that has tried to conquer Israel in modern times has failed, despite overwhelming superiority in numbers and arms. In 1948 'the leaders of the Arab nations publicly declared their intention to annihilate the newborn Jewish state and to sweep the Jews into the sea' (1). The defeat that followed, of 50 million Arabs by just 650,000 Jews, should stand as a warning to Christians to choose carefully which side they are on today, the Australian media's side or God's, the ones that curse Israel or those who bless it (Genesis 12:3).
Despite the clarity of the 1948 Arab warning and despite what Ayaan Hirsi Ali has so succinctly expressed - that, if you believe Mohammed and the Koran, the State of Israel cannot be allowed to exist - Douglas Murray relates how the Western world has come to support a new version of antisemitism churned out by the propaganda moguls of Qatar, Al Jazeera and their fellow jihadists, and the settler colonial theory created by Beirut intellectuals in the 1920's. The Palestine Liberation Organization even became fashionable amongst 'Western celebrities and intellectuals.'
'In 1977 the British-born, Oscar winning actress Vanessa Redgrave even made sure to have herself filmed dancing around a campfire with the PLO, waving a Kalashnikov rifle' (p145).
Thus, the West, purporting to be rational, looks askance at the very mention of Israel and supports instead a fictional Palestine that has never existed. The word Palestine was first used by the Greek historian Herodotus. Its meaning in Greek, 'composed of wrestlers', bears a striking resemblance to the Hebrew meaning of Israel, 'wrestles with God'. Being the bridge between Africa, Europe and Asia, Israel has been invaded countless times, and before the twentieth century was in a very degraded state with a small population of various ethnicities. It would take another article to discuss where much of the present Arab population has come from.
On Democracies and Death Cults has been a best seller. In the six months since it was published there have been 3936 ratings and 466 reviews on Goodreads alone, yet no major newspaper has reviewed it, and we have already established why. Murray's observation about Hamas and not Israel being the tormentor of the Palestinians doesn't fit their narrative.
What does Murray tell Christians about how Hamas, who were elected into government in 2006, cares for its citizens?
'In the 140 square miles of Gaza, Hamas spent its years in power constructing over 350 miles of tunnels, with around 6000 different tunnel entrances. Many of these were hidden in civilians houses, mosques, hospitals and other non-military buildings...By two months into the war, [the] estimate was that somewhere between every two or three civilian homes in Gaza had military weapons including AK-47's, grenades, and rocket launchers, or tunnel entrances in them.' (pp172/3)
'Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was asked whether ordinary Gazan civilians would be able to shelter in the tunnels. "These tunnels", he explained, "are meant to protect us from the aeroplanes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels. " Besides, he went on, the lives of the people of Gaza were the responsibility of the UN, not Hamas.' (p229)
'A month after [the October 7th massacre], in the second week of the Israeli ground operation,' Murray visited Gaza. 'At this point in the conflict, the Israelis had set up a border between the north and south of the Gaza Strip. They had messaged the civilian population of the north...telling them to make their way south... Just a day earlier, video had emerged from up the highway where the road was strewn with the bodies of Gazan civilians shot by Hamas for trying to make their way south.' (p109/10)
But that's not what upsets me the most, because it is the usual sad circus of power, corruption and war. The most dismay I feel at Hamas is for teaching pre-schoolers to hate and taking children on summer camps to learn how to kill Jews.'By the start of the 2023 war the international community had made every Hamas leader into a billionaire. By then Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashal were estimated to have a combined worth of some $11 billion. While claiming that their people were living in a poverty-stricken concentration camp, these leaders lived in luxury hotels and penthouses in Qatar.' (p169)
Now you may scoff all you like, but what sense does it make for Christians to ignore the Bible and believe instead a media who have declared from the start that they will only publish a false narrative?
Oh, and Mr Murray, concerning Death Cults, here's a Bible verse for your book, Isaiah 28:17-18, 'I will sweep away the refuge of lies...your covenant with death will be annulled and your agreement with the place of the dead will not stand.'
References
1. Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, Derek Prince 1973 Whitaker House.
2. The Anguish of the Jews, Edward Flannery 1965 Paulist Press.
3. Appointment in Jerusalem, Derek Prince for Lydia Prince. 1975 Whitaker House.
