Please tell me everything you think about it and include some facts as well please, thank you!
I will try to ask this question everyday in various categories.
Thanks again for all the answers, I want to bring some REAL discussion about this between ALL sides.
I think discussion is the only way to move forward between all sides!
Please don't care if it is in the wrong category, just answer the question!
I will do no such thing as pick one category! The goal of this is to get EVERYONE'S opinions on this issue, not just the political people or the current events people. EVERYONE'S views must be heard!
Discussion in this sense means EVERYONE'S VIEWS ARE HEARD!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, where do I begin?
I suppose I should start with the King-Crane commission. This was an American study done in 1919 that indicated Middle Eastern countries wanted to have their own democracies. It also said that the Zionist movement would not succeed without excessive bloodshed.
Unfortunately, the King-Crane Comission was buried by the US government, and most of the Middle East was divided between the French and the British. In addition, European Jews were permitted to begin moving into the Palestine area.
Flash forward to the end of World War II. Approximately 6 million European Jews were murdered at the hands of the Nazis, and hundreds of thousands more were homeless, looking for a place to immigrate. Rather than welcoming these "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," the US encouraged the idea of a state of Israel and allowed these European Jews to move into this new refuge.
Tracking with me so far? :)
The European Jews entered the Palestinian area. But instead of coexisting peacefully, they took over and destroyed hundreds of villages, sometimes killing the entire population living there. Naturally, the Palestinians retalliated; they had been in possession of their land for thousands of years. In the end, Israel took over the majority of the Palestinians' land.
That's how this conflict all started. Today, there are 4.9 million Palestinian refugees (and their descendants) living throughout the world. And in the West Bank and Golan Heights, Israel continues to tear down Palestinian homes and build their own settlements without so much as a slap on the wrist from the UN.
Meanwhile, the US sends our highest amount of foreign aid to the state of Israel. We tolerate their mistreatment of Palestinians and occupation of land that is not theirs, funding their massive army and discriminatory practices against Palestinians.
Why? Three words: dispensational religious right. The Dispensationalists are Christians, generally conservative, who believe that the people of Israel are "God's chosen people," and that Israel must be a state for the "end times" to come about and Jesus to return. As a result, they not only fund Israel's growth, but respond very vocally when the US government so much as mentions Israel's wrongdoings.
But you were asking for my view :)
As an American Christian who has lived and studied in the Middle East, I am constantly frustrated by the Dispensationalist view of a region I hold dear to my heart. These people talk and talk about "reaching the world" and "praying for the persecuted church," failing to realize that a large percentage of Palestinians have been followers of Christianity since Jesus' day. Their churches and homes are being destroyed, yet the Dispensationalists would rather support the Israelis in their attempt to drive the Palestinians completely out of their "birthright."
I am not anti-Israel. I believe that they are still a hurting nation in need of help, though that help should sometimes include discipline. I simply question why we here in America can't question our undying support of all that Israel does. |
