A People We Love…to Hate


"Therefore, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, 'It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name…Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,' declares the Lord God, 'when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:22, 24).

When asked by CNN recently, why he declined the invitation to join the Israeli delegation to the Aqaba peace summit, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he had serious reservations about Palestinian readiness to implement the 'road map' and to accept Israel as a Jewish state. "We've been down this road before," said Netanyahu. "Until the Palestinians teach their children to accept Israel; until they actually go out and arrest, and even fight terrorists; and until they drop the right of return, this will remain a 'flowery path' we've been down before."

Can autonomous Palestinian and Jewish states ever expect to live side by side in peace? A decade ago, under the Oslo accords, the Palestinians pledged to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Then too, land was to be "traded" for peace—but Palestinian attacks never ceased. Yet the provisions of the "new" road map attempt to satisfy the same objectives as the disastrous Oslo deal. While I want to be optimistic, why does anyone expect a different outcome with this latest initiative?

A better question would be, “what would it take for Muslim nations to repent of their religiously inspired passion to destroy the state of Israel?” The so-called “Palestinians,” are really a mixture of migrant émigrés from nomadic Arab descendants, Egypt and Jordan. Consequently, history suggests it’s improbable that the Arabs will be able to undo the influence of a religion that is the extension of Ishmael and Esau's 4,000-year-old hatred of Isaac and Jacob—the forefathers of the Arabs and the Israelis.

Still it begs the question, what is the crux of the issue that generates such animosity between these ancient cultures? Moreover, what accounts for the historic persecution of the Jews, and the rise of anti-Semitism throughout Europe we see today? As a culture, the Jews are some of the most talented, resourceful and civil people who have ever inhabited the planet. Their contributions to mankind in the areas of law, the sciences and the arts, permeate Western culture.

Yet even within sects of Christendom—among believers that acknowledge a common spiritual heritage with Judaism, the Jewish people remain convenient “scapegoats.” While rightly preaching Christ as the fulfillment of the (Torah) Law and the prophets, they also ascribe the Biblical promises made to Israel unto their selves, ex post facto. Based on allegorical interpretation of Scripture, this “replacement theology” fails to discern the distinctions between the irrevocable promises made to Israel and those made to the Church.

But the Jews take it all in stride. This a people that has overcome: slavery in Egypt, conquest by the Greeks and Romans, the inquisition in Spain, the pogroms in Russia, the holocaust in Hitler’s Germany, and multiple wars initiated by their Arab neighbors. Today the democratic state of Israel comprises only a fraction of its historic Davidic Empire, and what the UN sanctioned in ‘48 was 65% desert. Since then though, re-gathered Israel has literally made the desert bloom, as evidenced by their exports in agriculture and technology.

Is it possible there is a connection between their indestructible vitality as a people—against insurmountable odds, and the inexplicable loathing they receive from other nations? Hmm…maybe we should allow for the possibility that the Jews are in fact a “chosen people” of God (Isa. 44). Think about it. In a world that is repulsed by the suggestion that we really are accountable to a god other than ourselves—a world that heaps scorn upon the very idea of “one true God,” shouldn’t we expect His people would be hated as well?

Surely, God has wonderfully utilized His people Israel after all, for our good and His glory (Rom. 11). By way of His inscrutable design, one day all that was prophesied, from privilege to persecution to millennial predominance of the Jewish people—will evoke only our love for God and gratitude for His people Israel.

Roy Tanner