Can There Be Peace In the Middle East

Recent events in the Middle East have led many to wonder whether there can be any framework for peace between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly made controversial statements questioning the Holocaust, and criticized European laws against Holocaust denial. According to numerous media reports, he stated that "they have invented a myth that Jews were massacred."

In July, Hezbollah para-military forces fired rockets and mortars into Israel resulting in the death of eight Israeli soldiers. Another Hezbollah unit crossed the border and seized two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded with massive air strikes killing over a thousand people, mostly Lebanese civilians, and displacing nearly one million Lebanese citizens. At the end of July, Israeli air strikes hit an apartment building in Qana. Human Rights Watch later confirmed that at least 28 died, of which 16 were children, with 13 more still missing.

The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians continues unabated. The Palestinians interpreted Ariel Sharon's visit to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (accompanied by a thousand police officers) as an act of extreme provocation. It became the event which sparked the second Intifada in which Palestinians took this to the streets in protest. These protests became more and more violent in the ensuing months with a series of suicide bombings.

Both Jews and Arabs can cite a laundry list of injustices suffered at the hands of the other side. Both have become so vividly identified with their own sufferings that they have become blinded to the very real pain suffered by the other. Indeed, it has become a litmus test of allegiance to one's own side to minimize, ignore, or distort the other side's pain and to deny the other side's right to exist as a nation.

Can Christians inside and outside of the Middle East play a role in bringing peace? We who follow the Prince of Peace must first publicly repent of our own complicity in the terrible tragedy that has befallen Jews and Muslims. Before the Christian church will have any credibility in speaking a word of reconciliation, the church must take the massive log out of our own eye. Only then will we see clearly enough to take the splinter out of the eyes of our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters.

Where shall we begin? Each church must examine its own history and ask forgiveness from Jews and Muslims for the crimes perpetuated against these two great peoples. Regarding the Jews, the Eastern Orthodox Church might declare a day of mourning and repentance for the numerous anti-Semitic statements by the fourth century patriarch John Chrysostom, who among other things, said this about the Jews: The Jews are the most worthless of all men - they are lecherous, greedy, rapacious - they worship the devil, their religion is a sickness…the Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance and the Jews must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews and whoever has intercourse with the Jews will be rejected on Judgment Day. It is incumbent upon all Christians to hate the Jews.

Lutherans could join in that day of mourning and repentance for statements made by Martin Luther in which he said: [We must] set their synagogues on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it…in order that God may see that we are Christians…their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed…they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds…their rabbis must be forbidden to teach under the threat of death.

And Roman Catholics could certainly join in mourning and repentance for their long history of anti-Semitism. Consider this statement by Thomas Aquinas: It would be perfectly licit to hold the Jews, because of their crucifying the Lord, in perpetual servitude.

Of course, since the Holocaust, Jews have ceased to take the moral credibility of the church seriously. 90% of Germans before the war and in all probability, an even larger proportion of Poles, attended church weekly. Yet it is a tragic fact of history that many of these churchgoers participated in the extermination of European Jewry and very, very few raised a voice of protest or actually engaged in the rescue and protection of Jews.

And it would be fitting regarding this day of Christian repentance and mourning to confess and grieve over the church's treatment of Muslims for the past thousand years. Where shall we begin in our repentance regarding Muslims?

The Crusades wouldn't be a bad starting point. When Christian knights from Western Europe recaptured Jerusalem from the Muslims, they massacred the entire population of the city, both Muslims and Jews. Muslims were burned alive in mosques during the retaking of the Holy Land.

More recently, the world stood by silently as tens of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered by Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians in the former Yugoslavia. Following 9/11, Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians showed remarkable insensitivity to Muslim sensibilities, almost going out of their way to offend and provoke Muslims. Thus, Franklin Graham said: "I believe Islam is a very evil and wicked religion." Benny Hinn said, concerning the Palestinian/Israeli conflict: "We are on God's side. This is not a war between Arabs and Jews. It is a war between God and the devil." Jerry Falwell called the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, a "terrorist" on CBS's 60 Minutes. Pat Robertson said that Islam is "a monumental scam," and claimed the prophet Muhammad was "an absolutely wild-eyed fanatic…a robber and brigand…a killer." And, of course, Christian Zionists refuse to acknowledge that Palestinians have any legitimate claim to any part of the Holy Land thus eliminating their role as impartial mediators of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Following repentance, we Christians must reject a false interpretation of the ancient promises made by God to Abraham. It is simply not the case that the promises made to Abraham implies the biblical right of Jews to control the entirety of the Holy Land in the 21st century. God's gift of the land to Abraham, according to the Old and New Testaments, was made with a view of God revealing himself eventually to the whole human race. The gift of the land was not an end in itself, but a means of God extending his love to the ends of the earth (for more on this huge issue, see Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Crisis Over Israel and Palestine by Colin Chapman). It is entirely biblical to promote a two-sided partition of the Holy Land, with Jews and Muslims living side-by-side in peace.

We Christians must renounce the unwise view that more weapons and a greater military buildup in the Middle East will somehow bring peace to that region.

We Christians must humbly invite Jews and Muslims to acknowledge the suffering and the pain each has caused the other. We must further encourage the view that the land belongs to God and not to the Jews or to the Muslims.

One of the most helpful perspectives on this conflict was offered by Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Christian priest. Father Ateek said this:

      The Palestinians need to become conscious of and       sensitive to the horror of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany's       attempt to exterminate the Jews. Granted the Holocaust       was not a Middle Eastern phenomenon, and the       Palestinians had nothing to do with it; nevertheless, we       need to understand the extent of the trauma for the       Jews…we as Palestinians have refused to accept, much       less to internalize, the horrible tragedy of the Holocaust.       We have resisted even acknowledging it, believing that we       have been subjected to our own Holocaust at the hands of       the Jews. As we adopt a new attitude vis-a-vis the       Holocaust…we may candidly acknowledge that the only       justification that the Palestinians will accept for the       creation of a Jewish State in Palestine is the Holocaust. It       was the Holocaust and only the Holocaust that       necessitated a home for the Jews. The Palestinians have to       come to accept giving the Jews the best part of Palestine       (Western Palestine), not because they had any right to it,       not because of the Balfour Declaration, and not even       because of anti-Semitism, but because of the Holocaust.

Father Ateek went on to address the Jews saying:

      Jews in Israel must approach the Palestinians saying: "We       are sorry that we came to you with arrogance and a feeling       of superiority. We came with good and not so good       reasons. But we are now here in the land. Forgive us for       the wrong and the injustice that we have caused you. We       took part of your country. We ignored you. We pretended       that you did not exist, or even worse, that you did not       matter. We stereotyped you, convincing others that you       are all terrorists. We have refused to recognize that you       have any rights, while we have insisted that you should       recognize and legitimate our right to your land. We have       insisted and convinced the United States and others to       insist that you recognize our claim to your land. We have       wronged you. Your own country of Palestine used to be our       country 2000 years ago. We still have many cherished       historic memories that keep pulling us to it. It is 'our Holy       Land' too, our 'Promised Land' also. But there is room for       both of us here, both Jews and Arabs."

Is there any hope for peace in the Middle East? I believe there is. But the conditions for peace have plainly been laid out by the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Messiah. There can be no peace until individuals, religions and nations are willing to acknowledge not only their own pain and their own injustices suffered, but the pain and injustice suffered by their enemies, as well as the pain and suffering perpetuated at our own hands. A willingness to acknowledge the pain of the other is the first step towards creating a just and lasting peace.