Orthodox Israeli settlers on West Bank territory tend to stress that
they have a God-given duty to drive the Palestinians out of all lands
west of the Jordan River. As proof for this claim, they tend to quote
from statements in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, such
as the Book of Numbers, chapter 33, verse 50 to 56. It states that God
told Moses and, through him, the people of Israel:
"When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you
shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and
destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images,
and demolish all their high places; and you shall take possession of
the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess
it. ... But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from
before you, those of them whom you let remain shall be as pricks in
your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the
land where you dwell. And I will do to you as I thought to do to them."
One of the many interpreters of this passage, Rabbi David Samson of
the Zionist Youth Movement, explains: "More than four thousand
years ago, long before George Bush got to the White House, God gave
a road map to the Jewish people. The borders of the Holy Land were established
and sealed by the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel--an
irrevocable constant which can never be changed." Another rabbi,
Yaacov Moshe Harlop, warns against signing any international agreement
"that includes any form of surrender of our rights to Eretz Yisrael.
... It is preferable for those signing to chop off their thumbs, rather
than to chop up the garden of Zion."
Yet, there are passages in the Torah that have a very different, distinctly
conciliatory ring. Leviticus 19, 34, for instance, admonishes the Hebrews
that "The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the
native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers
in the land of Egypt." "Depart from evil," says Psalm
34, 14, "and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Would that
apply to Israeli relations with Palestinians?
In the Talmud--a collection of Jewish laws and traditions--, the Book
of Principles states that "the sword comes to the world because
of perversion of justice." Rabbi Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus,
teaches: "Do not do unto others what you would find hateful if
done to you."
The history of Judaism is replete with tensions and clashes over the
meaning of its scriptures. The orthodox insist that Jews must obey every
word of the Talmud. Reformed Jews, however, base their essential faith
upon the Ten Commandments and the values that flow from them.
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, its first
constitution, promises equal rights and freedoms for every individual.
The modern State of Israel was conceived to be a secular state where
any clashes between religion and the government's laws have to be ultimately
resolved by Israel's Supreme Court. Nowhere does the constitution define
the country's borders or call for the expulsion of non-Jews.
Ignoring Israel's significant liberal tradition, however, Christian
Zionists in America have grown to be the strongest non-Jewish supporters
of Torah orthodoxy. Effectively lobbying Congress and the White House,
they demand the restoration to Israel of all land west of the Jordan.
They predict that, in the apocalyptic battle of Armageddon (Revelations
16, 16), Jesus will return to Jerusalem as king of the Jews who will
then either have to accept Jesus as their messiah or suffer eternal
damnation.
One wonders how comforting Israelis may find this message from American
Christians who claim to be their stalwart friends.