US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner, center, stands with US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien while speaking to journalists during a flight on an Israeli El Al plane to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Aug 31, 2020. (Nir Elias/Pool Photo via AP)
The veneer between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) relations masks the reality inside Modern-Israel’s backyard. Where do the Palestinians fit in the agreement? The Abraham Accords demand justice and equality. Any peace accord minus full reconciliation, including restitution, will inevitably collapse. The wounds will only temporarily be soothed, letting the disease to stealthily spread and eventually erupt and explode again (*Chapter 5: Abraham – A Life without Borders; Sub-chapter 5.13: Toward a Beloved Community; Page 138; Kindle Locations 2764-2766).
“Impossible,” decry many Christians, “peace with Arabs … Muslims … our enemies? Sooner than later, with God’s help, we’re to slaughter them on the fields of Armageddon. Shouldn’t we be driving the Palestinians out from Israel, to purify and ethnically cleanse them out of God’s supra-national state for Jews-only, His Chosen?”
In his Op-Ed, ‘Pushing Palestinians Back to Armed Struggle,’ published by Haaretz, my friend, Sam Barbour, emphatically states:
“I have a surprise for [you]: we Palestinians are going nowhere.
The only difference will be that we will have nothing more to lose.“
Two major US military bases, ‘Israel’ and the ‘UAE,’ agree to establish ‘full normalization of relations.’ “We had no clue they had any abnormal relations,” says Hamid Dabashi in ‘How Israel-UAE Deal Obliterates the Illusion of Arab Unity.’ Is the strategic linkage between these two US military installations a ‘historic event’ as postured by President Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner?
Hamid Dabashi adds:
“We generally make a crucial distinction between Arab leaders and Arab peoples. The Arab Opinion Index, the single most reliable indicator of Arab public opinion, regularly reveals that Palestinian national liberation is at the forefront of Arabs’ concerns, from Morocco to Iraq.
‘Over three-quarters of the population of the Arab world agrees that the Palestinian cause concerns all Arabs, and not the Palestinians alone,’ the latest index notes.
Arabs are ruled by one gang of illegitimate rulers or another.
If people in Egypt, Morocco, or Iraq care about the Palestinian cause – as do people in Iran, Turkey, South Africa, Pakistan, and Mexico – then the factor of being an ‘Arab’ is no longer the issue.
Global solidarity is a far more crucial signifier.
What Palestinians have lost in the UAE, therefore, is the delusion of Arab solidarity with their cause – and that is a great thing to lose. To be sure, they have never bought into that delusion, but it is good to have it all in the open. What they have already gained is full, historic recognition of global solidarity with their just cause – far more precious than the delusion.
The Israel-UAE deal also exposes the banality of the ruling Zionist notion that an arrangement with a gaudy palace of sheiks is all they need to cover their thievery.
They have no control over the millions of Arabs and Muslims around the world. They detest Israel’s historic theft of Palestine and the unfathomable pain and suffering it has caused Palestinians.
Both the UAE and Israel, and any other ruling clan that may fathom to join them, are out of touch not just with millions of Arabs, but with humanity at large.
Israel has no way of selling its armed robbery of Palestine to any decent human being, let alone to nations that care deeply about their national liberations too.
Palestinian national liberation has widespread solidarity from Argentina to Mexico – where historian Ilan Pappé and I have been personal participant witnesses to it – and then across North America and deep into Europe, Asia, and Africa.“
Could the 70 million American Evangelicals with their 600+ million followers worldwide help liberate the Palestinians from their Israeli overlords? Yes! But many Christians must first unearth Armageddon. Then, all 22 Arab states and the rest of the world will follow suit to accept and recognize Israel-Palestine’s legitimacy.
Armageddon is more than the Mountain (Ar) of Megiddo, the fortress city, strategically placed at the base of the Carmel range of mountains, sentinel over the plain of Esdraelon and Valley of Jezreel, the historical battlefields of Israel. Armageddon resides in one’s heart. The spiritual Armageddon is the place where each person battles daily wars of good versus evil, against principalities and powers, not with the sword but with God’s Word.
Especially in Bible Belt America, Christians must seek God’s wisdom to snap out of their trance, their idolatry of Modern Israel. Today, 65 percent of the Israelis reject the prophetic ideals of Judaism. Christianity, a more perfect form of Judaism, upholds the prophetic standards as written in the New Covenant. Evangelicals must remind themselves to choose Christ over Modern Israel.
We need stability in the Region. If peace is possible there, it is possible everywhere (*Chapter 5: Abraham – A Life without Borders; Sub-chapter 5.15: A Redeemed Europe; Page 140; Kindle Locations 2819-2820). The entire world, including the 400 million Arabs surrounding Israel, notwithstanding, all 1.8 billion Muslims and all 2.2 billion Christians will inescapably and inevitably feast for peace in the Middle East.
We must find within us the courage to reach peace. We must seek from heaven the gift that is peace. If we ceaselessly pursue the laborious and grueling road toward reconciliation, often necessitating a tug of war with give-and-take, peace can spread like healing oils. And the wilderness becomes an orchard where justice prevails (*Chapter 5: Abraham – A Life without Borders; Sub-chapter 5.16: Respect, Honor, and Dignity; Page 141; Kindle Locations 2843-2845).
A clear majority on all sides of the Divide wants peace (*Introduction: Let’s Get Radical – Be Kind; Sub-section: Impotence Among Leaders; Page 20; Kindle Locations 238-239).
Peace is biblical.
Read more … ‘Pushing Palestinians Back to Armed Struggle.’
Read more … ‘How Israel-UAE Deal Obliterates the Illusion of Arab Unity.’
With Every Good Wish to You, I am,
Sincerely,
Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague
Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
*‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around a Golden Cal” (2nd Edition)
e-book version $ 3.33
Paperback $33.30
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