Was Israel a Mistake

In the article “Was Israel a Mistake?” Books & Culture, January/February 2007, pages 36-37, Paul Merkley reviews three recent books on the relationship between Christians and the new state of Israel, Cross on the Star of David: The Christian World in Israel’s Foreign Policy, by Uri Baialer, Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon, by Stephen Sizer, and Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter. The first book is based on serious historical research that lays a solid foundation for future works, while the last two books take an anti-Israel stance and are based more on polemics than serious historical research.

According to Merkley, in Christian Zionism, Sizer brands all Christian supporters of Israel as mindless dispensationalists. His book is poorly researched and too polemical to be taken seriously. Jimmy Carter’s book is also one-sided and sounds like he is still sour about the failure of the Camp David Accords. Carter focuses only on Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians as if there were no provocations made by them at all. He is also naïve to think that peace will come to the Middle East if both sides just play nice and agree to just borders.

Here is Merkley’s conclusion:

But this is not the frame of mind of the people who so recently elected Hamas to be their government, and who consistently tell the pollsters, by whacking great margins, that there will never be peace until Israel ceases to exist. The Palestinians are never going to embrace this healthy attitude so long as international voices with the prestige of Jimmy Carter keep up their unrelenting assault on Israel's right to life.

You can read the article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/001/12.36.html

Coffins on Their Shoulders

Gary M. Burge, in his article “Coffins on Their Shoulders” in Books & Culture, January/February 2007, pages 34-35, reviews two books on the Arab-Israeli tragedy, Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, by Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Coffins on Their Shoulders: The Experience of Palestinian Citizens of Israel, by Dan Rabinowitz and Khawla Abu-Baker. Both books give a personal and intense look at the pain and suffering in Israel.

This topic is very volatile and generates more heat than light. Most books are either pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian with nothing in between. It is hard to write a balanced and fair account of what is happening in the Middle East, but these two books break new ground in attempting to do just that. Read this article for its personal histories and extensive impartial research in order to gain a more balanced view of what is happening in Israel today.

Read the article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/001/11.34.html