They [Israelis] have a common mistake, or misconception by which they fool themselves, assuming that Fatah accepts them and recognizes the right of their state to exist, and that it is Hamas alone that loathes them and does not recognize the right of this state to exist. They ignore the fact that this state, based on a fabricated [Zionist] enterprise, never had any shred of a right to exist.
Strange though it may seem, facsimiles of Sadeq’s declaration are showing up across the United States. At the “One State Conference” held in March at Harvard, anti-Israel academic elites and their acolytes declared Israel’s right to life null and void. Professor Susan M. Akram of Boston University’s School of Law articulated the essence of the hate fest:Israel’s claim of a state on the basis of exclusive and discriminatory rights to Jews [sic], has never been juridically recognized. In other words, the concept of the Jewish people as a national entity with extraterritorial claims has never been recognized under international law.
Closer to home for Zionist Christians were remarks made at the 2012 National Penn Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the bevy of radical speakers was the Reverend Grayland Hagler, a Protestant minister and firebrand activist known for rallying anti-Israel elements to “stand up together until we dismantle the State of Israel.” With such a predisposition to Israel’s destruction, it is not surprising he told a questioner, “One of the things I am constantly doing is trying to disengage Christians from Hebrew Scriptures.”Facts about Zionist ChristiansTechnically, anyone who believes God’s promises to the Jewish people are irrevocable is a biblical Zionist. Furthermore, there is no possibility that one can, as Rev. Hagler suggests, disengage the Hebrew Scriptures from the rest of the Bible. On the subject of the origin, sustenance, relevance, and future of the Jewish people, the Old and New Testaments compose a unit with unbreakable continuity—which is why Christian Zionists believe the following regarding Jewish rights:Biblical groundsIt is beyond dispute that, if you accept the integrity of biblical revelation, you cannot deny Israel’s central role in the scheme of things. When, for instance, God calls His promise of a land for the children of Abraham through Isaac “everlasting” (Gen. 17:7–8), He means everlasting. When He promises to bless those who bless Israel (12:1–3), He means precisely that. When He promises Israel will survive even under the most adverse circumstances (Ezek. 11:16–17; Rom. 11:2), there is no rational alternative for thinking otherwise.The Bible says the Jewish people would return to their ancient land and experience a national resurrection (Jer. 32:37–41); and, against all odds, that promise is now a reality. What God says, He means. And if these promises are reduced to allegories, myths, and old wives’ tales, faith collapses—and we are without hope.Historical contextTo argue, as revisionists do, that there has never been an appreciable Jewish presence in the Middle East, that there were no Jewish Temples on Mount Moriah, or that the Holocaust was a Jewish contrivance is hardly worthy of serious comment. The stones cry out, and their message certifies the facts of both Jewish and world history.Moral responsibilityIn view of centuries of dispersions and persecutions, deprivation, and slaughter, it is incomprehensible to argue the Jewish people do not have a right to their homeland. With at least 50 Muslim majority countries in the world, to rant against one Jewish country is beyond reprehensible; it is morally criminal.Legal ramificationsThose who love to hate Israel and congratulate themselves on motivating crusaders to dismantle the Jewish state’s so-called apartheid occupation forces have inoculated themselves with a heaping dose of willful ignorance. Israel is a legal member of the international community. Witness the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the San Remo Conference of 1920, the UN Partition Plan of 1947. Astonishingly, accusations that the Jewish people stole “Palestine,” a never-has-been national entity, carry more weight than the certified credentials of the Jewish state.Behind such twisted politics is a debilitating malignancy: anti-Semitism. Call Christian Zionists what you will, but they will never be associated with either hatred of the Jewish people or the Jewish right to the land of Israel.The writer is executive editor for The Friends of Israel.