My second trip to the Holy Land has confirmed that Israel is much more than antiquities. Today the Jewish State is a powerhouse with agriculture, industrial, technological, and military might. Gleaming office buildings, new apartments, bussing stores, fertile farmland, and booming tourism are the underpinnings of an impressive economy.
God has blessed Israel but like any nation Israel has its challenges. Of great concern for me is The Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The conflict involves multiple zones of struggle, including Israel itself, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula.
At the 1948 inception of the modern State of Israel the conflict was between Arab states and Israel. However, since the 1967 war, it gradually became a Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as Israel has made peace with its Arab neighbors.
Israel’s military incursion into Jenin, along with the responding Palestinian rock attacks and the car-ramming and stabbing in Tel Aviv has put the already stalled peace process back on hold.
With protest raging concerning the shape of Israel’s democracy coupled with the Prime Minister’s best attempts to remain the ultimate hawk let me outline just two of the many events that will make it impossible for the peace process to remain on hold.
First, The Times Of Israel reports that Jewish people make up less than 47 percent of all those living west of the Jordan River. Arab demographic growth in Israel will tip the scales making continued occupation impossible.
Second, The New York Times reports the collapsing draft model for the Israeli military is a challenge to Israel’s defenses as resentment grows for deferments to certain sectors of the Jewish population.
The talk is a colloquial expression for a conversation Black parents in the United States feel compelled to have with their children and teenagers about the dangers they face due to racism or unjust treatment from authority figures, law enforcement or other parties, and how to de-escalate them.
It is time for Israel to have the talk.
Yesterday we visited the Church of the Beatitudes located on a small hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee, it is said this is where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Saying “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”.
God has blessed Israel, no longer are the Jewish people a downtrodden minority with a bleak future. The State of Israel is in a position of strength. The ultimate hawk "Bibi" Netanyahu can use the strength of Israel to make the first and continued steps toward peace.
This will be hard, just as it is hard for some black people to seek peace with a nation that has made its business to do us wrong, but we must try again, and again and again. God does not always call his people to do easy things.
Today during our last full day in Israel God has chosen his chosen people to do the hard thing again and restart the peace process in the middle of a wave of attacks. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” For The State of Israel has been truly blessed.
For More Great Content Go To Marben Bland.com
