For the first time, there are ministers in the government of Israel who live in the so-called West Bank, believing that this territory belongs to Israel and that it is given them by God.
Photo:Avi Ohayon (GPO)
Christian Zionism has traditionally been based on God's promises for Israel found in the Bible. Because of this, Christians may have a special need to understand the great shift that has taken place in Israel with this newly appointed government.
Let's have a look why this idea is so radical among the Jews.
The first thing to understand is that the mainstream Jewish Zionism was not built upon the promises of the Bible. For example, in Theodor Herzl's book ”Der Judenstaat”, The State of the Jews, God was not mentioned even a single time.
Photo: National Photo Collection of Israel, GPO
Herzl organized the first Zionist Congress in 1897, a year after the book was published. The goal was to rebuild a national home for the Jews, but the ancient homeland of the Jews was only one option for its location.
50 years later the State of Israel was born. In accordance with the Zionist ideas of Herzl, neither God nor the promises of the Bible were part of the Declaration of Independence.
On the other hand, mainstream Judaism as a religion did not include the State of Israel on its agenda. Many religious Jews didn't accept Zionism even after Israel was established in 1948, because it did not fit to their religious concept.
A fresh example of this is a statement made by rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt in his commentary published in Jerusalem Post 30th December 2022. Rabbi Goldschmidt is the president of the Conference of Rabbis of Europe and the former chief rabbi of Moscow.
”...religion is an exercise between the human being and one's Creator, and not between the state and its citizens.”
However, there have always been Jews who have seen the land of Israel as an inheritance given to them by God. For them, the Promised Land is part of life with God. These Jews are called religious Zionists, to whom rabbi Goldschmidt's quote was also addressed.
Up to these days the religious Zionists have represented a marginal group in the political spectrum of Israel. But in the end of 2022, two ministers who are religious Zionists and live in Judea and Samaria were appointed to the Government of Israel. They also have portfolios fitting their faith.
In Israel this is a huge thing. It rock's the boat in Israel and abroad too. Media tries to stay onboard by repeating that ”they are using the biblical names of the West Bank, Judea and Samaria.”
What, then, did God promise in the Bible concerning the land?
The first promise God gave to Abraham when he entered the land.
”Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, 'I will give this land to your offspring.' So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.” Gen. 12:6-7
Later, God confirmed this promise to Jacob.
”I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.” Gen. 28:13
If you put on the map all the promises God gave to Abraham and Jacob about the land, you will notice that each of them was given in the area called today the West Bank - or Judea and Samaria.
Shechem, where God made the first promise of the land, is today called Nablus.
Later, God gave Abraham two promises about the land down in Hebron.
The above mentioned promise to Jacob God spoke in Bethel, close by where Ramallah lies today, a bit north from Jerusalem.
So, if some area according to the Bible belongs to Jacob's descendants, it is the so-called West Bank.
What will happen if this Israeli government takes these God given promises seriously?
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