Whose Promised Land? (5^th edition), by Colin Chapman.

Synopsis of chapter 3 – Crucial Issues Today

3.1 What about the occupation?

‘The central issue in the conflict since 1967 has remained Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.’

‘Israel has effectively created a kind of apartheid state.’

3.2 What have been the main subjects of dispute?

‘Refugees and the right of return: what is to be done with all those who became refugees in 1948?’

‘Borders: After 1967 what should be the border between Israel and any Palestinian state or entity that might be created?’

‘Jerusalem: Who should have the sovereignty over East Jerusalem – and especially over the Old City (including the Temple Mount)?’

3.3 What happened to the peace process?

‘The Oslo Accords [1993-5] did not attempt to deal with the most crucial issues – refugees, borders, and Jerusalem.’

‘The USA…has been too closely identified with one side in the conflict and has therefore been unable or unwilling to put sufficient pressure on Israel to honour its commitments.’

‘There was strong opposition to the agreement both among Jews and Palestinians.’

3.4 Zionism or Zionisms?

‘Herzl [1896] argued that Jews must not only think of themselves as ‘a people’ but as ‘a nation’; and, in the thinking of late nineteenth-century Europe, ‘a nation’ required ‘a state’’

‘After the victory of the Six Day War, those who wanted to withdraw from the West Bank were outvoted by those who were determined to hold on to it. The hard-line approaches of Sharon and Netanyahu have prevailed over those who wanted to be more conciliatory. Israel’s governments in recent years have therefore moved further and further to the right.’

‘After the victory of the Six Day War, those who wanted to withdraw from the West Bank were outvoted by those who were determined to hold on to it. The hard-line approaches of Sharon and Netanyahu have prevailed over those who wanted to be more conciliatory. Israel’s governments in recent years have therefore moved further and further to the right.’

Critique from within.  Buber: ‘what nation will allow itself to be demoted from the position of majority to that of minority without a fight?’

3.5 Can Israel be both a Jewish state and democratic?

‘In March 2019 Netanyahu declared: ‘Israel is not a state of all its citizens… [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and only them.’’

‘Or else Israel can keep control of the Occupied territories but get rid of the overwhelming majority of the Arab population: either by forcible expulsion or else by starving them of land and livelihood, leaving them no option but to go into exile. In this way Israel could indeed remain both Jewish and at least formally democratic: but at the cost of becoming the first modern democracy to conduct full-scale ethnic cleansing as a state project, something which would condemn Israel forever to the status of an outlaw state, an international pariah.’

3.6 How important is Israel in the conflict?

‘By the middle of the twentieth century the Israeli–Palestinian conflict had become the Israeli–Arab conflict. In more recent decades it has become the Israeli–Islamic conflict.’

‘Many Muslims have described their opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel in terms of jihad, which, among other things, means the obligation for all Muslims to strive for the spread of Islam.’

‘Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood as a response to the First Intifada in 1987, offering a strongly Islamic basis for its resistance to Israel as an alternative to the more secular nationalism of Fatah.’

3.7 Is anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel always anti-Semitic?

‘Some Jewish commentators like Melanie Phillips sense that there must be some kind of anti-Semitism that underlies any criticism of Israel.’ [???]

Tony Higton: ‘Why do Iran and other groups want to destroy Israel completely? The answer is that God has a special purpose for the Jewish people and the devil is working overtime to hinder it. Many Christians believe God has finished with the Jewish people and replaced them with the church (Replacement Theology). But that is contrary to the teaching of the New Testament.’

‘It is undeniable that some of the criticism of Israel since 7 October 2023 has been inspired by anti-Semitism.’

‘Anti-Zionists have wanted to question the basic conviction of all the different varieties of Zionism – that the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people required the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.’

‘Accusations of anti-Semitism are often being used today to silence debate. When any criticism of Israel is described as being anti-Semitic, it is assumed that it can easily be dismissed and that there is no need to respond to the criticism.’

3.8 What is the background to the events of 7^th October 2023?

‘The Gaza Strip became a separate entity at the time of the Nakba in 1948. The majority of its population consisted of Palestinian refugees who had been driven from their homes in what became the state of Israel. During this time, it was under Egyptian control.’

‘Israel’s first occupation of the Gaza Strip began during the Suez crisis in November 1956, and lasted four months until March 1957.’

‘Israel’s second occupation of the Gaza Strip began during the Six Day War in June 1967 and lasted until 2005.’

‘Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005 was a tactical move intended to weaken Palestinian resistance and consolidate Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.’

‘The occupation has been described by Shlaim as ‘the most protracted and brutal military occupation of modern times.’’

‘Hamas has never given up its commitment to armed resistance.’

‘The attack on 7 October 2023 was the most devastating attack which Hamas had launched, and convinced Israel that it would not tolerate any further attacks of any kind and must therefore destroy Hamas.’

‘When Hamas took complete control of Gaza in June 2007 in order to pre-empt a challenge from Fatah (supported by Israel and the US), Israel blockaded Gaza, and western powers refused to recognize Hamas’s victory.’

‘Israel, the USA and the EU responded by demanding that Hamas must (1) renounce violence, (2) recognize the state of Israel, and (3) respect previous agreements. When Hamas refused to make these commitments, the USA and EU refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Hamas government.’

‘Amos Yadlin, told American diplomats in Tel Aviv that ‘Israel is pleased to see Hamas take control of Gaza, which will permit us to treat it as hostile territory.’’

‘Israel has engaged in at least six major military incursions into Gaza since 2007 in response to terrorist attacks and rocket attacks sent into Israel’

[Following an incursion in 2000] ‘A report produced by the UN Human Rights Council claimed that both sides had been guilty of war crimes, but that Israel had engaged in ‘a deliberate and disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.’.

‘The fundamental reason behind Hamas’s attack on October 7 – the most extensive attack ever launched on Israel – was its refusal to accept Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and its blockade of Gaza.’

‘Hamas was protesting against an occupation which it (and many governments in the world) regard as illegal in international law, and against the stifling blockade which has made Gaza ‘the largest open-air prison in the world’.’

3.9 Why do Christians have such different responses to Zionism and Israel?

‘It is estimated that anything between 30 million and 70 million Christians in the USA are strong supporters of Israel – not just because of their political views but because of the way they interpret the Bible. It’s also estimated that more than 50 per cent of evangelical Christians worldwide, even though they hold a wide variety of political views, base their support for Israel on their interpretation of the Bible. All of these Christians could be described as ‘Christian Zionists’ since their support for Zionism is based on certain Christian convictions.’

Three approaches:

(a) ‘The creation of Israel should be seen as the fulfilment of biblical promises and prophecies.’ (Restorationism and Dispensationalism)

‘Although Jesus as the Messiah is the fulfilment of all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, the promises and prophecies about the land and about biblical Israel remain the same even after his coming, and need to be interpreted literally. Because of the promise to Abraham, therefore, the Jewish people have a special, divine right to the land for all times. And even if the prophecies about a return to the land were fulfilled in a limited way in the return from the exile in Babylon in 539 bc, they have been fulfilled once again in recent history in the return of Jews to the land since the 1880s, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the capture of East Jerusalem in 1967. These events are signs pointing to the second coming.’

(b) ‘The creation of Israel should not be seen as a fulfilment of biblical prophecies and promises; there are other ways to use the Bible to understand the history.’ (Covenant Theology)

‘Because Old Testament promises and prophecies (including those about the land and about biblical Israel) have been fulfilled in the coming of the kingdom in Jesus, the return of Jews to the land and the establishment of the State of Israel have taken place under the sovereignty of God, but have no special theological significance.’

(c) ‘Let’s get away from the debate about the fulfilment of biblical promises and prophecy and see the general principles about justice and peace which are taught in the Bible.’

12/12/2025