GN Commentary: January 5, 2009 - Arab-Israeli Conflict

God is in control of our destiny, and He has promised that Christ will return to end all this madness.

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Video Transcript

Walking through the airport lobby near Tel Aviv was a startling wake up call. It was June of 1972 and I had just stepped off the plane on my way to a summer's work on an archeological dig in Jerusalem.

Back home, only a week before, I had been glued to the story of how three Japanese Red Army terrorists had walked into the airport, unpacked their weapons and mowed down people, slaughtering 24 and injuring 78 more.

But actually standing in that lobby, seeing the bullet holes and envisioning the bloodletting that had occurred right there, drove reality home that this was a different world, one stoked by ancient hatred that keeps it hanging tenuously on the edge of life and death every day. As a young student on my first trip abroad, it began to register how real, and how dangerous, our absolute inability is to overcome our problems. Nationality and religion aside, as fellow human beings, these are indeed "our" problems, not "theirs."

Watching the Israelis and Palestinians once again break out in warfare in Gaza has, as it always does, resurrected these memories, and confirmed an old conclusion: that is nothing changes, except 37 years later, the hatreds are even deeper.

And watching world diplomats scramble between these bitter enemies, trying to contain the fires before they rage out of control, is like watching old reruns.

One Middle East politician assessed it this way:

"Everybody sees a difficulty in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is a gulf, and nothing can bridge it . . . . We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs."

That was a remarkable statement! But even more remarkable, it was spoken in 1919 by David Ben-Gurion! Any politician could declare the same thing on this evening's news and it would ring just as true. Some things simply don't change, especially the nature of humanity that regularly sets the Middle East on fire.

So, is it hopeless? If I had to place confidence in humanity's ability to make peace, I'd be a card-carrying pessimist. But you won't find anyone more optimistic, more confident that world peace lies ahead.

Because you see, in that summer of '72 I also walked where Jesus walked, stood where He's going to stand when He returns, and explored the ancient city from which He will guide all peoples. That drove home another reality: God is in control of our destiny, and He has promised that Christ will return to end all this madness.

He has the only viable peace plan. It's not one of building high walls to keep people away from each others' throats, but one of building right hearts.

For GN Magazine, I'm Clyde Kilough.