By: Dr. Rudolf T. ZarZar
How often have we heard the claim by Christian and Jewish Zionists that not only present-day Israel but Greater Israel (including parts of Lebanon, Syria, all of the West Bank and Jordan) belong to the Jews because God promised it all to them. The 394 Palestinian cities, towns and villages recorded in this booklet are tragic witnesses to the atrocities that human beings can still inflict upon other human beings in the name of divine authorization. Most biblical scholars reject the Zionist interpretation of God's promises on various grounds: (1) The promises of the land of Canaan to Abraham and Moses were fulfilled literally in the conquest under Joshua. (2) The promises were conditioned on obedience to God's law and were invalidated when that law was broken and the people sent into exile. (3) The New Testament, stressing that the promise to Abraham included all nations, not only the Jews, interprets these promises in terms of a spiritual redemption from captivity to sin, a redemption available to Gentiles as well as to Jews. (4) To link salvation with the destruction of another people's ancestral homes is blasphemous. God is just. He can no more condone the bulldozing of Palestinian homes today than he could condone Ahab's seizure of Naboth's vineyard 2,500 years ago. [ For a fuller treatment of this topic see "Is the Modern State, Israel, a Fulfillment of Prophecy?" in The Link, Vol. 3, No. 5, published by americans for Middle East Understanding.]