Thoughts on Israel and the Middle East…World Religions, Jerusalem, and a Wicked Problem
In this post, I will answer the following questions: 1. What did I know about Israel and the Middle East before October 7, 2023, and what was that based upon? 2. What does Martin Bunton’s The Palestinian – Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction help me understand that I did not know before? 3. How am I navigating the Israel-Middle East conflicts (at present)?
What did I know about Israel and the Middle East before October 7, 2023, and what was that based upon?
The easy answer is that I knew more about the world religions[1] of the Middle East and less about the geo-politics of the modern-day state of Israel and its neighbors. I had a very general knowledge about Israeli-Palestinian relations, though I had an interest in Islamic relations with the West, influenced by my studies in missiology. Additionally, my wife and I had a few friends from Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon, and this contributed to my interest. I’ll highlight two of these friendships below.
- In the late 1990s, I met an Egyptian student and Sunni Muslim who went on to graduate from Johns Hopkins with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He gave me the Qur’an as a birthday present and often invited me to Friday prayer at a nearby mosque. He also visited my church. My friend and I had many conversations about Islam and Christianity, but I don’t recall us ever talking about Israel or Egypt’s relations with Israel.
- In 1995, I had a Spanish-language tutor while in Cuernavaca, Mexico. What’s interesting is that my tutor was originally from Lebanon. He came from a family who belonged to the Druze faith.[2]
As a part of my studies in missiology in 2009, I dove a bit deeper into learning more about ways in which (some) American evangelicals have viewed Israel and the region’s conflicts in the past. That year I read Thomas Kidd’s American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism. According to Kidd, at least “among evangelicals, the key differences between views on the Arab-Israeli crisis lay in eschatological beliefs.”[3] For example, in the twentieth century, dispensationalists “looked on tumultuous political and military happenings as possible signs of the return of Christ. They typically expected that Jews would return to Palestine prior to Christ’s second coming, and so they excitedly tracked the Zionist movement’s campaign to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine.”[4] Other American dispensationalists held “to the Isaac-Ishmael theory, which posited that the Arab Muslims’ rage against the Jews had essentially nothing to do with current political realities.”[5] Kidd observed, “This view of the Arab-Israeli conflict as predestined hostility between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael would become increasingly common among Christian conservatives in the late twentieth century, as would the belief that Christians had an almost unlimited obligation to support Israel against Arab Muslims.”[6] I would guess these sentiments are still in the water among many evangelicals.
What does Martin Bunton’s The Palestinian – Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction help me understand that I did not know before?
According to Bunton, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not about religion.[7] Instead, it’s a conflict about land. Bunton wants to focus the reader’s attention “on the stubborn core of the conflict, the mutually exclusive territorial claims of two competing nationalisms, Palestinian and Israeli.”[8] He points to 1897 as a year that underpins the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, when delegates at “the first Zionist Congress”…wanted to develop a permanent home in Palestine for the Jewish people, but the reality was that “Palestine…was already inhabited.”[9] Bunton’s book The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction has given me more context for understanding the perceived root of the conflict – context that I did NOT have before reading the book.
For example – and a bit of an excursus – I’ve always enjoyed Hubert Parry’s hymn “Jerusalem.” What I learned not long ago is that the hymn was essentially Martin Blake’s early 19th century poem, “And did those feet in ancient time.” In 1916, Parry turned the poem into a hymn. What’s interesting is that Sir Parry published the hymn in the year – thanks to Bunton for providing the following details – before the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Arthur James Balfour, declared the British government would align “with Jewish Zionist aspirations,”[10] and thus promoting “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”[11] Britain then captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks in 1917.
As I read Bunton, I thought about Sir Parry’s hymn. I wonder about the timing of its publication during World War I, at the end of the Ottoman Empire. I wonder how the populations of early 20th century Palestine might have experienced the hymn. They certainly wanted nothing to do with the “Balfour Day Parade” in Jerusalem at that time, held after Jerusalem came under British control.[12]
How am I navigating the Israel-Middle East conflicts (at present)?
The Israel – Middle East conflict(s) seems to fit the definition of a wicked problem.[13] Reflecting on the challenges of a peace process between Palestinians and Israel, President Barack Obama told Time Magazine in 2010, “This is just really hard… This is as intractable a problem as you get.”[14] I heard someone on a recent episode of The Bulletin refer to the problem as “mind-bendingly complicated.”[15] The conflict and its many layers seems wicked, not tame. That being said, one of Christianity Today’s podcasts called The Promised Land[16], hosted by Mike Cosper, has been a helpful resource for wrapping my head around much of the conflict’s backstory. The first episode’s title points to the “wicked” nature of the tension with the title “It’s Complicated.”
Bunton’s book was published a decade before the events of October 7. Interestingly, the current conflict, still without a two-state solution and with Israeli forces operating in Gaza as I write this, draws Bunton’s conclusions to the spotlight. From Bunton’s perspective, Israel faces two binary options. “One scenario posits a shared homeland: a binational state with equal rights for the two national communities that evolved from it,” whereas a “second scenario concludes that Jewish history has been too traumatic for Israelis to accept being a minority but recognizes that the Palestinian Arab population is growing more rapidly than the Jewish Israeli population.”[17]
[1] Specifically – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
[2] The Druze were recently in the news, as a rocket hit a soccer field near Israel’s northern border in the Golan Heights on July 27, 2024. The rocket killed 12 Druze children and injured more. I thought about that friend along with the tensions with Hezbollah.
[3] Thomas S. Kidd, American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, 87.
[4] Ibid., 84.
[5] Ibid., 92-93.
[6] Ibid., 86.
[7] Bunton, Martin, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, Kindle version, 19 of 178.
[8] Ibid., 23-24 of 178.
[9] Ibid., 27 of 178.
[10] Ibid., 45 of 178.
[11] Ibid., 45-46 of 178.
[12] According to Bunton, the “pro-Zionist” policies of the British government caused Arab leaders to see Zionism as “the chief factor in the articulation of a Palestinian Arab nationalist identity.” Less than two years after Sir Parry published his hymn, and barely a year after the Balfour Declaration and British occupation of Jerusalem and the surrounding region, “Arab dignitaries and representatives petitioned the British, denouncing the Balfour Day parade that was held in Jerusalem.” (Bunton, Martin, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, Kindle version, 49 of 178.)
[13] According to Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, a wicked problem is “complex, messy, and unpredictable.” Wicked problems are “ill-defined, ambiguous, complicated, interconnected situations packed with potential conflict.” (Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are and Why They Are Important. Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2020, Kindle version, page 9 of 206.)
[14] President Barack Obama, Time Magazine interview, January 15, 2010, quoted in Bunton, Martin, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, Kindle version, 141 of 178.
[15] See the episode titled “I Knew You Were Trouble” here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/bulletin/99-walz-iran-israel-attack.html.
[16] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/promised-land/.
[17] Bunton, 149 of 178.
About the Author
Travis Vaughn
6 responses to “Thoughts on Israel and the Middle East…World Religions, Jerusalem, and a Wicked Problem”
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Travis, right at the end of your post, you point out that Bunton’s book came out well before the events of October 7, 2023. I would be curious to hear what he might say today. I wonder what has changed in the last decade, if anything significant, or are we just a little further down the road of the long, complicated history that we’ve read about?
Kim – great question. My thought is that Bunton would probably say something to the latter — that we are further down the road of this history but still with only two possible outcomes. Bunton seems to see the solution through a pretty black or white lens (Tim Clark points this out, too, in his post). I don’t know if the events that occured after 2013, and specifically after Oct. 7, 2023, would necessarily change Bunton’s mind.
The conflict does seem to me to have a greater sense of urgency today than in years past. Then again, my perspective is pretty limited. I did find Bunton’s book to be helpful, at the very least, in describing the events that took place in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s — events that contributed to the way that the past 100+ years have played out.
This thread of discussion sparked for me the thought of how it seems like the most recent World Event becomes the worst, or the largest in our minds… until the next one comes along. It is a good reminder for me to put the events in context and to think that in ‘87, the Intifada probably was seen as unimaginable by some, which makes me question our ability to accurately gauge the scope of events.
Hi Travis,
I deeply appreciate your religious view point on the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict.
I am going out on a limb here (for discussions sake). There will be no peace in the Middle East. It is the pot that when it boils over, will be called the “End of Times.” At best humanitarian efforts can ease pain, but the story of the end, began at the beginning, when the Jews failed to eliminate the tribes that plague them today.
The course is set for Armageddon, which is the name of the place where the kings of the earth gather to battle against God. This Hebrew name means “mountain of Megiddo,” and Megiddo is a place in northern Israel.
Sigh…Cathy Glei ended her post with the call to prayer….
I agree….that is the MOST and BEST thing I can do.
Shalom…..
Hi Travis,
I appreciated reading of your experiences with friends from the middle east and how you engaged with them on topics of faith. I also liked how you brought various eschatological beliefs of some evangelicals into the discussion. These views do indeed shape how one might think of the past, current, and ongoing conflicts in the Holy Land. I’ve been wondering about God’s promise to Abraham to make him a great nation in Genesis 12: 1-3 which ends with, “…and all the people’s of the earth will be blessed through you.” I’m asking myself, “How does my theology around that verse impact my view of Israel and God’s promise?” I don’t have much of an eschatological view yet that helps me frame this situation. I have much to think about.
This is such a profoundly helpful post Travis. This is why I love our blogging/reading/posting format, in that, I have found your post (and others) to be massively informative.
I agree that it is an entrenched wicked problem.
Appreciate the mention of Cospers podcast on the Promised Land. I enjoyed his reporting on Mars Hill, but hadn’t followed that he started a new podcast. Thanks for that reference. Downloading now. 🙂