JUDEA AND SAMARIA
I’m in Israel at the invitation of HaYovel, a 20-year effort started by the Waller family to minister encouragement to Israeli farmers. Yesterday I met with two farmers and tonight I’ll be speaking in the Jordan Valley.
I don’t have time to express all the things I’m learning, but I’ll hit the high points. The first one is the misuse of the term “West Bank.” There is no West Bank. That is a phrase created by the Arabs to make the world both ignorant and prejudiced against Israel. This land, solidified under Israeli control in the miraculous 6-day 1967 war, is the mountainous heartland of the entire region and nation.
I’m staying on Mt. Gerazim, also known as the Mount of Blessing, which sits adjacent to Mt. Ebal, the Mount of Cursing. Between these two mountains Joshua set the Israelites when they returned to Canaan after their 40 years’ wandering in the desert post-plague and post-Egyptian slavery. Six tribes were on one side and six on the other as he divided the land among the tribes.
Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, received Judea and Samaria, the mountainous backbone of the promised land, and that is today what the world and Arabs label “The West Bank.” It’s the biggest con job in history, meant to distort and prejudice.
In the Oslo Accords after 1967, Judea and Samaria were divided into zones A (all Arab), B (both Jew and Arab) and C (all Israeli citizen—not just Jews). Notice that the conciliatory Israelis did not designate a Jew-only area. Some 100,000 Arabs living in the area were Jewish citizens and remained so at that time.
As you travel through the region, then, you go from one zone to another and the differences are remarkable. Suffice it to say that the Jewish areas have no crime, are clean and orderly; the Arab zones and villages not so. The fact that the Oslo Accords created this mish-mash of internal zones perpetuated the Arab-Israeli strife is quite apparent. Offered statehood, however, the Arabs cannot abide an Israeli nation, so they refused and continue to refuse that option. Instead, they agitate from their internal zones and encroach on zone C, building 15 houses a week—many unoccupied, just to encroach on Israeli territory.
Just 65 Israeli farmers now are trying to hold onto Zone C land for Israel in the face of complete Arab disregard for the Oslo Accords. The world is fighting over the land managed by these 65 farmers; the nation’s territory is on the back of these 65 farmers. I met with 2 of them yesterday, and the entire conversation centered around their courage and determination to hold onto Zone C land to fulfill God’s covenant to Abraham that this whole region would be his and his children’s forever.
These Arab zones surround, or better are simply interwoven, within Zone C. They neighbor these 65 farms. These Arab neighbors burn fields, steal animals, steal fencing, and literally raid these farmers’ equipment, stock, and livelihoods. Israeli soldiers patrol constantly to try to protect these farmers, but they don’t provide 24-hour security and these farmers must employ security forces and live in constant jeopardy of Arab assassination and plunder. These are the farmers I’m encouraging.
President Obama pushed through foreign aid in the billions to the Arabs and with that money they instituted a “Pay to Slay” program. If an Arab kills a Jew, he gets huge payments, a gift from U.S. taxpayers. President Trump discontinued that aid and shut down the program. President Biden has re-instituted it so the Arabs are back in business. Arab elementary schools use math books with word problems like “If you have 4 Jews and you kill 2 of them, how many do you have?” In America, we use apples and oranges in these simple introductory math problems; not so among the Arabs. Imagine growing up with that kind of hatred and vengeance stoked into your heart from earliest days?
Interestingly, boycott efforts in the U.S. toward Jewish businesses disemploy Arabs working in Jewish businesses. Folks, everything is upside down in the global media, U.S. policy, and the perception of most of us. I will never use the term West Bank again, and I hope you won’t either. It’s Judea and Samaria. And think about 65 farmers trying to hold out the backbone of everything God promised to Abraham. That’s enough for today.
Realize that the Abrahamic covenant given in Genesis 12 is still in force: God will bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants, and will curse those who curse them. I boldly stand in the place of blessing and am grateful to be a part of a divine plan.
Do you believe there is a God, and that He promised a land to Abraham and his descendants?