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Monday, March 18, 2024 - 09:18 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

The United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and virtually the entire world are pressuring Israel for a "Two State Solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict. But former Israeli MK and Minister of Tourism, Binyamin "Benny" Elon, contends that what they are really calling for is not a "Two State Solution," but rather a "Three State Solution." His opinions are printed in a book entitled, "God's Covenant with Israel."

Elon stresses in his book that there already is one Palestinian state, and to give the Arabs half of Israel's present territory for another Palestinian state would in reality create a second Palestinian state. He reasons that this is an unfair, unreasonable, and unworkable solution.

He also relates that God's Covenant with Israel includes full sovereignty over the entire land of Israel by the Jews as an "everlasting possession."

Right up front, I'd like to express my agreement with Elon's position, since as a Bible believing Christian, I also support God's Biblical covenant with the Jewish people.

The Arab kingdom of Jordan is none other than a Palestinian state already, Elon asserts. He reminds that it was created in 1922 on land that was supposed to belong to the Jewish people, according to the British Mandate of 1917. The present land east of the Jordan River, along with all the land west of the river, had been designated by the British to become a "homeland for the Jewish people" on their own ancient land.

Obviously, the land east of the river never became the intended Jewish homeland, because the British succumbed to Arab demands and ceded all the land east of the river to the Hashemite Arabs. That trimmed the Jewish homeland to the west side of the river only, just one-third of the original territory.

Elon bases his reasoning on the ancient but  "everlasting covenant" that the God of Israel made with Abraham and his seed some three thousand years ago. According to this covenant the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people forever. God never indicated that some of it should one day become another Arab state.            Elon realizes that the leaders of the nations of the world consider what God has promised in the Bible to be irrelevant. He adds, also, that unfortunately many Jews in Israel today do not study the Bible, and so they have only a vague idea about their connection to their land, let alone the covenants.

Regardless of what international leaders may think, Elon continues, the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people today, because God's covenant was and is "everlasting." That Biblical principle was the foundation for the Jewish people's return to Zion, he stresses. It has also been the reason why all the various peace plans proposed over the past decades have failed. Each plan has ignored the fundamental principle that God gave this land to the Jewish people forever.

Elon asserts that the return to Zion of the Jewish people was and is a miracle that only a supernatural God could make happen. And he contends that God's plan for the Jewish people to re-settle all the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean comes from a much higher authority than the world leaders of today.

Then Elon stresses, "God's plan is the only realistic solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The author builds up to the conclusion that the present kingdom of Jordan is the only Palestinian state that is necessary. He says that Israel, the United States, and the world community should recognize the kingdom of Jordan as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian Arabs. Jordan would also have to recognize itself as such. The Palestinian Authority would be dissolved, and its refugee camps and terrorist infrasructure would be dismantled.

Elon adds that the international community should then put forth a concerted effort for the long-term development of Palestinian Jordan, to rehabilitate its economy, and to enable it to absorb and naturalize the Palestinian Arab refugees from Israel.

The former Minister of Tourism does not go so far as to suggest the "disengagement" or the removal of all the Arabs from the West Bank area, but he does suggest that all West Bank Arab residents be accepted as citizens of the Palestinian state of Jordan.

Elon concludes that after the implementation of the above stages, Israel and Palestinian Jordan would "officiallly declare the conflict terminated." Both sides would work to normalize peaceful relations and peaceful co-existence.

It seems to me that Elon's contention that a "Three State Solution" is not the answer to the present Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict, fits well with our understanding of "God's Covenant with Israel." Could anyone know better how to resolve this conflict than the sovereign God of the Universe, Who also happens to be the God of Israel?

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Dr. Al Snyder is a former professor of Communications at Liberty University in Virginia and North Greenville University. He has done extensive missionary work in Israel and Africa.

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