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The least we can do as evangelical Christians is to support co-existence and justice in the name of God. It seems to me that the secular world is a hundred miles ahead of the Christian community on that issue.

Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic, and United Church of Christ congregations all are very clear to focus on the issue of justice for both people. Some evangelicals do not see any rights of Palestinians in Palestine. How can people in the United States look into the eyes of a Palestinian Arab Christian with a church 2,000 years old and say, "Because you are a Palestinian, you don't have the right in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and the West Bank?" Unfortunately, an Arab Christian does not exist in the minds of all American Christians.

Why do you feel there is a difference between mainline denominations and evangelicals?
In our Reformed theology, we see that ancient prophecies have already been fulfilled. The prophets said Israel would return. They came back from Syria and Babylonia, so that prophecy was fulfilled by their return to Palestine. Also, our focus is more on Jesus as fulfillment of all these prophecies.

We are hooked more onto Jesus and his teaching about the Kingdom than to the interpretation that says Israel in 1948 is the fulfillment of prophecy and Jesus is coming tomorrow. That is alien to our Reformed and biblical interpretation of the same Scripture.

What do you see as errors in the Bush road map?

The problem with the road map is the issue of settlements. President Bush talked about outposts. Sharon talked about the outposts. But what they did not acknowledge was that from 1967 to the present, every Israeli Jewish settlement in the East Bank and Gaza is illegal under international law.

The credibility of the United States today hangs on whether the U.S. can do justice for the Palestinians. The first Oslo Accord said that from 1993 to 1999, we would see the end of Israeli settlement and the negotiation of issues concerning water, refuges, borders, and Jerusalem. Hands were shaken and everything was like a honeymoon. On the ground, however, the opposite took place. More land was stolen, more settlements were built, and the Palestinians came under worse occupation.

The Palestinians had more freedom before 1993 than after. From 1967 until now, the Palestinians have been an occupied people with no civil rights, human rights, or economic rights.

The other thing that is missing in the peace process is that we are looking at the Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs as equals. The Israeli Jews are occupying the civilian Palestinian Arabs militarily. The first thing we need to say is that occupation must end. In response to the end of occupation, we need the Palestinians to cease their terrorist attacks.

If we are really honest with the road map, three things need to happen:

1) Ask the Israeli military occupation to end.

2) Ask the Palestinian National Authority to begin the establishment of their state.

3) Start building schools, universities, clinics, and businesses.

How do the Palestinians need to change for this to work?

I believe in nonviolence, so I would like the Palestinians to adopt nonviolent means for their independence. But how can you convince children and youth that cannot go to school? It is difficult to say to an occupied people, "Stop resisting."

Individual Palestinians must cease terrorist attacks, and the Israeli military too must cease their terrorist attack. Both are terrorist attacks. One percent of the Israelis and one percent of the Palestinians are torpedoing the hopes of both people. Intelligent politics and good theology says, "I'm not going to let an extremist control the majority." The future of the security of Israel and Palestine depends on the security of each other.

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47