Biblical commentators since at least the seventeenth century have been writing about the prophesied return of the Jews to Palestine. Authorities disagree on how many have remained or returned there since the first century, but it cannot be denied that since the First World Zionist Congress in 1897 the Return developed in conception and realization until the Six-Day War in 1967, when immigration began to decline. The persecutions of the Czarist and Nazi eras gave an impetus to the movement, and the state of Israel was founded when the British mandate ended in 1948.
Most Christians in the West have rejoiced in these events, seeing them as partial fulfillment of God’s plan for the end, but by and large they have had little more factual information than that summarized above. They knew almost nothing of the pre-Israeli inhabitants of Palestine, both Muslim and Christian. Most outsiders were ignorant of the oppressive policies of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine, the Arab Nationalist Movement, the Arab role in defeating Turkey in World War I, and the subsequent British and French mandates in the area.
In 1948 “Arabs” still called to mind nomadic Bedouins in picturesque costumes or poverty-stricken farmers who neglected their land. Fortunately the post-World War II increase in tourism in the Middle East and the flow of Arab students in the opposite direction have contributed to a more complete image. Increased interest in the Middle East area studies in American universities has also made its contribution.
North American Christians have known Western European Jews better. When they have had Jewish neighbors and schoolmates, they may have stereotyped them as “pushy,” not realizing that “Christendom” through the ages oppressed the Jews to the point where some degree of aggressiveness became necessary for survival. They have known less of East European Jews except that they seemed legalistic and clannish, and still less of those living in Arab lands (whence they have emigrated to Israel in substantial numbers).
The Palestine problem should not concern evangelicals solely because of their interest in prophecy. The guilt of “Christian” America in closing its doors to Jewish refugees at the time of the Nazi horror, the desire for peace and justice for all people, the presentation of the Gospel to Muslims (whether by local or foreign Christians), Communist/socialist involvement in the area, the question of Israel’s claim on the loyalty of American Jews and, for U. S. Christians, Washington’s role in the crisis—these are all reasons for concern. The passions and the involvement of nations far and near lead many analysts to consider this the most difficult problem of international conflict in the world.
George M. Marsden is associate professor of history at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has the Ph.D. (Yale University) and has written “The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.”
