ARTICLE TOOLS

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For the past week, TV news has been covering the emotional scenes from Gaza, where Israeli Defense forces are forcibly removing Israeli settlers from their homes. While supporters of the pullout can be happy that actual violence has been minimal, the true issue is whether Israel's unilateral withdrawal will help lead to lasting peace in the region.

Peace in the Middle East, particularly in Israel, has seemed unattainable for the past half century. Since Israel's founding, the nation has been in conflict with its neighbors five times and has been dealing with terrorist attacks since the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964. The introduction of suicide bombing by Hamas and Islamic Jihad shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 only served to weaken the tentative peace, and exacerbated the claims of each side: Israel for the right to defend against those deliberately targeting civilians, and Palestine for a independent state free from interference.

While opinions of Yasser Arafat remain decidedly mixed—even among Christians—most experts agree that his death enabled Israel and the Palestinian Authority to restart negotiations that had been stalled since 2000. With America, Israel's most loyal defender, recently pressuring Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza (while remaining clear on Israel's right to defend itself from terrorists), it seems that Israel is finally giving in. Whether the Palestinians will follow suit is yet to be seen.

Throughout all this, Christians have played an important, if not always helpful, role in the perhaps optimistically named "peace process." Fundamentalists and evangelicals have often subscribed to Zionism and believed that the Jews, as God's chosen people, have a right to the land claimed in the Six-Day War. Some go further, seeing the reborn state of Israel a sign of the coming of the End Times, and believing they are called by God to support Israel in order to bring about the second coming of Christ. In practice, Christian Zionism has meant unified support for Israel's political goals while continuing to evangelize—attempts that Israel has not appreciated.

It would be a mistake, however, to think evangelicalism has a monolithic position on Israel. Advocates like Gary Burge of Wheaton College argue that Christians should fully support the Palestinian cause, claiming our sympathies should be with our (incidentally Arab) Christian brethren and citing continual oppression as a "root cause" of terror. Many Christians, even dispensationalists theologically committed to supporting Israel, agree that the political situation cannot be reduced to "Israel good, Palestine bad." Thus, as previously noted, Zionists have split opinions on whether the Gaza pullout will foster peace.

Also varied are the views of Christians in the region, who frequently chafe at the heavy-handed intrusion of the Israeli state in their lives, but at the same time welcome the protection they occasionally receive. Most Christians in the Holy Land are Palestinian, but their numbers have been dwindling; caught between Muslim militants and Jewish retaliation, the Christian population has dropped by more than 50 percent in the past 50 years as Christians flee to America or other friendly countries. Those who remain face the unenviable task of maintaining their faith (and the most holy sites of Christendom) in the face of an ongoing war.

But perhaps the most inspiring part is while the Israelis are leaving Gaza, some Christians are coming back. Hanna Massad, whom Christianity Today profiled in July, left California to return to Gaza, where he is just one among many Christians working to alleviate the suffering caused by poverty and lawlessness. Their success, even more than the negotiation of governments, may prove the key to lasting peace in the region.

Will Reaves, a recent Wheaton College graduate, works as a freelancer for Christianity Today International and Tyndale House Publishers.