An easy to read explanation of the ‘inconvenient’ truths around Israel
Review by Peter Sammons
Israel – The Inconvenient Truth Dividing the World and The Church
By James P Smith
Available solely via author at email: jamiepsmith1970@gmail.com
James Smith’s book is aimed primarily at a believing readership, but non-Christian readers might well benefit from its information, too. I am reasonably well versed in modern Israel’s history, yet Smith’s material filled in some gaps.
Arab ‘Palestinians’ became pawns in a broader power struggle
Divided into 11 chapters, Smith looks at the broad subject of Israel – its place in the world, and its place in God’s overarching plan for mankind.
- 1 – Israel, the man, the family, the nation
- 2 – From Israel to Palestine
- 3 – From Palestine to Israel
- 4 – Catastrophe!
- 5 – Exposing the real issue
- 6 – Mohammed and the Jews
- 7 – Jerusalem
- 8 – Ancient / future hatred
- 9 – Conclusion
- 10 – Has the Church replaced Israel?
- 11 – Replacement Theology – proof-texts?
- Appendix 1 – Biblical history confirmed
- Appendix 2 – Prophecies fulfilled by Jesus.
- Appendix 3 – A picture is worth a thousand lies
This is a rounded exploration of the whole subject, with the author taking a logical and forensic look at the ‘big picture’. Smith demolishes some shibboleths, reminding us that there has never been a country called ‘Palestine’.
He uncovers the ideological fault lines in the Middle East
The ‘nakba’ (‘catastrophe’) was a problem that could have been solved in 1948-49, had surrounding nations opened themselves to provide permanent homes for ‘refugees’. Instead, the Arab ‘Palestinians’ became pawns in a broader power struggle. They still are!
Smith sets out inconvenient truths. In our post-truth world, presenting truth wins neither arguments nor plaudits. Whatever evidence Smith provides will not change the minds of those locked into the ‘Palestinian narrative’ versus Israel as a supposedly ‘Nazi state’.
Smith’s book is broader than just the ‘Palestinian question’. Delving back to Genesis, he traces Israel within God’s covenantal framework.
His mapping of ancient lands to modern geopolitical counterparts is especially useful.
Finally, Smith tackles head-on the institutional churches’ long-standing dalliance with ‘replacement theology’. He does not do this through extensive exegesis of Scripture, but appeals, quite rightly, to God’s covenant promises to a specific people group and a specific geographical location. God has not changed his mind, nor his purposes!
The book is well illustrated; at 208pp it is comprehensive, but engaging and easy to read.
One reader has said: “It brings together all the relevant facts concisely and in chronological order, showing the causes of the current hostility towards Israel by uncovering the ideological fault lines in the Middle East”.
This is a great introduction for the general reader and a useful summary for those more experienced in this field. Recommended.
(itals aligned left) Peter Sammons is the author of several books, including “The Prince of Peace – Finding True Peace in a World that Wars” (Christian Publications International, 2015)
Explosive truth: a new film exposes anti-Israel propaganda
Review by Charles Gardner
Whose Land? Part II – The Law of Occupation and the Status of Jerusalem
Produced by Hugh Kitson
Titledeed Media (UK premier 30 May)
Amid the intense warfare provoked by the barbaric Hamas invasion of 7 October comes an explosive new documentary that exposes the lies surrounding the rightful ownership of the land of Israel.
Established film-maker Hugh Kitson has produced a brilliant 113-minute film that challenges the Western media’s false narratives. It comes with an endorsement by Douglas Murray of The Spectator, who has been defending Israel on multiple platforms.
Narrated by Col Richard Kemp, former British army chief in Afghanistan, it features a host of international lawyers, professors, politicians, and military experts, and is set against the stunning backdrop of Israel.
In terms of international law the film concludes that there is absolutely no question of Israel’s rightful inheritance to the land. But the nations have fallen hook, line, and sinker for Arab claims that Israel has stolen it from them.
Britain’s role is sullied by several examples of betrayal. Having been handed the privilege of preparing the Jewish people for statehood, we meekly succumbed to the threats of those who did not wish Jews to live among them.
Britain’s role is sullied by several examples of betrayal
When, in 1947, the UN effectively proposed a ‘two-state solution’ of separate Jewish and Arab states living side by side, the Jews accepted the far from ideal plan, but the Arabs rejected it out of hand.
Israel was reborn nonetheless, but immediately came under fierce attack from her Arab neighbours, with a British general even commanding the attacking Jordanian forces.
In that War of Independence, Jordan illegally annexed Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem (now collectively known as the West Bank) – an act recognised only by Britain and Pakistan – with Jerusalem’s Old City ethnically cleansed of Jews in the process.
When Israel took back what was rightfully hers in the 1967 SixDay War, she subsequently became designated as the “illegal occupier”. Blatant propaganda really took hold when Jordan later ‘transferred’ the West Bank to the Palestinians, described by Col Kemp as “like handing over stolen property”.
Palestinian propaganda has since poisoned the minds of everyone from Arab schoolchildren to foreign ministers of Western countries around the globe.
The film highlights the absurdities of the conflict, like the idea of giving up land for peace, which has only served to increase Palestinian terrorism. And after the Camp David agreement of 2000, “Arafat won a (Nobel) peace prize for going home and starting a war,” referring to the so-called Second Intifada.
The problem for the Arabs was actually that Jewish people were living in land that had been claimed by Islam. Meanwhile the UN constantly promotes a radical anti-Israel agenda that denies Israel’s ancient links with the land, which the Western media do not challenge.
Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism for 3,000 years, became a particularly hot potato when the threat of an oil embargo saw the last remaining 13 foreign embassies leave Jerusalem for Tel Aviv in 1980.
Jerusalem was ethnically cleansed of its Jews
Though the film does not seek to give a theological overview, it includes several Christian participants. Surely those of us who believe in the absolute authority of God’s Word have no choice but to back Israel to the hilt, especially in view of the current genocidal war which seeks wipe them off the face of the earth. Quite apart from legitimate international treaties (San Remo in 1920 and the League of Nations Mandate of 1922), the land bears the seal of divine promise (Genesis 15:18 and 17:8, for example).
And Jews from every corner of the globe have returned there in direct fulfilment of a shedload of biblical prophecies.
These are the people through whom Jesus, our Saviour, came. God still regards them as the “apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8) and his “treasured possession” (Exodus 19:5, Malachi 3:17 and three times in Deuteronomy). We would do well to note Isaiah’s stark warning: “For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined” (Isaiah 60:12).
The film ends, appropriately, with a clip of Israel’s former Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon holding up a Bible, declaring: “This is the deed to our land.”