Israel is Fighting a Just War

Israel is Fighting a Just War

By: Deji Yesufu

A little over a week ago, I was in Oyo Town to minister for a brother who is trying to plant a reformed mission in that part of the country. Two other ministers accompanied us to the conference. One morning, over breakfast, our discussion turned to happenings in the Middle East. One of the ministers then asked why Israel is trying to take over Gaza. As far as he was concerned, Israel may be fighting a just war, but they should not overstep their boundaries and take over a land that belongs to another people. I replied by saying that Israel is not trying to take over Gaza. I then went on to explain what I believe the issues were in the Middle East and why the military actions the nation of Israel is carrying out against Palestinians must be brought to a logical conclusion. I will use the remainder of this essay to shed further light on the response I gave to the minister.

The idea of penning this article has been in my mind for months now, but the possible reaction to it has held me back. While I vouch myself to be a fearless writer, I also know my limits. One of such limits is Islam. In the 1960s, even the inimitable Obafemi Awolowo advised the Nigerian government and public commentators to stay clear of happenings in the Middle East. There is no way you will comment on the crisis there without offending Muslims in this country. Now, while this country could remain mum with regard to happenings between the Palestinians and Israelites in the 1960s, the fact that militant Islam has become a national malaise for us in this country today means that we can no longer remain quiet on the subject anymore. As Boko Haram rages in the North East of Nigeria, and bandits hold sway in the North West, Israel is also fighting militant Islam on their borders and within their country. As I pen this piece this evening, two Palestinian terrorists entered an Israeli public bus and opened fire on innocent commuters. Fifteen people were critically injured, and six of those are now dead. The terrorists were killed, and Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack. Why then do I say that Israel is fighting a just war? It is nearly impossible to start the story of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the beginning, but I will start from somewhere.

Historically, the land that the nation of Israel presently occupies belongs to the Jews. It was on that land that Jesus Christ walked. It was there he was crucified, and it was there he rose from the dead. In AD 70, the Romans ransacked the land of Israel in retaliation for a number of uprisings among the Jews that had led to the killing of Roman soldiers. The result was the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the killing of thousands of Jews, while a whole lot of them were dispersed into the diaspora. When you look at the map of Israel, you will see that it is a country that is located in a little corner of the Middle East, sandwiched between countries like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. So, when the Jews were dispersed two thousand years ago, they went into all these countries. Some even went as far as Western Europe, and others went to Russia. The Jews, however, retain their heritage, particularly their belief in the One God who created the heavens and the earth, and their commitment to the Old Testament – Genesis to Malachi.

In the 19th century, the land that is presently occupied by the nation of Israel was a vastly unoccupied piece of space. There were a few Jews who lived there, but the land had come to be mostly occupied by Arabs – most of them from the neighboring countries of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. These people were Muslim, and they coexisted peacefully with the Jews. About that time, a Zionist movement began in Europe that began to encourage Jews to return to their fatherland and help build it up. It was going to be a daunting task, because, besides overcoming the challenge of developing an arid land, there were the Jews’ Muslim neighbors who had a particular hatred for them. What is little known about Islam is that the Muslim scripture is fundamentally antisemitic. There are portions of the Quran that teach that Muslims and Christians are the worst of all creatures, and that Jews should be destroyed at all costs (Quran 98:6). Like many scriptures in our holy books, these portions of the Quran are open to wide interpretations. There are, therefore, many militant Muslim groups that take these scriptures in their literal form and are committed to the destruction of all Jews.

It was within these climates that the holocaust of the Second World War occurred, which led to the United Nations compensating the Jews with their forefathers’ land of Israel in 1948. For close to a century now, Israel has waged different wars to preserve their right to live in that territorial space. Many of their Muslim neighbors have come to accept the fact that Israel has a right to live in that space, except for a few radical militant Muslim countries and persons. Shi’ite Islam is not as accommodating to Jews as Sunni Islam. The Shi’ite-led government of Iran had committed itself to sponsoring terrorist groups against Israel. There is the Hamas government in Gaza that is fighting Israel to the East of the country; there is the Hezbollah group in Lebanon that is waging war on Israel from the North of the country. Everything was supposed to come to a head in October 2023. Four terrorist groups were supposed to launch an attack on Israel’s sovereignty at the same time. But the Hamas people, operating in Gaza, were too excited about the plan; they launched their attack a day before, culminating in the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel that resulted in the death of no less than 1,200 Israelis. Since that day, Israel has launched coordinated attacks on all its neighbors. In an unprecedented manner, Israel had decimated the ranks and file of the nation of Iran, leaving the country today vulnerable to a possible regime change. Israel has destroyed Hezbollah, killing all its top operatives in one single operation. They have also destroyed the Houthis in Yemen. And presently, they are in Gaza trying to recover a few hostages they are convinced are still alive; hostages taken after the October 7th attack on their territory.

Why is this war then a just war? It is because the war Israel is waging is an ideological war. Many Israelis compare the war against Hamas as something akin to what happened in the Second World War. The Second World War was not just a war that was fought over land and territorial supremacy; it was an ideological war. Adolf Hitler had posited a doctrine that said that the German people were the most exalted species of persons in the world. They taught that the Jews were scum. They believed that black men were animals. Etc. They then tried to overrun most of Europe and Russia, and then use the resources they got from those places to colonize the whole world. Japan and Italy joined Hitler in this hateful ideology, and the world was plunged into a just war that claimed the lives of no less than 75 million people. In the same manner, the war Hamas and other militant Muslim groups are waging against Israel is an ideological war. It is not just a war over land. The basic idea that many militant Muslims hold is that the Jews are an evil lot, and the Muslim world cannot permit their existence in the Middle East. The only way to end the crisis in the Middle East is to reorient the fundamental ideas that rule the minds of the people of that region of the world. Militant Islam must be understood for what it is, and it must be rejected in the modern world in all its facets. Atheistic, liberal, and agnostic thinkers, who reject Christianity, cannot continue to provide cover for militant Islam to carry out their barbaric actions. Similarly, moderate Muslims must separate themselves from the ideas and actions of militant Islam.

Now, practically speaking, it would be nearly impossible to rid the Middle East of all militant Muslims who hate Jews. Already, Israel has identified many wealthy Qataris and other Muslim persons around the world who fund terrorist operations against the Jews. What Israel plans to do with the Gaza Strip is to simply remove every militant Islamic group from that space and repopulate the place with Palestinians who do not hate Jews. These Palestinians, and there are thousands of them both in Palestine now and in the diaspora, wish to have their country back from Hamas, who are the present government in that place. There are many Palestinians who live peacefully within Israel, and who have come to regard the Jews as friends. In fact, while the war against Hamas rages on, Israel continues to provide the people of Gaza with food, water, and shelter. While at the same time warning the people against going to areas where they could be caught in the war between Israeli forces and Hamas.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict must be discussed in Nigeria and understood because Nigeria is also in the grip of militant Islam. Despite their vaunted claim to rid the country of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups like them, northern Nigeria continues to suffer from the influence of these militant Muslim groups because many Muslims in the North offer Boko Haram and other terrorist groups like them tacit support. For many Muslims in the North, religion comes first before loyalty to the country. When a militant Islamic group emerges and begins to teach people to take up arms against the constituted government, the ordinary people offer sympathy to this group with the hope that they could overrun the government and institute full Islamic jurisprudence over where they live. It is the same thing that has happened in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East where the Palestinians live. Someone has called this a clash of civilizations. Islam is trying to come of age in a world where certain core tenets of their religion cannot stand the test of time. The earlier this happens, the earlier the nations of the world know peace.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]