Summary

October 7, 2023, saw the attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas. Conflict is nothing new to this region, but for Americans, the way in which the coverage has been handled shifts with each news outlet. Did Israel bring this attack on themselves through an alleged colonization of Palestine? Is Hamas the freedom fighters some outlets make them out to be or something more sinister? In this podcast series, we at Mama Bear Apologetics are tackling the top questions you have about the Israel-Palestine conflict to better equip you to know and explain this issue with your children.

In the first podcast Hillary, Amy, and fellow apologist David Wolcott cover the top terms and definitions tossed around the nightly news. You’ll hear why Hamas and Palestine are not the same thing, and why these two are being conflated to promote an “us vs. them” ideology. Listeners will also get a brief history of God’s people to answer the question everyone has been asking, “Who’s land is it anyway?” These set the scene for the second upcoming podcast where Hillary and Amy will address the bigger themes at play: the spiritual battles around the attacks on Israel, and how critical theory is nurturing support for Hamas in Gen Z.

 

Main Points Covered

• What is the difference between Hamas and Palestinians?
  
• What is the difference between Israelis and Jews?
  
• How and when did the Israeli/Palestine conflict start?
  
• What advice can we give our kids in navigating information and conversations around this topic?
  

People and Resources Mentioned

• Ben Shapiro Talk
  
• Genesis 12:2
  
• Genesis 17:4
  
• Genesis 17:19
  
• 1917 Balfour Declaration
  
• Google Ngram Viewer
  
• A Brief History of Palestine
  
  • 2000-2200 BC Abraham was shown land of Canaanites by God, but doesn’t possess it (but lives there)
    
  • They all leave when Joseph is in Pharaoh’s court (2100 BC)
    
  • Jews come to conquer the land under Joshua 1300 BC
    
  • 1000 BC – time of David
    
  • 722 was the first exile (Assyrian exile), but not everyone left
    
  • 586 BC next exile (Babylonian exile)
    
  • 63 BC = first takeover by the Romans
    
  • 70 AD – destruction of the temple
    
  • 135 AD – Romans called the land “Palestine” as a slap in the face to Israel, but never referred to a “people group”
    
  • 7th century AD – the founding of Islam – Arabs started claiming ownership of the land because Jerusalem as the 3rd holiest place (outside of Mecca and Medina)
    
  • Palestinians were never referred to as a “people group” until 1977. Zahir Muhsein of the PLO, Palestinian Liberation Organization said “The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.”  (PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, in a 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.)
    
  
  

Unfamiliar Vocabulary

• Hamas vs Palestine
  
  • Hamas is a terrorist group that is the ruling body over Palestine.
    
  • Palestinians are a group of people dwelling in Palestine – Jews and Arabs
    
  
  
• Edomites/Arabs are the descendants of Esau.*
  
• Israeli vs Jewish: Anyone who is a citizen of Israel is considered an Israeli. Jewish is an ethnic people group. And some people call themselves Jewish, but are specifically referring to the religion.¹
  
• Zionists believe Israel is the land of the Jewish people and is their heritage right.
  
• Christian Nationalism: the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.
  
• TikTok Activism: a form of activism on the TikTok social media platform
  
• Reparations: making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.
  
• *We incorrectly said the edomites were descendants of Ishmael in the episode.
  

Quotable Quotes

“It’s important to be talking to our kids and asking them to have people define their terms for them. A lot of times this will slow the conversation down, and that’s a good thing.” – Hillary Morgan Ferrer

“You can possibly get swept up into something that you don’t really know what you’re advocating for. So that’s what you want to help your kids be watchful of — what are they defining, what are they assuming about another people group, what are the conclusions that are being made?” – Amy Davison

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We are all in this together, so sometimes our posts are a bit of all of us.

1    See the blog series by Lindsey Medenwaldt about Judaism on the Mama Bear website. The first article “A Crash Course in Judaism” can be found here: https://mamabearapologetics.com/crash-course-judaism/.

The post Episode 89: A Crash Course in the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Part 1) appeared first on Mama Bear Apologetics.