“The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear — to wipe Israel off the map.” -President of Iraq

Culture in Israel
I will clarify my perspective. I am a Christian who believes every word of the bible. My family lived in Colombia for two years, Spain for two years, and recently moved from Israel after living there for eight months in Jerusalem. We traveled to nearby Arab nations. Now I live in perhaps the most unchurched city in the USA: Eugene, Oregon. These cultures have shaped my perspective. Living in Israel, one thing is evident all around you: people don’t fit in boxes. Our neighbors were secular Jews who followed religion only as tradition, our landlord was a religious Jew who only spoke Hebrew (quite unfortunate for our communication), and at our church the worship songs were projected on the wall in Spanish, Hebrew, English and Russian. On the streets, atheist Jews, Christian Arabs, Zionist Gentiles, and even people who hate Israel are around you.
A group of religious Jews who hate Messianic Christians burned down the church we went to in Jerusalem. Jews and Arabs can be on drastically different levels of violent extremism. We lived on a large hill above a soccer field. I remember running down on searing days where you could see the heat waves and kicking a ball around with a couple of Israeli children. We could not communicate with the few words I knew of Hebrew. My vocabulary consisted of “Shalom” (peace, hello, goodbye, good morning and good night) and “Falafel” (an Israel sandwich). In Morocco, I played games with kids on the street. As toys were a little scarce, kids played games with rocks. They threw pebbles high in the air and tried to catch all of them on the back of their hand. The winner was respected and admired. America is a melting pot of cultures; Israel is a tossed salad. Cultures there are thrown in, mixed, and yet not blended well with others.

Recent history of Israel
Israel has been gathered together, scattered, and gathered repeatedly throughout history. The Old Testament tells the brutal ups and downs in the history of Israel. In Deuteronomy 32:7, Moses says “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past.” In other words, dig into history; inquire and think about it. In this essay I’ll peak into some of the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Jews have been persecuted through most of history. The holocaust was a brutal scape-goating of German problems on Jews that left people wondering about the ‘goodness’ of humanity. After this murder of millions, Jews were finally granted land by the UN.
Israel constantly asked their neighbors for negotiating peace. Foreign Minister Golda Meir asked leaders of the Arab nations to meet with the Prime Minister to decide how to live peacefully. Egypt answered by saying Israel was just trying to get on the good side of the worlds opinion. In 1965 he stated his goal: “We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand. We shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood.” Months later, President Nasser of Egypt clarified the goal of all Arab’s: “… the full restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people. In other words, we aim at the destruction of the State of Israel. The immediate aim: perfection of Arab military might. The national aim: the eradication of Israel”. Arab schools still do not put Israel on the map. They post posters of suicide bombers on the walls, encouraging children to follow those heroes who obeyed the Qur’an.
In 1967, the Egyptian army gathered at the Israeli border. Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran, cutting off Israel from Asia. The president of Iraq made his goal clear: “The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear — to wipe Israel off the map.” However, Israel wiped out most of the air forces of Egypt. Egypt attacked and continued to lose. Egypt lied to Jordan they where winning. Jordan attacked from the east. Israel pressed against them and took over the west bank and Jerusalem. When troops reached the what was left of the outer wall of their temple (destroyed in AD 70) they wept with joy.
I remember walking to the Wailing Wall for my first time. My family and I went through metal detectors and then proceeded to fit traditional Kippas (skull caps) on our heads. Dad, my brother and I entered into the men’s section in the Wailing Wall. Prayers scribbled on tiny folded pieces of paper where stuffed and piled into the cracks left and right, holding the hope of thousands. My dad has been intensely interested in Israeli history since his teens. He studied all the Israeli wars and the Holocaust. When my dad approached the wall, he could not touch it. He remembered history, and wept at the Wailing Wall.

Islam
Clarity is necessary to distinguish between “Islam” and “Muslim”. Islam is the religion that an individual Muslim believes and practices. Twenty percent of the world’s Muslim population are not Arabs[1]. Most Arabs that live in the Middle East are Muslims. Some Arabs don’t hate Jews. Some Arabs are citizens of Israel and serve in the government. A few even love Israel, but remain silenced on threats of death. On January 22, nineteen Arabs were executed by Hamas for “suspected of collaborating with Israel during the three week invasion” of Gaza [2]. Three men where blinded and sixty-six where shot in the legs or brutally tortured as punishment. The world cannot stereotype all Muslims into a box, since a billion won’t fit into most boxes.
Neither can onlookers refuse to ponder the obvious facts. Anywhere where Islam is taken seriously, violence is sure to follow. Terror is not all about Iraq. Muslims have made England, Spain, Egypt, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, China and France into places of terror as well [3].

Qur’an
In Sura 9:123 of the Qur’an (Koran), Mohamed says, “O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty.” In other words, be harsh with unbelievers and fight ‘disbelievers who are near to you’.
Sura (8:12) – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them”. These are very sad things; to many take the Qur’an literally and to few ignore the violence and continue in this religion that kills all unbelievers. Sura (8:39) – “And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah”. Sura (66:9) – “O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey’s end.” The ‘hypocrites’ are the Muslims who do not do what the Qur’an tells them too; kill all who are not Islam, kill those who are Islam and yet do not obey the Qur’an, kill anyone who changes his religion, and die as a martyr [4] for Allah.
Just as stereotyping all Christians to be like the Crusaders or Nazis would be ridiculous, so stereotyping all Muslims to have the desire to wipe Israel of the map is absurd. Still, we are left with the cold fact that the majority of the population of Muslims on earth want to wipe Israel out of existence. To do less would put one in danger of death, as Hamas was permitted by hadith Bukhari 84:57 “whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him”.

Bible
The Qur’an and the Bible are not equivalent in the reasoning behind violent actions. In the Old Testament there are many verses in which the people ask God if they should attack or not. If God says ‘I will deliver them into your hands’ they go. One such order from God is in Deuteronomy 20:17, ‘Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you.’ Joshua 6:21 says “Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.” Christians can not bicker that Islam is such a religion of destruction.
Notice God is very specifically telling them which group of people to kill. The Qur’an tells to kill all non-Islamic people. In the bible, if anyone sinned the consequences would be dire. The enemy that God ordered Israel to kill had been sinning drastically by placing their live babies to fry in the metal hands of the idol Baal and encasing live children in the walls of their houses. These orders from God to wipe out a people where in a historical context. In the Qur’an there is hardly any historical narrative. Per word count, the Qur’an has about twice as many verses of violence then the bible.

Christianity
“YOU KILLED OUR GOD, JESUS CHRIST, AND NOW, WE KILL YOU.” The Turkheim concentration camp had that banner stretched over the entrance. Jews saw it and formed a hate for the name Jesus. Yet afterward there where Jews who excepted Christ as their savior. One true testimony of a Jew going through the hell of a concentration camp and afterwards excepting Christ as the Jewish messiah was published as a book called ‘A Rose from the Ashes’ by Rose Price. Crusaders, so called Christians, where bribed by the Venetians and conquered Constantinople, a Christian city, with weapons carrying the emblem of the cross. How much deeper could you get into hypocrisy? The Nazis and the Crusaders killed millions in the name of Christ.
In contrast, Romans 12:10 says: “Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another”. How could the bible be so twisted by men to say what they want it to say? “The LORD is a warrior” Exodus 15:3 says after God had wiped out Pharaohs army in the red sea. Pharaoh had enslaved Israel for four-hundred years. God is a merciful warrior. God loves all[5], and kills many.
Interpreted directly from Hebrew text, the sixth commandment says “Do not murder”. In lengthy definition of murder: “Do not put anyone to death without cause”. Atheists often look to this commandment to prove God a hypocrite. In order to hold valid arguments, we must examine history, context, and language. There is one interpretation of Gods word. 2 Peter 1:20 “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from some one’s own interpretation.” There is only one interpretation that can to be applied. These interpretations have many applications. Jesus says in John 14:6-7 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” Jesus claims to be the only way to go to heaven. Muhammad claims to be the last prophet. Jews claim that the messiah has not come yet.
Mathew 7:15-20 very clearly tells how to distinguish false prophets from true prophets.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

The fruits this verse is speaking of refer to a prophet’s actions. Lets examine these “fruits”. Muhammad told his followers that it was the will of Allah for him to take a six year old as his wife, have sex with her at nine, and have sexual relationships with all his slaves. Mohamed let his men rape traumatized women captured in battle in ‘three day marriages’. Mohamed didn’t live up to his talk; Jesus did.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a scandalous message. Everyone deserves hell for their sins. That would be justice. And yet this compassionate God who has killed millions in the act of a severe mercy, sent his son, humbled, to become a man and be the perfect, sinless sacrifice for all of mankind. That is what I believe. God punishes his children, and even destroys them when they go to worship other gods. My God is a jealous God, with incredible grace to all mankind.

Wrapping up
I do not understand why so many people forbid themselves to ponder the largest questions of life, the profound cause and effect in all history, biblical truths that may disagree with mans ideas, and what is before every person’s eyes.
What critics fail to realize, is that everything has a reason. They leave out the reason for all this destruction in both the name of Allah and the name of God. God grieved when he flooded out his creation that had once been good [7]. Jews are sad when Arab children are accidentally killed due to Hamas using them as human shields. Hamas celebrates the death of Jewish school children. The Judeo-Christan ethic of life is radically different than the Islamic ethic of death. Allah commands Muslim sons to die for him. God gave his son to die for our sins.

1*according to Abraham H. Foxman in his book ‘Never Again?’
2*http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/MNHV15EHUT.DTL the article all about this frightening event. Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service. Thursday, January 22, 2009.
3*India ,Sudan , Algeria , Afghanistan , New York , Pakistan , Israel , Russia , Chechnya , the Philippines , Indonesia , Nigeria , England, , Thailand , Spain , Egypt , Bangladesh , Saudi Arabia , Ingushetia , Dagestan , Turkey , Morocco , Yemen , Lebanon , France , Uzbekistan , Gaza , Tunisia , Kosovo , Bosnia , Mauritania , Kenya , Eritrea , Syria , Somalia , California , Kuwait , Virginia , Ethiopia , Iran , Jordan , United Arab Emirates , Louisiana , Texas , Tanzania , Germany , Australia , Pennsylvania , Belgium , Denmark , Qatar , Maryl, , Tajikistan , the Netherlands , Scotland , Chad , Canada , China , Nepal , the Maldives and Argentina are a few other places where there has been terror attacks by Islam.
4*Sura (4:74) – “Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward.”
5* “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”-John 3:16.
6* The bible says Jesus is God in John 1:1. The word “Eloah” (????) in Genesis is plural of the word for God: “Elohim”. This plural form means 3 or more… referring to a confusing aspect of Christianity: the trinity. Jesus, God and the holy spirit being one and the same.
7* Genesis 6:7- “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”

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