America Foreign Policy gone Wrong
Our problem in the Middle East is that we support Invaders
On October 7, HAMAS attacked Israel.
We have all seen and heard the endless news reports: we have all seen Netanyahu and Biden talk about how vicious this attack was, how HAMAS is such a ruthless terrorist organization.
And I’ve simply had enough: Americans are once again being lied to about the war between Israel and Palestine.
YES, HAMAS is a terrorist group that led the attack on October 7th. And yes, HAMAS is now ruling the Gaza Strip and has been unwilling to deal with Israel.
But would you deal with someone who broke into your home and tried to kill you, or would you fight like hell against them?
Let’s look at a Reader’s Digest version of the history of the area. And don’t—PLEASE DON’T—tell me that nothing in the past could justify HAMAS’ action on October 7. Once you know the history, you may change your mind.
By now, you probably know that Israel was established by a United Nations resolution in 1947. The area known as Palestine had been under British rule for thirty years when at the end of World War II, Britain decided it was time to leave.
The 1947 resolution establishing Israel gave the nation of Israel more than half of the land in Palestine.
The Arab nations around Palestine, as well as the people living there at the time, immediately declared war against the new nation of Israel, but suffered defeats in 1948, 1967, and 1973. Each time, Israel took—and kept—more land.
Backed by powerful allies like the United States, which had no other ally in the region, Israel was well-equipped to fight off the efforts by the “natives” to reclaim their land.
Natives? Does that sound familiar?
Let me be clear: Israel was the invader in 1947. They forced themselves on the native Palestinians, and used military might provided by the U.S. to maintain control over the land they took.
Many have argued that the Jews, or Hebrews if you will, have a historical claim to the land which predates that of the Palestinian people. They claim a biblical story gives them claim over the land.
Let’s take a look.
Jacob and his family leave the Land of Canaan (Palestine)
Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.
Genesis 46:5-7
Jacob, who God had renamed Israel, left Canaan due to drought and famine to go to Egypt, where his son Joseph had been appointed Governor, directly under Pharaoh. They left Palestine—then known as Canaan—willingly, and the Palestinian people who continued to live there took title to the land. Details are not provided as to whether Jacob owned any land, as he was a goat herder—a nomad—and moved his flocks from place to place. The key is that Jacob, and his entire family, left of their own accord.
The Exodus
The family of Jacob spent more than 400 years in Egypt. Over this period, they became known as Hebrews living in Goshen, and were slaves to Pharaoh. There is scant archeological evidence that the Hebrews were forced out of Egypt, but they did leave, and—after 40 years in the desert to purge them of their sin—ended up crossing the River Jordan back into the Canaan, “the land of milk and honey” they believed was promised to them by the God.
It seems to me that after 400 years, no one has any claim to anything they left behind willingly. The family of Jacob, which became the Hebrew nation living in Goshen, had not been carried away against their will: they simply left the Canaan.
Many in this country can relate to this: think about a family that has worked a farm or ranch for generations. Could the owners from a few hundred years simply show up and lay claim to the land—without a fight from the farmer? I don’t think so. After any reasonable amount of time—like 400 years—no one should expect to lay claim to a land they left previously, and even doubly so when they could provide no evidence of any claim other than “God gave it to us.”
Sorry, Israel, but you have no legal right to that land.
It is important to note here that in the story of Jacob, in Genesis 46, when God tells Jacob to go to Egypt, God didn’t promise to give Jacob any land upon his return:
“Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”
Genesis 46: 3,4
God promises to bring Jacob/Israel back to Canaan, but in this verse, there is no mention of giving him land being lived on by others.
The Assault of the Natives
As the Hebrew nation came back to Canaan, God ordered them to destroy the people who lived there: God detested how these people prayed to other gods, and he would have none of it, so he ordered Joshua—now the head of the Hebrew nation—to attack and completely destroy the villages and towns in Canaan, leaving none alive.
"This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
1 Samuel 15: 2,3
Let me repeat that verse:
“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants…”
This is the order of the God of the Bible: to attack and kill every living soul in this community, including the children and the babies.
So much for Pro-Life.
When the Hebrews came back to Canaan after 400 years--under God's orders, supposedly--they were invaders. They invaded the land of Canaan and began killing everyone living there at the time.
Everyone.
On God’s orders.
The folks living there, the Palestinians, called by many different names in the Bible, were simply defending their land against the invaders.
When the Europeans landed on this continent in the late 15th century and beyond, they were invaders. They invaded the land of North and South America and began killing everyone living there at the time.
The Native people on this land have been ruthlessly removed from the land by force: the Palestinian people have also been ruthlessly removed from their land by force.
Unfortunately, the United States is involved in both crimes.
On this continent, European nations used the Doctrine of Discovery to justify claiming the land for God and King: 15th century popes wrote numerous papal bulls granting the land here to those who claimed it for God.
Today, and since the beginning of the new Israel in 1947, the United States has also used the Bible as a foundation for its foreign policy concerning support for Israel.
Another verse from the Book of Genesis gives rise to the belief that American Christians must support Israel:
“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3
The foreign policy of the United States supports an invader nation: Israel.
And then there was Ukraine
The irony in all of this is that Ukraine—a nation being invaded by Russia-is being supported by the United States in its fight for freedom from the invader.
There is little difference in these battles: both have one side that has overwhelming power fighting to destroy the underdog. Both underdogs have the moral position of being justified in their fight to resist those overwhelming nations.
But there seems to be a critical problem that U.S. Foreign policy has run smack into: in one instance, the U.S supports the underdog; in the other, the U.S. supports the criminal invader.
In one instance, the U.S supports the underdog; in the other, the U.S. supports the criminal invader.
Trying to find a reason behind this illogical choice is easier than you might think: racism.
Policy is written by people, and people write policy based on their own beliefs: if the U.S. supports one nation that has been invaded while at the same time opposes a different nation that has been invaded—and instead stands with the invader—there must be a deeply-rooted separation in the belief system of those who created that dichotomy.
The United States of America has its roots deep in racism.
From the days when White Europeans landed here and called the Natives “savages,” and took their land.
From the days when the White Christians kidnapped Africans and brought them here in the bottom of slave ships to work the stolen land.
The White Man that built this nation did so with racism at its foundation, and today our foreign policy is still rooted in that racism.
The Story of Ham
From Genesis:
“The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.”
Genesis 9:18-26
Ham was the father of the land of Canaan, and of Cush (Egypt), and Put (Libya): all brown-skinned people. Noah declared that Canaan should be slaves to his brothers, and those verses in Genesis gave rise in this nation to the notion that slavery was permitted and even condoned by the God of the Bible. Slavery, like racism, has its roots in the Bible.
Slavery was permitted and even condoned by the God of the Bible.
“Slaveholding southern Christians often justified the institution of slavery by appealing to the so-called Curse of Ham (Gen 9:22-29). In their interpretation, which first surfaced in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, the Genesis account establishes that God wills black people to be enslaved perpetually.”
The racism that developed on this continent has its roots deep in the Bible: whether the faithful interpreted these verses incorrectly is not for discussion here: slavery endured here for hundreds of years. Racism continues still today.
The racism that began here—that targeted brown and dark-skinned humans for centuries—today rears its ugly head in our nation’s foreign policy, evidenced by our government’s support of an invader over a brown-skinned underdog.
Ukrainians are white; Palestinians are brown. Palestinians are the children of Canaan, of Ham.
Americans, for the most part, are ignorant of our own history regarding how this nation was built on the blood of Natives and slaves; our ignorance of Palestinian history is far worse. Unfortunately, too many Americans have received much of what they believe about history from the Bible, which is clearly not an accurate historical document.
God orders the destruction of Palestine
If you are an Israeli, fighting against HAMAS and the Palestinian people, you can easily locate a biblical (Torah) justification for your actions: you are simply carrying out the orders of your god: to “attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them…[to] not spare them [but] put to death men and women, children and infants.”
One must understand that Israel got the idea to kill all the Palestinians from the Bible: It was their God who ordered the murder of the Palestinian people for simply defending their land.
And it is that same God from the Bible that requires his followers—like many in the United States today—to support Israel—even when it is a murdering invader.
Israel will stop at nothing until every Palestinian is dead, even though many in Israel no longer support their own government.
Unfortunately, U. S. government policy has failed in more than seven decades to demand that Israel come to the bargaining table and make peace with Palestine. Our foreign policy continues to support Israel when logically it can be argued that Israel is an invader that must be expelled like Russia.
And every day the United States continues to support Israel is another day Palestinians die fighting to get their land back.
Back in the days of Jacob, and Joseph,and Joshua, Israel has no claim to the land of Canaan other than what their God gave them. In 1948, Israel has no claim to Palestine other than what the U.N. gave them. Both times, Israel has been the invader, and both times they have been hell-bent on put[ting] to death men and women, children and infants.
War never leads to Peace; killing never leads to Life. The actions of both sides have brought about the deaths of far too many people over centuries.
Was HAMAS justified? Is Ukraine justified when they attack Russia and its troops?
Are they terrorists or are they fighting for their freedom?
War can never be justified when innocent people die, but now having a better look at the history of Palestine—of Canaan—one might begin to empathize with those who are tired of trying to extricate an evil enemy supported by a racist friend.
Israel needs to get out of Gaza, out of the West Bank, and agree to find a solution where all can live together in peace. The United States must demand Israel work to make peace or face an end to American aid. Israel will continue to fight—and kill--in this land they have invaded as long as the United States continues to support them.
The Bible is the root of racism, slavery, and White Christian nationalism in this nation, and should not be used as a historical reference. I use it here to demonstrate the lunacy of its content.
© Radical Liberal 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Thank you for this article. I truly had no clue about the history and having in the last decade, become an atheist, I no longer go to any church and no longer care much to read the bible. This is very enlightening and I've shared it on FB.