By Douglas V. Gibbs; Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
The Promised Land was settled by Israel a thousand years before Christ. The Hebrews were led to the land by Moses and Joshua. The Land of Canaan was promised to the Israelites by God, Genesis 17:8; Exodus 6:4, with the name Canaan first appearing in documents around 1,500 BC. Mention of the Land of Canaan predominates most secular mentions of the real estate in the Bible in the four books of Genesis, Numbers, Joshua, and Judges. While no single geographical definition for the land of Canaan exists in the Bible (Num. 34:2–12; Ezek. 47:13–20; 48:1–7, 23–29) or in other sources, Canaan has been understood to encompass an extensive area encompassing all of Palestine and Syria, or in some cases limited to a strip of land along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Joshua 15:2-4 establishes the southern boundary, and Joshua 19:24-31 establishes the northern border, but there is no mention to how far inland the land reached.
The birth and life of Jesus Christ occurred in Israel, making the same region the birthplace of Christianity. Early Christians were Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament, but the political and religious leadership of the day rejected the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, which ultimately led to the Crucifixion of Christ and a conflict between early Christians and Jewish leadership.
Islam was born in 610 AD in Mecca, a city near the Red Sea along the west coast of Saudi Arabia. Once established, the bloodthirsty political system masking as a religion took over most of the eastern and southern Mediterranean region by 636. Not one group ever maintained total control over the Holy Land, and the spread of Islam into Europe, and Israel, led Christian church and national leaders in Europe to form armies to push Islam out of Europe, and to gain control of the Holy Land. Christians, Jews and Muslims all lived in the region that is Israel today, but Islam largely politically controlled the lands throughout the reign of the Ottoman Empire, 1299-1922.
For about a hundred years, beginning in 1847, a strong modern movement known as Zionism began calling for the scattered members of Israel to be able to resettle their land, and reestablish an independent Jewish state, ideally where God had originally placed them after Moses led them out of Egypt.
During World War I the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and Britain gained control of much of the region in the Middle East in and around ancient Israel. In 1917, the British signed the Balfour Declaration which promised the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the region. Anti-Jewish riots and conflict arose, with the Islamic population in the region claimed it was an attempt by the Jews to steal their land. Under pressure, Britain allowed both Jewish and Islamic settlements in the land, leaving some Palestine land open for Muslim control. As World War II raged, Jews from Europe flocked to Palestine, leading Britain to eventually limit the flow of immigrants into the region to 75,000 Jews per year. After World War II reached its conclusion the debate on what to do with the lands became more volatile, leading Britain to grant The West Bank region, including East Jerusalem, to Islam. Muslims claimed it was not enough. They believed the entire land must belong to them; that there should be no Jews allowed in the region.
In 1948, Israel was granted statehood and immediately the surrounding Islamic countries launched a war against the fledgling country.
In 1967, the Muslim neighbors of Israel launched another attack in what became known as the Six Day War. Israel won the war and gained total control over the lands, but Israel allowed Muslims to continue to live in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israel created military control over those regions, however, in an attempt to maintain peace. With East Jerusalem under Israeli control, for the first time in centuries, Jerusalem was whole again.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) rose out of the Palestinian regions, having as its mission to end Israel’s occupation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and ultimately to end Israel’s existence completely. Hamas emerged in Gaza, also embracing a mission to totally wipe out Israel, and to kill every Jew in the world.
For two years a new invasion of Israel has been under construction. On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants broke through Israel’s complex border security system at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, attacking nearby towns, and killing hundreds of people while also taking hostages. Further north Hamas, on October 8, breached the Erez Crossing, also attacking towns near their entry point, expanding their murderous rampage through southern Israel. Hamas called the attacks “only the beginning” of a long war against Israel. Hezbollah, out of Lebanon, normally a group not fond of Hamas, has allied with their southern brethren in the current war against Israel, attacking the tiny Jewish state from the north, as well.
The United States, a dominantly Christian country, and Israel, have been allies since the beginning of Israel’s modern existence. We have treaties together to look out for each other, and the United States has historically always supported Israel. Islam sees America as the Great Satan (Christian country) and Israel as the Little Satan (Jewish country) and it is their goal to destroy both so that Israel becomes solely a land of Islam, rather than one of three faiths.
Outside players are also in on the game; Iran, China and Russia participated in the cyber attack that opened up Israel’s defenses and allowed Hamas to pour across the border. Now, I ask one simple question; “Is this a trap to not only decimate Israel, but to draw the United States into a protracted Middle East War that, with the current leadership, we have neither the military strength, nor political will, to win?”
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Dear Mr. Doug,
You wrote:
“Islam sees America as the Great Satan (Christian country) and Israel as the Little Satan (Jewish country) and it is their goal to destroy both so that Israel becomes solely a land of Islam, rather than one of three faiths.”
Actually it isn’t “Islam” who sees this but extremist muslim leaders like the late Ayatollah Khomeini and the infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden who were both fond of referring to the United States as “the great Satan.”
…Do all Muslims agree with this radical assessment of America? What do Muslims like bin Laden actually mean when they make this accusation? How could anyone come to view America this way? And is there any objective rational justification for such a viewpoint?
What could possibly generate such hatred toward America? Why would anyone call for an attack killing thousands of American citizens, mostly civilians, in the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and on United Flight 93? The following dogmas motivate Al-Qaeda’s desire:
Zionism promotes the establishment of an Israeli state. Bin Laden incites anger with the view that Western colonial and imperialist powers (the United States and Great Britain) took Islamic land away from Palestinians and gave it to Islam’s enemy, the Jews. The Israelis espouse different religious beliefs and simply represent an extension of a greater evil, that evil being America…
America flexes its power and imposes its will and political ideas on innocent Islamic people. America unduly exercises economic and political influence on autonomous Islamic nations and thus weakens their Islamic identity and independence.
Al-Qaeda views the West, and particularly America, as embracing a decadent philosophy of life, especially in the area of moral values. They fiercely resent the West’s permissive view of sexuality…
Today’s Islam is not a purely monolithic religion. Certainly not all the world’s estimated 1.2 billion Muslims think alike, just as not all the world’s estimated 2 billion Christians (Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants) think alike…
One reason for the current growth of Islamic fundamentalism may be that many Islamic countries, as totalitarian theocracies, deny their people basic civil rights—such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. Thus, Islamic fundamentalist propaganda deeply shapes the view of America held by many millions of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere. Many Muslims around the world therefore lack an objective view of America…
America has shown a great deal of goodwill specifically toward Islamic countries in the last twenty years. The United States helped Afghanistan defend against the raw aggression of the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s. America drove Saddam Hussein’s invading Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and protected a vulnerable Saudi Arabia in the Gulf War during the early 1990s. In Somalia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, America intervened by sending goods and military forces to protect Muslims.
Though admittedly far from perfect, America is a decent and generous country. In light of this goodness, if America is indeed the great Satan, then the Devil has converted.
Reasons.org
Kenneth Samples (above article) quoted in part.
September 20, 2011