Introduction:
You are going on a learning excursion of the land of Israel, the land of the Patriarchs, of the kingdom of David and Solomon, of the First and Second temple, the land of Jesus and the birthplace of Christianity. This is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, one of the smallest nations on earth that has contributed so much to world civilization. Jerusalem, its capital for more than 3000 years, which is probably the oldest capital of any live nation, was home to the Judean kings and to the great prophets. It is the place where Jesus walked and where he will walk again at the end of days.. It is a place that saw not only the sorrows of destruction and death but many miracles as well. Jerusalem saw the miraculous defeat of Sennacherib’s mighty Assyrian army. It saw its people return from exile and its defensive walls resurrected by Nehemiah against all odds. It saw its people liberated by the brave Maccabean warrior priests who saved Judaism from extinction. It saw the resurrection of Christ. And now on this trip you will witness another miracle – you will see Jerusalem, from where Christianity evolved, liberated again and rebuilt by its faithful Jewish people after 2000 years of conquest and subjugation.
You will also see another miracle -- how in less than a century a desolate arid land has been changed by its devoted ancient native people into a highly productive modern country, second in scientific and technological innovation only to the US and Japan. This land was desolate but not God forsaken. Another miracle you are going to see is how masses of destitute, persecuted refugees from all over the world were integrated in a highly industrious society. Within less than 60 years, under duress of continuous Islamic hostility, this society developed one of the most powerful defense forces on this planet.
You may have heard the anecdote about Napoleon, the non-believer, who asked one of his learned advisors: “Can you give me any proof that God exists?” “The Jews, Sir” was the answer. I may add to this “Jewish Jerusalem,” which you will explore on this trip. Jewish Jerusalem is a proof of the resilience of the Jewish people and of their uncompromising loyalty to their homeland and its capital.
You may not realize this, but you will be visiting Fort Israel. The State of Israel is the most exposed outpost in the frontier between Western civilization and the world of Islam. This is where Islam is trying to break through and vanquish Western civilization by conquering and destroying the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity. Muslims would use this intended conquest, combined with the eradication of the Jewish people worldwide, as proof of the superiority of their supremacist religion and its barbaric ethics (by Western standards) over Judeo-Christian ethics and beliefs. As long as the Muslims have not acquired competitive warfare technology they will use terrorism (a form of psychological warfare) as their major tool of aggression. The prime goal of Islamic terrorism is the takeover of the Land of Israel, the root of Judeo-Christian tradition and culture. A political victory of Islamic terrorists in the Holy Land would be a fatal breach in the skirmish line with Islam; a breach which would herald the fall of Western civilization.
In this guidebook you will learn about Judaism, the Jewish people and their old-new land. This will help you to understand Christianity better as well as the need to protect the Land of Israel from surrender and defeat. The defeat of the Land of Israel and of the Jewish people by Islam would be also the defeat of Christianity and of its culture that is based on Judaic ethics.
You are living in a privileged and unprecedented time witnessing Israel in its both glory and predicament under Islamic assault. You have learned about the crucifixion of the Jewish people, the Shoah (i.e., the Holocaust), but now you are about to embark on the journey of personally witnessing the resurrection of the Jewish people. “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;” (Isaiah 62:6) Following your experience in this learning excursion you are going to join the watch of the peace of Jerusalem and help to defend it from its enemies. These enemies include not only Muslim supremacists but also anti-Jewish atheists. What you will witness with your own eyes and what you will learn from books, including this booklet, will be your lance and sword you will have to use carry defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people against their detractors on campus and elsewhere.
There is an old Chinese saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” We agree with Chinese. So we included in this booklet many maps and pictures to convey to you pertinent information in an enjoyable and manner.
As many Americans, you may have a non-realistic picture of Israel and the Israelis. When you use the TV to learn about Israel you find that
Israel is presented as a war zone where fighting and terror attacks are going on daily. You will be presented with dead bodies, bombed building
and burned out skeletons of municipal buses. The TV camera focuses on the plight of victims caught in the crossfire. Many make the assumption
that the State of Israel equals living life under the gun. What we fail to realize beyond the headlines of the news is that in the midst of these
challenges, the vast majority of Israelis, 6.7 million to be exact, go about their daily lives, thriving in a metropolis. Just like America, people go
about their 9-5 lives.
If you remember the aftermath 9/11, the US continued to go on with daily life. This was indeed a tragic event, but it did not put a halt to life as
a whole. The U.S. goes through all the colors of emergency alerts, but the nation still soars high and goes on with daily business as usual. The
same happens in Israel. Even though many painful tragedies have occurred, and many Israeli civilians have been murdered or maimed, the hustle
and bustle of life continues to prosper. Israelis will continue to dine, club, and celebrate life.
If you are interested in the background and the “root causes” of this conflict you can learn very little from the TV commentary sound bites or
from the 100-second debates of “We report you decide.” If you want to learn more from editorials in newspapers and magazines, you will often
find highly biased anti-Israeli op-eds in the most prestigious press. We will discuss later the “root causes” of this behavior of the press, which tries
to manipulate public opinion to condemn Israel, no matter what it does. You can find more reliable information in books, but who has time to
read them? On this excursion you will learn much more than you ever could from the media. What is most important, you will not see much
violence or its aftermaths; if you are lucky you will see none. What you will see is a vibrant country with people from all over the world who are
busy maintaining one of the most productive societies on earth, surrounded by countries with extremely stagnant societies. This tremendous
difference, which is manifested in a 20-fold difference in the standard of living, is one of the root causes of the animosity expressed by violence
against the modern Jewish state.
Understanding the Past, Embracing the Future: An overview of Jewish-Christian relations
Christians who will use this book and wish to defend the Land of Israel, the cradle of Judaism, should realize the main conceptual differences
between Judaism and Christianity, its daughter religion. Since biblical times, the Jews have been characterized by their monotheistic faith to
their one and only God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the eternal Covenant. They pray six times a day, or more, to the
god of their forefathers who redeemed them (their ancestors) from the land of Egypt. (Following Jewish tradition every Jew must consider
himself as having been liberated from Egypt. The belief in their unique God is the first of the Ten Commandment. Rabbinic Judaism imposes
its most severe punishment – excommunication, only on a Jew who worships another god. Ritual transgressions are of lesser importance in
Judaism and can be fully forgiven following appropriate repentance. On the other hand, Judaism is non-compromising on ethical transgressions
that cannot be tolerated or forgiven under any circumstances if committed by a Jewish person. The Great Prophets, whose sayings have shaped
Judaism over hundreds of years, often spoke out and denounced worship of other (pagan) gods, but their main concern was unethical behavior
that is unforgivable. Also Jesus who was raised in the Jewish tradition was deeply concerned about ethics and spoke out against unethical
behavior, like the Great Prophets before him
Judaism embodies a combination of religious (theological and ritual), ethical (social and societal) and national (ethnic and political) meanings. The
ethnic meaning of Judaism is manifested by the fact that Jews relate to their familial forefathers who were personally bound to God by a
covenant (“God of the Covenant”). The political meaning of Judaism entails the affinity of all Jews to the Promised Land, the Land of Israel.
This affinity is an integral part of Judaism since its inception. The Land of Israel is a specified part of the Covenant ”On that day the LORD
made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land…” (Genesis 15:18). Consequently, the defense of Judaism amounts
to defense of the rights of the Jewish people to their land and vice versa, the defense of the right of the Jewish nation to the land of Israel
amounts to the defense of Judaism.
Although Jews and Christians share a common heritage and have lived in close proximity for 2000 years, they have developed distinct ways of
understanding and celebrating the world and its relationship with God. The new religion developed a different theology, while advocating
practically the same ethics. Christianity, unlike Judaism, started as a pacifistic apolitical religious movement distinct from nationalistic Judaism.
This allowed its spread way beyond the geographic and ethnic confines of Judaism, a spread that was facilitated and accelerated by giving up
most of the Judaic ritual commandments (Paul) and becoming a global religion. The Jewish physical attachment to Jerusalem has become a
conceptual or spiritual attachment in Christianity, yet both faiths share the vision of centrality of Jerusalem at the End of Days:
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1,2)
Unlike dogmatic Catholic Christianity, Judaism continued to interpret and reinterpret the scriptures and until the 19th Century all Jews read and understood the Hebrew Scriptures. Rabbis are learned resource people without any special holiness, and each individual Jew must determine his or her relationship with God. In the historical development of Christianity Martin Luther’s Protestantism brought Christianity conceptually closer to traditional Judaism by removing the role of the clergy as intermediaries between man and God and by offering the Bible in vernacular language. The different translations of the Bible constitute in effect different interpretations of the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts.
In parallel with believers who take the scriptures literally, attributing to each phrase and verse an intrinsic holiness, there has evolved an effort to analyze and better understand the scriptures in historical context without trying to deal with theological issues. This research has received a tremendous boost from the discovery of ancient texts, especially the Dead Sea scrolls. This research, which has estimated the dates when the different books in the bible were written, has also demonstrated the closeness of Christian and Jewish ideologies beliefs at the beginnings of the first millennium. Christianity was at its beginnings a Jewish sect with unique Messianic beliefs. For two centuries there were Jewish Christians distinct from Pauline gentile Christians, in addition there were numerous Christian sects with distinctly different theologies. Only in the fourth Century did Christianity separate completely from Judaism and chose a course, which led it to be antagonistic to its parent faith.
This stated, it is clear that Judaism and Christianity have much more common between them than is generally known. Realizing that Christianity is a global, non-territorial religion and Judaism is an ethnic religion bound to a specific piece of land, the Land of Israel, these two worldviews do not compete with each other. The misconception of certain Christians that Christianity has superceded Judaism, which then should vanish, has been proven wrong. Very few Christians adhere today to this view. Today, most Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, recognize Judaism as the original source of Christianity and the validity of the Covenant with Abraham as binding the Jews to their ancient homeland.
Defending the Judea-Christian tradition and beliefs against supremacist Islam implies defending the historical rights of the Jew people to their ancient homeland, the Holy Land, where both Judaism and Christianity emerged. The Arab – Israeli conflict is a religion-motivated war. Defending the eternal city of Jerusalem and its holy sites from conquest, subjugation and destruction by people who invalidate Judaism and scorn Christianity as a pagan religion, is an obligation of both Jews and Christians. This you must keep in mind during your visit of modern Israel.
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