Shoulders of the Philistines

It was announced last week that the United Kingdom formally recognises a Palestinian state. Sir Keir Starmer, our prime minister, said:

"In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution."

This is wonderful news for the Islamic Resistance Movement, otherwise known as Hamas, which effectively runs the territory, even though the British Government designated it a terrorist organisation back in 2021. I am not clear regarding the borders of this new state, nor whether Jewish Israelis are its citizens, nor whether Hamas’ wider aspirations to control the whole of what is now Israel are also included and recognised. Some suspect it is an unpopular British government’s attempt to shore up the Muslim vote while it sags in the polls, seeing as no previous Labour administration offered recognition.

Παλαιστίνη (‘Palaistínē’) which means Philistia and the surrounding region, reminds us that the conflicts of Old Testament vintage seem like they are still being waged, the Philistines being the ancient Israelites' implacable foes. Similarly, Mordecai the Jew appears to be grappling with a descendant of old Agag in the time and book of Esther, hundreds of years after the inititial conflict. The current troubles certainly demonstrate the long reaching consequences of the Jewish revolts of 70 and 132 AD in which leading Jews rallied behind false messiahs having rejected Jesus of Nazareth. From 135 they were exiled from their land by the Romans, and when they sought to retake it in 1948, after a few decades of British administration, it had certainly not been left vacant, ready for their return.

Discussing the Middle East is a sure way of falling out with folk, or worse. Well might Zechariah the prophet declare in chapter 12 verse 3 of his book:

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

‘That day’ may not be this day, but the prophecy’s first clause certainly applies. For its peace, therefore, we pray.

Image by DEZALB from Pixabay