Israel and the land

RABBI Yehiel E. Poupko does an excellent job of laying out a mainstream Jewish perspective on biblical claims to the "twice promised land" ("Land grant," May 15). His perspective must be factored into any discussion that gives serious consideration to the concerns and claims of both Israelis and Palestinians.

In making his case, however, Rabbi Poupko fails to address a crucial factor in the conflict. "The renewal of the Jewish people in their homeland" has led to the displacement and marginalization of the Palestinian people from their homeland. The rabbi says that "our return to our homeland does not preclude the possibility of others living on this very same land," which is to say: "They can live here, but only by our leave. We will determine the parameters of their existence." This is hardly a sentiment that gives hope for a negotiated settlement.

John Hubers

Chicago, Ill.

Rabbi Poupko's article fails to address several important issues:

1. What about the people of Canaan, who were replaced by the incoming Israelites under Joshua, often with bloodshed bordering on genocide? Interestingly, Rabbi Poupko never mentions the Palestinians (modern Canaan) either.

2. If God's promises made to Abraham were "forever," why have there been 2,000 years of failure to hold on to the "land grant"? The land being promised "forever" was from "the River of Egypt to the Euphrates." Does that mean we can expect Israel to eventually expand its borders all the way to Iraq in fulfillment of the promise?

3. Modern Israel was born out of nationalistic sentiments (Zionism) and humanitarian concerns for the Jewish people after the Holocaust. Christians were very much involved in this effort. The World Council of Churches joined in not because of eschatologica] hopes, unlike the dispensationalists, but because of a concern to help the Jewish people find their home. Zionism alone would never have succeeded without the full support of Christians in Europe and America.

4. Judaism, locked in its land-based theology, will have a hard time answering its call to "bring blessing to the world through its life." Jesus released Judaism from that bind, and through him we have a gospel that fulfills that dream. How will Judaism, tied again to the land, now free itself to address the world?

Vartkes M. Kassouni

Morningside Presbyterian Church,

Fullerton, Calif.

What a curious defense of Israel by Rabbi Poupko. His argument is premised on the notion that the Hebrew scriptures constitute a divine land claim. But how can Hebrew scriptures, written by Hebrews about Hebrews and for Hebrews, constitute a universal land claim for alleged "ancestral" territory? The present-day Palestinians who possess Canaanite ancestry actually have the truest claim to the land and might even cite those same Hebrew scriptures to attest to it.

As hard as Rabbi Poupko tries to distinguish Israel today from the "people of God," present-day Israel, identifying exclusively with Judaism, remains an embarassment to all peoples of faith. In fact, Israel's behavior in the Middle East, especially toward the Palestinians--with the collusion or indifference of the international community, particularly the U.S.--is disgraceful and immoral, not a "light unto the nations."

Lawrence Pushee

Toronto, Ont.

Thanks to the CHRISTIAN CENTURY for encouraging dialogue between Christians and Jews by publishing articles such as "Land grant." We Christians need to repent of the malign results of Augustine's teaching that only Christians are the people of God because God cast off the Jews when they rejected Jesus.

Rabbi Poupko encourages confusion, however, by implying that there is an equivalence of Jews, Judaism and Israel. Though intricately interrelated, these three entities are not coterminous. Rabbi Poupko offers a view generally approved by the three chief branches of Judaism as a religion, but many Jews are nonreligious and some are aggressively atheistic. Fewer than half of the world's Jews have returned to their ancient homeland. All descendants of Abraham and Sarah, divinely chosen to be the people of God with promise of the land, may be properly referred to as Israel, but the political nation of Israel is by no means so comprehensive. The borders of the land called Israel have never been defined, yet Israelis always want more.

Biblical terminology distinguishes between people, 'am, and nation, goy. Redeemed from Egypt as the "people of God" ('am yhwh), united to God by the eternal covenant of Sinai based on Torah, and settled on the land, Israel was to keep separate from the "nations" (goyim). Dissatisfied with their special status, they lusted to "become like all the nations." Rejecting God's warning through the prophet Samuel, these people turned themselves into a nation based on military security, only to be destroyed by Assyrian and Babylonian empires. A century of warlike Hasmonean sovereignty rotted inwardly and fell to Rome.