By Dan Hennessy

“Now Ben-Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his forces together; thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, and said to him, "Thus says Ben-Hadad: 'Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are mine.'"

And the king of Israel answered and said, "My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I have are yours."

1Kings 20:1-4

Ahab, king of Israel, the son of Omri, was the seventh king of the separate kingdom of Israel, and second of his dynasty.  He reigned in Samaria for twenty-two years.

The great lesson that we learn from his life is the depth of evil that a weak man can fall into when he abandons himself to the guidance of another person whose intentions are not pure. 

At first threat from a northern thug-ocracy, Ahab was willing to give up not only his people's gold and silver, but "the best of [their] wives and children."  No matter what he does after making this unthinkable concession, a deplorable aspect of his character is established.  

Tragically, this biblical passage bears similarity to the land-for-policy advocated by a succession of Israeli Prime Ministers, to include Ehud Olmert, at the behest of the Bush Administration's Department of State.     

We read in the Bible of three campaigns which Ahab undertook against Ben Hadad II, king of Damascus, two defensive and one offensive.  Israel was victorious in the first two, but Ahab, mistakenly confident that a disguise would bring him safety in battle, was slain by a “certain man who drew a bow at a venture” (1 Kings 22:34; 2 Chronicles 18:33) while riding a chariot in the third campaign.

The historical narrative explains how the king of Israel first capitulated to a siege undertaken by Ben-Hadad II, king of Syria, by handing over to him the most precious things of Israel: silver and gold, even “the best of your wives and children.” But when Ben-Hadad comes knocking on the door again with more demands, as dictators and terrorists always do, Israel's king realizes that his enemy's intentions are total conquest. Ahab, perhaps envisioning his own eventual destruction, seeks and receives wise counsel prior to acting.  The counsel he receives from his “cabinet” of elders is brief and to the point: “Do not listen or consent.”

Ahab sends messengers declaring that this second round of demands will not be met.  Ben-Haddad, who might be viewed as a forerunner of Yassar Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, Osama ben Laden, Hassan Nasrallah, and other current leaders of the terrorist-jihadist movement, sends words through diplomatic channels that he will transform Israel to dust in the event that they refuse his “deal.” 

(Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush comes to mind here, with its "offer," through diplomatic correspondence, to treat America well if it converts to Islam.  As does Yassar Arafat's speech at the United Nations in 1974, when he was first accepted as a legitimate statesman while serving as the leader of an known terrorist organization.)
 

The cabinet of elders are again summoned and Ahab's response is firm and resolute.  Ahab attacks Syria, as encouraged by a prophet, defeating the Syrian army “with a great slaughter.”

Today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with Ehud Barak as his Defense Minister, is ready to give away “gold and silver, wives and children” again, just as Ahab did at the first threat from Ben-Hadad.  As prime minister, the current Defense Minister tried to also do this through the July 2000 Camp David talks, offering up Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and more to the Arab cause. Ariel Sharon became part of the give-away legacy, handing Gaza over to become the terrorist base it now is. 

Yassar Arafat, the Ben-Hadad of his time, rejected the wholesale offer of Barak, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Holocaust denier who fills the slot vacated by Arafat, is making it hard for Olmert to give Israel's heart away, too, wringing the life slowly from Israel's peace-seeking soul through the so-called “negotiating” process. 

After Arafat's rejection of Ehud Barak's wholesale deal, the al-Aqsa Intifada “suddenly” erupted.  Ariel Sharon’s contribution to the give-it-away cause created a new regional base of terrorist operations in Gaza.  Does anyone recall the process that gave the Sudenland to Hitler?  Does anyone see a pattern here?  Can we not predict what will happen when Abbas/Fatah/Hamas/PA rejects the next land-for-peace-deal offered by the U.S.-led alliance? 

Another violent reaction will be orchestrated and greater demands will follow.

The truth of the matter is, as stated in the Los Angeles Times by Moshe Ya'alon, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and a fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center, “before any lasting on-the-ground movement toward peace can be achieved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, foreign emissaries, as well as some Israelis, will have to shake off some long-disproved tenets of the conventional wisdom about the dispute.”

The elders of Israel told Ahab “Do not listen or consent” to demands from the enemy poised to strike at any moment.  Once committed to a policy of no-appeasement, when the prophet was asked by the king "who will start the battle?" the prophet answered, "You will."

It is a terrifying thing to realize that Ahab, one of the most weak-minded, evil kings in the history of Israel, only appeased the terrorist-king Ben-Hadad once before protecting his own (and his people’s), interests.  Since the 1992 Oslo agreement dovish Israeli governments, encouraged by the Bush Administration, have given the Arab world reason to believe that Israel has lost its will to survive.

Perhaps Ehud Olmert should read the account of Ahab's dealings with the Syrians, beginning in the twentieth chapter of 1 Kings.  Ahab died while disguised, hiding the fact that he was a king.  Israel could die as its non-leaders diguise themselves as leaders.
 

Perhaps better yet, President Bush should read the account aloud to Condoleezza Rice and stop pushing land-for-peace demands toward a two-state solution in appeasement of the enemy, as both short- and long-term policies contribute directly to the completion of the pan-Arab effort to push Israel into the Mediterranean sea. 

To disguise oneself as an enemy of terror while promoting larger terrorist objectives is a dangerous conflict of ideas.

Like pushing an entire nation in an open-air chariot into battle.

Dear Liberal Christian,

As you move through the Holocaust Museum, biblical words also appear in the circular Hall of Remembrance, a solemn space where memorial candles can be lit and an eternal flame burns.  One is a quotation from Genesis: “And the Lord said, 'What have you done?  Listen, your brother's blood is crying out from the ground.'”

Any Christian who contemplates those words—'What have you done?'—must do some soul-searching about identity as it pertains to Israel. Soul-searching regarding both genocidal events: the past one, as in the Holocaust, and the current ongoing plan of genocide implemented by the Islamic jihadists.  If one really does their homework it is painfully easy to see that, as Professor John K. Roth has put it, “…while Christianity was not a sufficient condition for the Holocaust, nevertheless, it was a necessary condition for that disaster.” 

We must confront the fact that apart from Christianity's anti-Jewish history, the Holocaust could not have happened.  And likewise, given the hypothetical occurrence of strong, unequivocal Christian resistance and protest against Nazi genocidal policy, the Holocaust may never have gotten off the ground.  The same is true today of standing with Israel against her jihadist enemies.  Silence will embolden the enemy, resistance will weaken the enemy.

Remembering what we have done wrong, or not done right, can be hard, painful work, but it can also remind us that, as post-Holocaust Christians, we must return to our roots to remind us who we are, who we ought to be as followers of the Jewish Messiah and as citizens of the spiritual commonwealth of Israel. To do so is to become what we ought to be when at our very best.  As part of our estrangement from our own identity, we must examine our hearts as to what went wrong and how we strayed so far from who we were made by God to be.  We must "Zakar!" ... in Hebrew, that is, "Remember!"

Another biblical quotation, also in the Hall of Remembrance, says this:

"Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise." 

These are words from Deuteronomy that are inscribed above the eternal flame burning near the spot where soil from the Nazi death camps is kept.  Those words should have a deep affect upon the heart of Christians who care about righting the wrong of the past by never letting Israel's enemies visit such persecution and death upon the Jewish people again.  We are witnesses.  We are our brother’s keeper.

It's significant that the words of Isaiah appear in the entry hall to the Holocaust Museum.  And it is also significant that the words of Deuteronomy appear in the Hall of Remembrance, at the end of a visit.  We begin as witnesses and we end as witnesses, telling our children the truth about the past, and what we have done today to make tomorrow different.

Do not emulate Judas Iscariot, betraying Israel as a large part of Christendom has already done, publicly blaming her for Arab terrorism and intransigence, publicly demonizing her for defending her people from Islamic jihadist hatred.  As Jesus did nothing to deserve death, neither has Israel.  Israel is certainly not sinless, but they are not deserving of extinction as a nation, either.

Wake up, be diligent in your pursuit of truth.  Be counted among the righteous.  Refuse to listen to the ghost of the voice of Nazi propaganda as heard in liberal mass media of the West, in our schools and universities, and as preached through Liberal Christianity's distorted gospel of false peace.

Be less like Cain and more like Abel, and certainly, have nothing in common with Judas Iscariot. 

Shalom... and pray for the shalom of Jerusalem,

Dan Hennessy

Dear Liberal Christian:

Just looking at it from the outside, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C is a unique building. Once inside, it is an imposing structure. Designed by James Ingo Freed, the structure, as it says on the museum’s webpage, “is not a neutral shell.” The architecture, by a collection of abstract forms invented and drawn from memory, constantly refers visitors to the unthinkable that took place not so long ago.

Inscribed on a wall as you enter the Museum are words from the prophet Isaiah: “You are my witnesses” (Isaiah 43:10). The location of the words, like everything else genius about the design of the building, is calculated for affect. It’s as if God is speaking the words directly to you, and me, the visitor, the passerby, right from the beginning. Once you step inside, you’re changed, transformed. You are about to become a witness accountable to the past, present, and future.

As Christians, whether in a religious or spiritual or strictly cultural sense, we need to acknowledge that the Holocaust is a part—a sickening part—of Christian history. And we need to actively acknowledge that in much the same way as mid-20^th century Christians were witnesses to the rise of the Nazi’s Third Reich, we, as Christians in the 21^st century, are witnesses to the rise of “the Fourth Reich”—Islamic jihadism.

It is critical—both individually and collectively—that we not “misinterpret” the events that are occurring before our eyes today, as institutional Christianity “misinterpreted” the events leading to the Holocaust.

You are a witness as I am a witness.

We live in age of information. The Bible is available to everyone. Books are available to inform us of the past. Newspapers and magazines, though often liberally biased, inform us of present affairs. The Internet puts truth, as well as propaganda and other lies, within easy reach. It takes discernment to critically assess truth. Nevertheless, we are all witnesses accountable to the truth of the testimony we give both of past and present events. You are accountable.  I am accountable.

You need to be aware of the primary document of your faith. The document that all of our presuppositions should be validated in. In that divine document, God has publicly announced that he will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. This is found in Genesis 12:3. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up. Being as simple and authoritative a divine decree as it is, I would counsel you to be careful how you represent Israel and the Jewish people to others. As the inscription of the wall attests, you are a witness. And as a witness you will be held accountable for your testimony.

We must not just think, but think critically. We are witnesses.

We need to consider the assumptions driving the words being written and said. 

If you believe the Arab-Israeli conflict is about land, you’ve been had. That's an assumption made by most people who have not done their homework thoroughly.  It’s not about land. It’s about hate.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is also not about Israel’s occupation and oppression of Arab refugees. That's an assumption promoted by the enemies of Israel and swallowed whole by a naive, liberal western mass media distribution system.  The conflict is about Arab nations exploiting their own people, leaving them hung out to dry for political purposes in the years after the war they declared against Israel in defiance of its right to exist. (You’ll find yourself “on the wrong side of the road,” like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, if you do not realize that the target of the thief in the story of the Good Samaritan is Israel, not the Arab refugees abandoned by the Arab world in 1948.)

As a witness to the ongoing effort to annihilate Israel, you’ll want to be aware that the conflict is not truthfully represented under “the law of political correctness” obeyed in the media, politicized by the Liberal Left, and, quite likely, adhered to and preached in your churches. Please realize that the “politically correct gospel” that accuses Israel of occupation and oppression instead of holding the Arab nations accountable of political treachery is a false gospel, an ideological gospel, a political gospel, not a biblical gospel. It is a propaganda tool packaged for mass consumer consumption that accuses the internationally legitimated, democratically governed, imperfect-but-peace-affirming state of Israel of being the cause of problems in the Middle East instead of placing the blame where it belongs: on the dictatorial Islamic states that sponsor terrorism, the state-sponsored Islamic schools that teach antisemitic hate to schoolchildren, the Islamic jihadist organizations that the schoolchildren ultimately join as the tools of terrorism they’ve been raised to become, and the militant mullahs who preach terrorism in their mosques in the name of Allah.

You and I are both taught that “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

As a witness, it will serve you well to realize that there is a spiritual as well as intellectual war being waged and you have been targeted for neutralization as the recipient of disinformation disseminated by a non-godly mass media information system not necessarily interested in truth.

Next: More Memory and Accountability, More Words on Walls…