The Washington Times
OPINION:
GRAPEVINE, Texas — House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast has just issued a directive to his staff to refer to Judea and Samaria in Israel as Judea and Samaria — not the West Bank, as Palestinians and much of the international community call it. Prepare for more similar shakeup.
A growing and influential community of Jewish and Christian leaders in America and Israel have just petitioned President Trump to do the same — or more to truth, to stand back and just let Israel do the same without interference.
If any U.S. president would make that move and make that proclamation, it’d be Trump. He’s the president, after all, who dared to declare the capital of Israel as Jerusalem and to move the U.S. Embassy to Israel accordingly. That was Dec. 6, 2017 — the day America officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital, and subsequently relocated the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The nail-biters in government bit their nails and warned of wars and uprisings and chaos to come. They were wrong; their hysterical predictions were largely unrealized. But fast-forward a few years and now Trump stands to oversee a similarly politically and religiously charged action.
“There is no such thing as the West Bank,” said Troy Miller, CEO of National Religious Broadcasters, during an event of the American Christian Leaders for Israel at NRB in Grapevine, Texas. “There is only Judea and Samaria. … This is the land God has given to the Jewish people.”
The fight over Judea and Samaria is not so much about land and geography as it is about biblical truths and religious warring. Palestinians, Muslims and much of the international community, to include anti-Semites and terror group sympathizers, accuse Jews of illegally occupying the territories — ignoring historical and biblical facts that Jews have always lived in Judea. The land is holy to Christians, as well; Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea; Jesus walked and taught and evangelized in Samaria.
Names matter.
To erase the names of Judea and Samaria is to erase their histories. And to erase their histories is to allow for different histories to take their place.
Thus — the warring within the region.
But the time, they are a-changin’.
It’s not just America’s political system that took a turn toward conservatism this past election season. It’s America’s culture and foreign affairs that have shifted in decidedly pro-Israel fashion.
This is not Joe Biden’s “let’s make a deal with terrorist devils” White House any more. There’s a new commander-in-chief in town, and Trump, along with all those he’s brought as part of his team, have signaled a return to America First — Israel Our Friend times. The word is already echoing around Israel.
“It feels like a dream,” said Josh Reinstein, director of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus and the president of the Israel Allies Foundation, and a key host of the NRB event. “We are truly living in biblical times.”
The groups are pressing Trump, via a written petition, to stand alongside, silently if not overtly, Israel’s affirmation of Judea and Samaria as sovereign Jewish lands. After all, inalienable rights don’t require the permission of others, right?
The petition, in part, states: “Whereas the Jewish people have an enduring historical and biblical connection to Judea and Samaria, also known as the biblical heartland; whereas Judea and Samaria contain some of the most significant biblical sites … The undersigned signatories reaffirm the Jewish people’s inalienable right to the Biblical Heartland of Israel and reject all efforts — both from the United States and the international community — to pressure the Jewish people to relinquish their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria.”
The Jewish people don’t really need Trump or the United States to declare Judea and Samaria Israeli lands. They just need Trump and the United States, and the entire world, for that matter, to leave them alone to decide for themselves how best to label and populate those lands. But it’d be a good move for Team Trump to take. God does make clear that those who bless Israel will be blessed by God; conversely, those who curse Israel will be cursed by God. America can stand some blessings.
Besides, from a Jewish and Christian perspective, it’s abundantly clear: the Bible speaks of Judea and Samaria, but not the West Bank. The Bible tells who God gave the land to, as well, and guess what, lookie here, it’s the Jewish people. Read Genesis. Read Joshua. Read the Bible and see.
It’s only common sense — truth and common sense — to call these lands by their God-given names and to accept them as the home for God’s chosen Jewish people.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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