Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley was recently asked about a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian cycle of violence—following a future cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
She responded that “it is not a true conversation” because Palestinians and Iran “don’t want it.” The Republican presidential candidate said that, when she was working at the United Nations, “It was never Israel opposing a two-state solution.” She elaborated, “It was always the Palestinians and Iran opposing a two-state solution. They never wanted that because they wanted to eliminate Israel altogether.”
As the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 2017, Haley officially supported our government’s position of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. However, as a current presidential candidate, Haley went on to describe a visit to the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, where she saw graffiti everywhere, demonstrating hatred and inciting aggression toward Jews.
Even student textbooks were used to inflame and frame the anti-Israel worldview, saying things like, “You have five Israeli soldiers, and you kill four Israeli soldiers; how many Israeli soldiers are left?”
Positions of Other Candidates
Upon the recent release of some of the Oct. 7 Hamas hostages from Gaza, President Joe Biden spoke about ending “this cycle of violence in the Middle East.” He added, “We renew our resolve to pursue this two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side in a two-state solution with equal measure of freedom and dignity, two states for two peoples.”
Commenting on the premise of a two-state solution, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “Stop trying to say that it’s incumbent upon Israel to adopt a ‘two-state solution.’ Can you please explain to me, how are you supposed to have a two-state solution with people that don’t believe in your right to exist as a Jewish state? It doesn’t happen, you can’t do it.”
While former President Donald Trump has not directly spoken about a two-state solution since the Oct. 7 attack, in January 2020, he released a peace plan for the Middle East, which he called a “realistic two-state solution.” However, it was rejected by Palestinian leaders in both the West Bank and Gaza.
Two States for Two Peoples?
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died this week at the age of 100. The polarizing senior statesman shared in a German television interview just days after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel. He said that while one might wish to have everything revert to the apparent peaceful conditions of the area just before the attacks, “you can’t make concessions to people who have declared and demonstrated by their actions that they cannot make peace.”
Hamas terrorists hold to the extreme Islamic ideology that glorifies death and dying. They actively recruit murderers and martyrs as a religious duty. Many faithful Muslims in the Middle East perversely celebrate publicly when non-Muslims are maimed and murdered. Such were the horrific results of the Oct. 7 attacks on the innocent sleeping civilians in the Israeli desert.
The Jewish prophet Isaiah warned of the “day of the Lord” (Isa. 13:6-7, 9, 11, NKJV), a fearful period of time when God judges the world with His indignation, for rejecting Him and His covenant people, the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Hostile border nations will reap what they have sown over the centuries against God’s chosen people.
“I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud and lay low the haughtiness of the terrible [or tyrants]” (Isa. 13:11).
The prophet Obadiah ties Israel’s border nations to a future war and the coming “day of the Lord.” A terrible conflict will erupt between the “House of Jacob,” the Jews and the “House of Esau,” possibly ancestors of the Palestinian Arabs (Gen. 25:30, 36:1-43). In Obadiah 1, verses 18 -19 indicate, in that future day, the Palestinians will be totally driven from the land promised to the “House of Jacob.”
Reasons for this divine punishment are given in verses 10 -14. The people of ancient Edom (part of modern Jordan) committed violence against their close relatives (Hebrew, “your brother Jacob” in Israel. They did not “lift a finger to help when foreign invaders carried off their wealth and cast lots to divide up Jerusalem. “You acted as though you were one of Israel’s enemies” (v. 11). They plundered the land and gloated over Israel’s destruction and exile.
Following the future war, which Obadiah describes, Israel will finally possess the plain of the Philistines (Gaza), Ephraim (an alternate name for Israel) and Samaria (the West Bank), along with Gilead (the East Bank of the Jordan River—currently part of the modern nations of Jordan and Syria).
Interestingly, Jordan and Egypt both have signed peace treaties with modern Israel, and Syria is a weakened ally of Russia, Iraq and Iran. However, history has shown treaties are often made to be broken!
It is not clear exactly when this judgment and justice of God will occur, but Obadiah 1:21 states it will come about before the Messianic Age (the thousand-year reign of King Jesus), when Jerusalem will “rule over the mountains of Edom. And the Lord himself will be king!” (Obad. 1:21b, NLT).
From the River to the Sea
For thousands of years, Satan has schemed to deceive and destroy God’s highest order of creation, mankind. God cursed this evil one and declared perpetual enmity between his seed and mankind’s (Gen. 3:15). The current cycle of wars in the Middle East and the Palestinian Arabs’ efforts to eradicate the Jewish people “from the river to the sea” are part of Satan’s grand genocidal scheme.
God chose to work His grace of redemption of mankind through one man (Abram) and his progeny. Through them, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3, NKJV). Abram’s name was changed to Abraham and his grandson Jacob’s name to Israel (Gen. 32:22-31). A Bible-based teaching ministry in modern Israel, One For Israel, has shared these important thoughts:
“God has promised that the people of Israel will never be wiped out, and that they will be around as long as the sun, moon and stars are in place (Jer. 31:35-36). Israel’s enemies have clearly not got this memo. Their stated goals are to have a Judenfrei [Jew-free] land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, and for things to go back to Muslim rule as it was before.”
God’s judgment has waited since these ancient times, but the prophesied future destruction of these border nations is certain. However, God wants both Israel and her enemies to know Him!
Let us earnestly pray for all peoples to repent and come to eternal life, through Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah and the Gentile’s Savior.
Licensed to full-time ministry in 1967, Gary Curtis has served on pastoral staffs and in administrative roles at churches in Illinois and California, including 27 years at The Church on The Way, the First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, California. Now retired, Gary continues to write a weekly teaching blog and frequently contributes ministry-related articles for digital and print platforms.
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