Telling the Truth
When knife-wielding Arabs went on a killing spree last fall in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and other parts of Israel, they butchered innocent Israelis in the name of maintaining the Temple Mount status quo. The status quo prohibits anyone but Muslims from praying or reading their scriptures atop the Temple Mount, and the Muslims claimed Israel was trying to make a change.
Granted, Israelis see the intolerance and would prefer that all people be free to pray atop the Temple Mount—the holiest site in all of Judaism. But in no way has the status quo changed, nor are there plans to change it.
This is the same type of lie the Arabs spread in 1929 when the British ruled the area long before there was a State of Israel. When Palestinian Jews gathered at the Western Wall on August 15 that year to commemorate the destruction of their Temple, Arab mobs stoned them. They had been told the Jewish people were there to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock. On August 23, 1929, more than 1,000 Arabs attacked the Jews in Jerusalem, killing 133 and wounding 339.
Lies against Israel are cheap, countless, and contagious. They cost nothing to manufacture and in flict bitter damage. Journalists and even state departments circle around them like satellites orbiting Earth. The news media publishes inaccurate, sometimes even fabricated, stories slandering Israel, while the Jewish state deals with terrorism. One might think the liars would face consequences, but no one is held responsible.
To counterbalance these lies, entire websites are dedicated to examining news about Israel and presenting the truth. One such site is HonestReporting.com. It scours the Internet to correct false reporting, distorted facts, bad conclusions, misleading terminology, and opinion pieces that are disguised as news. The lies against Israel are so abundant that HonestReporting.com has a full-time team working to challenge media bias in the hope of making journalists more accountable.
Unfortunately, lies against Israel are also contagious. Recently, a cellphone video of an Arab boy shot by Israelis went viral on social media around the world. The news reported that the Israelis had executed him when, in fact, the boy (1) was alive and being treated at an Israeli hospital and (2) was apprehended because he had stabbed a young Jewish boy with a knife.
[pullquote type=”right” style=”font-family: Arbutus slab; color:#993300; padding-left: 30px; font-size: 24px;”]”But let’s not lose hope! Truth is like a piercing light; it always finds a way to illuminate the darkness and reveal what is perverse.”[/pullquote]While Israel increases defensive measures against this newest wave of Arab terrorism, the Israeli people have been forced to engage in an international public- relations war.
Although it is one of the most humane countries in the world, Israel is always in a battle to defend its reputation; and lately it has been the Jewish state against the world. Sometimes it seems Israel has a better chance of stamping out localized terrorism than it does maintaining its good name.
But let’s not lose hope! Truth is like a piercing light; it always finds a way to illuminate the darkness and reveal what is perverse. As Christians, we should guard against being deceived. We must do all we can to be people of light, armed with the truth of God’s Word about Israel and about what is really happening there and in the Middle East.
