Al-Qalam 
In a recent interview with media personality Tucker Carlson, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, remarked that it would be ‘fine’ if Israel took over the lands of the Middle East. Sheigh Rafeek Hassen examines the radical statement.
The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, stated that God in Genesis 15 in the Bible gave the entire land from the Euphrates to the Nile to the Israelites only. Tucker then tells Huckabee that this includes the entire Middle East of today (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordon, Egypt, etc.) and Huckabee concludes by saying “it will be fine if they took it all.”
In the past, when people accused Israel and Zionism of having an expansionist dream of “Greater Israel” they shrugged it off as a conspiracy theory. Today, they are openly pursuing this expansionist agenda with violence and impunity, defying all rules of international law.
So, does the bible grant Palestine to Jews only? Let the Bible answer this question. God promised this land to Abraham [P] in Genesis 15-18: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.”
Abraham [P] had no children when this prophecy was made, neither were the Israelites in existence and the Prophecy states I will give this land “to your descendants...” plural, not singular, not one chosen descendant, but to all of your descendants.
The first child to be born to Abraham [P] was Ishmail [P] from his second wife, Hagar [P], from Egypt, whom he married when Abraham [P] was 86 years old.
Genesis 16-3 “So after Abram had been living in Canaan for ten years, Sarah his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.”
Concerning the legitimacy of Ishmail [P], the Bible says in Genesis 21:13, “And also of the son of the bondwoman [ Ishmail] will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.”
Which means Ismail [p] is the legitimate descendant of Abraham [P], his firstborn. The Bible also in Genesis 17 – 5 states “that Abraham shall be a father of many nations” and then in Gen 17 – 8 God states “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
This Prophecy was made when Isaac [p] was not even born – the Israelites were not in existence. This land of Canaan, today’s Palestine, which was promised to Abraham [P] and his seed. Gen 21-13 quoted above verifies that Ishmail [P] is the seed/descendant of Abraham.
Genesis 21-3 states that Isaac [P], the second son from his first wife Sarah [P], was born when Abraham [P] was 100 years old. So according to the above verses both Ishmail [P] and Isaac [P] are the seed and descendants of Abraham [P] and thus God promised this land to both of them and their descendants. In addition, in Genesis 17 God makes a covenant, a prerequisite to Abraham [P] that in lieu of this all his male descendants shall be circumcised and that they should worship One God only and few other conditions.
However, the descendants of Isaac [P], the Israelites, according to the Bible, broke their covenant with God twice and were expelled by God from this land and their temple destroyed twice, first by the Babylonians in 586 BC, then by the Romans in 70 AD and were scattered into the diaspora for over a millennium as a punishment from God.
After the Muslim conquest of Palestine, Caliph Omar allowed the return of the Jews/Israelites as they understood that Jews, Muslims and Christians have a common bond to Abraham [P] as Genisis 17-5 predicted that ‘Abraham [P] will be a father of many nations.
They all lived in harmony for the next 1000 years until the emergence of Jewish Zionism and Christian Zionism, emerged claiming Palestine exclusively for the Jews by military force [in direct contradiction to the Bible], leading to unending conflict till today.
*Sheigh Rafeek Hassen is a Founder and Director of iiFRi (Islamic Interfaith Research Institute)
