Why Are American Christians Ignoring Their Fellow Christian Brothers and Sisters in Gaza and the West Bank?

Christians in Palestine Ask Why US Believers Ignore Them 

"Western attitudes toward Palestine-Israel suffer from a glaring double standard that humanizes Israeli Jews while insisting on dehumanizing Palestinians and whitewashing their suffering."--Open Letter From Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians, Leaders of Bethlehem Bible College, October 2023

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, in Gaza City, a historic building dating back to 1150, the oldest and largest Christian church in the city, now lies in ruins, after an Israeli bombardment flattened the neighborhood.  The Israeli military claimed the bomb hit on the church was "an unintentional result of its fighter jets hitting a command and control center involved in attacks on Israel."  In spite of the randomness of this incident, it characterizes much of the conflict in the Middle East from the perspective of conservative, American Evangelicals.  

In Evangelical eschatology, the study of the "end times", the view that prevails is a relatively recent development in doctrine and theology, known as Premillennial Dispensationalism.  This perspective is the result of some of the more common errors made by American religious conservatives in their interpretation of the New Testament in a literal sense, ignoring the influence and development of its historical context and how that affects the ability to understand and apply accurately what the Bible's writers, mostly Jesus' apostles, wrote and which ended up in the canon of scripture.  

This view ignores the apocalyptic symbolism of the book of Revelation, on which it is focused, the application and timing of the prophecy Jesus made regarding the destruction of the Temple, which happened in 70 CE, and how to discern, from the symbolic language he used, as well as that in Revelation, written by his apostle, John, what those events meant and what Christ's "coming in judgment" might actually look like.  

Doctrine and Theology Out of Ignorance Leads to Lack of Sympathy for Fellow Believers

American Evangelicals have become experts at ignoring, downplaying, or re-interpreting any history with which they are not comfortable, and which does not fit with their narrative and the doctrine they have developed out of literal interpretations that distort the original author's intentions.  In a frenzy of self-righteously proclaiming themselves as the "correct" and accurate version of Christian faith, and their condemnation of non-Evangelical denominations and groups, including the Catholic and Orthodox churches, along with most mainline Protestants as apostate, they simply ignore, or condemn, other Christians whose theology doesn't line up with theirs.  That way, they can ignore any circumstances, such as the fact that Christian Palestinians are suffering through this war in the same way as their fellow Muslim Palestinians are also suffering.    

So, it's awkward for conservative Evangelicals to acknowledge, among those suffering in Gaza, the presence of a Christian community that has existed in the Middle East for two thousand years.  Most of it, as expected, is Orthodox, which is one reason for their lack of Christlike consideration of their brethren.  And the fact that it exists among the Arabic, Palestinian population of the region is another. 

Christians claim that, in the current age, Jesus is the only path between human beings and their creator.  But in dispensational theology, they can ignore the words of Jesus, and the Apostles Paul and Peter, and still ascribe the long-gone Old Testament theocratic covenant to today's Jews, through the invention of a thing called a "dispensation," a period of time in which God's means of saving humans changes back to that old covenant.  The support for "dispensations" existing cannot be found in scripture.  The connections required to even vaguely develop such an idea are based on false interpretations of scripture in Daniel and Revelation.  

The presence of fellow Christians among the Palestinian population in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, presents a huge difficulty for premillennial dispensationalists.  In fact, the vast majority of Christians in Israel are Palestinians, including quite a few who are Evangelical Christians.  And that makes for huge contradictions of parts of the Bible, the words of Christ and of the apostles when it comes to treating the modern state of Israel as the re-establishment of the Old Testament theocratic state of Israel.  It's not that, not in any way, and sets Christians at odds with their Palestinian brothers and sisters (see I John 3).  

So, ignoring them, looking past them, or determining that because they're not Evangelical, they're not worth defending, becomes the only way to justify sticking to the false premises of Dispensational Premillennialism.  

Christian Doctrine is Derived from New Testament Scripture, so See What Jesus and the Apostles Said About War

"It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness."  

That's the first line of a statement on peace from the Baptist Faith and Message, 2000, the doctrinal and theological statement of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Evangelical denomination.  

"In accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ, they should do all in their power to put an end to war."  

There's a whole set of references in this section of the BFM from scripture, to support these statements about the evil and sinfulness of war.  Making peace is a virtue resulting from the spiritual presence of God in human community that leads to those who are considered peacemakers being called "Children of God,".  Clearly Jesus placed a high value on it.  So the position conservative Evangelicals, along with all other people claiming to be Christian, should be taking is not one that favors one side over the other, it's to use spiritual wisdom to bring about peace.  That's in the second half of this particular statement of faith: 

"The true remedy for war spirit is the gospel of our Lord.  The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of His teachings in all the affairs of men and nations, and the practical application of His law of love.  Christian people throughout the world should pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace."

So Christians should not be holding Israel's coattails and cheering them on in their invasion of Gaza, which includes the destruction of churches, and of centuries-old Christian communities.  They should be the primary movers and shakers in coming forward to make peace, as a demonstration of their love of the God in whom they claim to believe, and because their faith puts them in the position of a peacemaker.