Favoritism

This is expressed in numbers of situations around the world, possibly none so incendiary as the Palestinian-Israeli issue.  

Christians in the West have abandoned Palestinians, especially Palestinian Christians in their plight.  We've favored the state of Israel, aside from political and economic motives, out of a misplaced end-times infatuation that has perpetuated itself since 1948.  Tens of thousands of Palestinian Muslims, and Christians, residents in Israel and Palestine since the time of Christ, have had to flee because of systematic persecution at the hands of Jews, who themselves not only a few years ago, were suffering the same things at the hands of the Germans.  Hardliner Jews have been systematically persecuting, expelling and even exterminating Palestinians for over 50 years. There are always two sides to the story, and we have not bothered to care about the other half of the story, namely the discrimination and ethnic cleansing that has been wrought in the holy city of Jerusalem.

Palestinians, even Arab-Israeli citizens are routinely denied building permits, have to pay 5x higher taxes in many cases, and have difficulty finding employment.  In the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza, water is rarely turned on, once every two weeks, while government subsidized Jewish settlements in neighboring areas have water 24 hours a day.  The settlement expansion continues, where Jewish settlers take over land that not even the UN recognizes as legally theirs, taking what little the Palestinians have. In these days, Western Evangelicals wouldn't be caught dead agreeing with a Democratic President Obama, who regularly speaks out for peace and the stopping of settlements.  Are we showing favoritism?  

Palestinians react in anger, throwing rocks, sowing dissent, blowing things up... this is a mess.  Palestinians play the role of the underdog, classically making things sound worse than they are, being unreasonable and refusing to reconcile, choosing violence over compromise. They are a hardened bunch, angry from years of oppression and conflict.

In favoring Jews over Palestinians, and not even caring to hear the other side of the story, the Muslim world has reacted in utter horror at how Western Christians have responded.  We have not come to the aid of the suffering, and the Muslim world has not forgiven us for it.  How can they believe a gospel message from us when we have ignored their suffering, and chosen sides?