SHILOH, West Bank (Reuters) - With a skullcap bearing the Star of David and a fervent belief that God gave the Holy Land to the Jews, Paul McCaleb could be mistaken for a Jewish settler.
The 73-year-old from Tennessee is actually a born-again Christian, part of a growing group of devout Protestants, many from the United States, who are supporting Israel with their votes and their wallets.
"Coming here just does something inside of me," McCaleb said at Shiloh, a holy Jewish site in the occupied West Bank where the Bible says the Ark of the Covenant once rested. "This land belongs to God, and God gave it to the Jews."
McCaleb and some 7,000 mostly evangelical Christians from across the world flocked to the Holy Land this week to celebrate the Jewish festival of Sukkoth and to show support for Israel.
During the event, busloads of pilgrims traveled in bullet-proof buses to Jewish sites in the West Bank -- which some Jews call Judea and Samaria -- and to Jewish settlements, which are deemed illegal under international law.
Shouting "Amen" and "Hallelujah" as settlers acting as tour guides vowed to hold onto "the land of their forefathers" in the West Bank, the pilgrims said it was their duty as Christians to support Israel against a broader Muslim threat.
"We are here to support the Jewish people and to bless them," said Scott Fritz from California. "The idea of giving land back to the Palestinians is completely wrong."
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A good friend wrote me this but he erred:
"Winky [that should be Winkie]:
I never believed I would see the day when the renowned chronicler of Jewish life in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Yisrael Medad, would state perfunctorily that Jewish settlements "are deemed illegal under international law... ."
While the trend in international jurisprudence is in the direction you have indicated (witness the majority of the opinions in the ICJ Security Fence Advisory Opinion), I do not agree that the illegality of the Jewish settlements is firmly established in international law. Even our own Supreme Court under the leadership of the anti-settlement Barak and Beinisch would not go so far as to say the settlements are illegal under international law. And our own Supreme Court now unabashedly applies international law to the question of the settlements, the security fence and the rights of non-Jewish inhabitants of Judea, Samaria and Gaza (see, e.g. "The Gush Qatif Decisions, 2005).
Moreover, the opinions of such acknowledged international legal experts as Judge Schwebel (former US member of the ICJ), Professor Eugene Rostow and Prof. Julius Stone, not to mention my own former partner, former Undersecretary of Defense, Douglas Feith, all state unequivocally that Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza comports fully with international law. This is not to say that the State of Israel, as a political matter, cannot decide to withdraw its citizens from these areas, but, at least according to the minority view, there is nothing in public international law that would require it to do so.
Chag sameakh!
Marc"
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His error was that I did not state; I quoted.
Of course, I should have distanced myself and therefore,, I am giving Marc the space here, 'upstairs' rather than in the comments section.
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