The IM Writers Association. We aim to create a community of writers who share a common faith and passion for writing that advances the Life of Jesus Christ. Consider assisting us with our costs - a safe donor link is available HERE. #90 BROTHERS REUNITEDIDENTITY POLITICS | Mark Boonstra: Much remains to be done. The devil is always in the details. And many of the details have yet even to be defined.
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BROTHERS REUNITEDAfter 738 interminable days, the last living hostages held captive in Gaza are home.Reunited, at long last, with their families.Among them are brothers Ariel Cunio and David Cunio, who were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 along with David’s wife Sharon and twin daughters (now 5 years old). Finally, they are together again, the young girls (who, along with their mother, were released earlier) getting to know their father again. Twin brothers Gail Berman and Ziv Berman, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and held captive separately, were reunited in an overdue embrace after two years of cruel captivity. Each of those imprisoned has a similar story.The world now celebrates as the historic agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by President Trump, brought freedom and reunification both to the Israeli hostages and to Gazans taken prisoner following the October 7 atrocities. Cheers and dancing erupted not only in the streets of Tel Aviv, but also in Gaza. Peace appears to be at hand.To a standing ovation before the Israeli Knesset, President Trump hailed what he declared to be “the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” He expressed his gratitude to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “a man of exceptional courage and patriotism,” but also conveyed his “tremendous appreciation for all of the nations of the Arab and Muslim world” who helped bring us to this moment in history. And he foresaw “the golden age of Israel” as well as “the golden age of the Middle East.” Of course, at this juncture, the peace is tenuous at best.Much remains to be done. The devil is always in the details. And many of the details have yet even to be defined. As we seek to ensure peace, we should ask, what exactly would it mean to have peace in the Middle East? And that question can only be answered by understanding the nature of the conflict that has made peace so elusive for so long. The Israeli-Arab divide is an ancient one. October 7th was but a symptom of that divide, not its cause. Its cause is deeper and has resulted, in President Trump’s words, in “3,000 years of pain and conflict.” So, if today’s peace becomes simply a momentary pause in this latest flare-up of long-standing hostilities, then it really is not peace at all. Attaining a lasting peace will require that we all take a step back.Achieving that “golden age” will demand a deeper understanding of the origins from which the enmities derive. Realizing “the historic dawn of a new Middle East” must mean learning lasting lessons from the historical roots of the animosities. And it will entail an openness and commitment to healing long-festering wounds. The type of healing that will enable a reunification of families akin to that now celebrated by the Cunios and the Bermans. After all, Israelis and Arabs, like Gail and Ziv Berman, are long-separated brothers. And while their separation, unlike that of the Bermans, has been grounded in acrimony, true peace will come only with the kind of reconciliation that results in an overdue Berman-like brotherly embrace. Before the Knesset, President Trump gave thanks “to the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And he invoked Jerusalem as “the holy center of the world’s three great Abrahamic faiths,” a “home to Christians, Jews, Muslims” for “thousands of years.” And so it bears remembering that the genesis of the ancient divide is a brotherly animosity derived from man’s faithlessness and reckless rejection of the will of God. By the displacement of God’s will with our own. Abraham, after all, was the father not only of Isaac, but also of Ishmael, his first-born. While Isaac came to be the father of the Jewish people, Ishmael was the progenitor of the Arabic nations. So, what led to the ancient brotherly divide?God had promised Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation.” [Genesis 12:2.] His offspring would be “as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” [Genesis 12:5, 22:17.] “To your offspring,” said God, “I will give this land” of Canaan (now, largely, Israel). [Genesis 12:7.] But as the years passed, Abraham and Sarah began to doubt God’s word. Sarah was well past normal child-bearing years, and Abraham was 10 years her senior. Still, they had no children and the implausible promise of bountiful offspring seemed more unattainable than ever. So, Sarah entreated Abraham to conceive a child with her Egyptian servant Hagar. But once the child was conceived, Sarah responded poorly and drove Hagar from her. God called upon Hagar to return to Sarah, directing her to call her son Ishmael and promising to “so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” [Genesis 16:10.] And God promised Abraham that he would bless Ishmael “and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.” [Genesis 17:20.] But, as God also told Hagar, Ishmael “will be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall live at odds with all his kin.” [Genesis 16:12.] Thus, from faithlessness, resentment, and a rejection of God’s will was borne the enmity that came to divide Ishmael and the later-born Isaac, and thereafter their Arabic and Israeli descendants. God reiterated his promise to Abraham that he would give him a son by Sarah, whom he should call Isaac, with whom he would establish his covenant. So, when Ishmael was 14 years old, God’s longstanding promise was fulfilled. At 90 years of age, Sarah gave birth to Isaac; Abraham was all of 100. But Sarah’s faithfulness again wavered, and she once more implored Abraham to cast out Hagar and her son so that Ishmael “shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” [Genesis 21:10.] When God assured Abraham that He would also bless Ishmael, Hagar and Ishmael departed into the wilderness. Ishmael took an Egyptian wife and fathered the Arabic nations of today. Sarah lived until the age of 127. Upon her death, Abraham secured for her a resting-place in Machpelah, a cave in the field of Ephron (near Hebron). Isaac took Rebekah as his wife and became the father of the Jewish people. Abraham lived until the age of 175. Upon his death, and notwithstanding all that had gone before, Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury him, alongside Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah. [Genesis 25:9.] It’s time for the sons and daughters of Isaac and Ishmael to once again come together to bury the enmity that has divided them for the last 3,000 years. To recall the admonition of the Psalmist: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” [Psalm 133:1.] To “let brotherly love continue.” [Hebrews 13:1.] After 3,000 years, let’s learn the lessons of history.Return to faithfulness. Faithfulness in the God of Abraham. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” [1 Corinthians 12:13.] May the sons and daughters of Isaac and Ishmael at long last put aside old resentments. Be grateful for the fruitfulness of God’s fulfilled promises. Seek God’s will and submit to it over our own. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” [Ephesians 4:3.] For “if anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” [1 John 4:20-21.] -Judge Boonstra Listen to the reading of the United States Constitution: Identity Politics, with Mark Boonstra & Dr. Stephen Phinney, is an extension of IOM America’s IM Christian Writers Association. The mission of the authors is to restore faith in God & country. Your voice matters. We can’t fully know how this article has stirred your thoughts, challenged your heart, or deepened your walk—unless you tell us. Your feedback helps us refine this series and continue speaking into the places that matter most. Would you take a moment to share your reflections? 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