When God called Abra(ha)m, He gave him the following promise in Genesis 17:8:

“Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

In Genesis 48:4 this promise is repeated through the mouth of Abraham's descendant Jacob:

"Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession."

This promise of God to Abraham, of the land as an everlasting possession, is a promise to his descendants through his son Isaac, born of his wife Sarah. This is confirmed in Genesis 25:5, 6:

"And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east." (KJV)

The Quran actually agrees with this when it says about the Israelites and the holy land in Surah 5:20, 21:

"And (remember) when Moses said unto his people: O my people! Remember Allah's favour unto you, how He placed among you prophets, and He made you kings, and gave you that (which) He gave not to any (other) of (his) creatures. O my people! Go into the holy land which Allah has ordained for you." (Pickthall, 1997:75)

In spite of this, and other acknowledgements in the Quran that Israel is the chosen nation, Islam teaches that Israel was rejected and that Islam is now the chosen nation. The Quran says about the Israelites in Surah 2:88:

"Allah's curse is on them for their blasphemy."

According to the Quran, Allah rejected and cursed the Jewish nation because of their unbelief (Surah 2:88, 89). The Quran also acknowledges that the Jews were the chosen nation of ‘God’ in Surah 2:122:

“Children of Israel, remember the favour I have bestowed upon you, and that I exalted you above the nations” (Dawood, 1999)

The claim is that, because of Israel’s unbelief, Islam (Muslims) became the chosen ‘nation’. The existence of Israel as a nation and a state is, therefore, an insult to Islam. As long as the Jews as a nation and the state of Israel exist, the credibility of the Quran is at stake. The state and nation of Israel must be destroyed in order to maintain the credibility of the Quran.

Feelings of hate against Jews are instigated in Islam by quotations like the following in the Quran:

Surah 5:13: “But because they broke their covenant We (Allah) laid on them Our curse and hardened their hearts. They have tampered with words out of their context and forgotten much of what they were enjoined. You will ever find them deceitful, except for a few of them.”

Islam accuses Israel of having received the Quran from God and then corrupting it. According to Islam, the Christian Bible in use today is a distorted version of the Quran. This is far-fetched and false because, except for some twisted facts about the history of Israel from Abraham up to Jesus, the Quran mainly consists of stories about fights, battles and disputes involving Mohammed and his followers. For the rest, it consists of threats against non-Muslims and promises of pleasures in paradise for those Muslims who qualify. Most of what was written in the Quran had not even occurred at the time when God gave His revelations to the inspired writers of the Bible.

It is understandable that so-called Muslim extremists feel it their duty to commit terrorist deeds against America, like the attacks on the World Trade Centre, as part of their Jihad (holy war) because of America’s relations with Israel. When one listens to the statements of the more ‘moderate’ Muslims, however, diplomatic and tactful they may be, it is clear that their sympathy is with the extremists and that they see America’s relations with, and assistance of Israel, as the main cause of the problems.

Israel must be annihilated at all cost, and this is nothing new. Mohammed himself made the following statement concerning Jews:

In Al-Hadis (Karim, 1998:39:35(Vol.4):25) Mohammed said about the last days: “The Hour shall not occur till the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them, so much so that the Jews will seek shelter behind stones and trees, and the stones and trees will proclaim ‘O Muslim! This is the Jew behind me. So come and kill him,’ accepting the garqad tree as it is a tree of the Jews.”

Israel is a small state with less than 1% of the land of its Arab (Muslim) neighbours and a Jewish population of more or less the same proportion to its Arab neighbours. Since its modern existence in 1948, it had to defend itself against the continuous attacks from its Arab (Muslim) neighbours. Israel’s successful defence against these attacks is an embarrassment for Islam and aggravates the problem.

The writing of Weldon and Ankerberg (1991:8) are so true:

“Millions of Muslims are standing shoulder to shoulder against their perceived enemies – Israel and, more and more, America for its support of Israel. Even though most Muslims are not now militant, calls are increasingly heard throughout the Muslim world for Islamic unification and the waging of war against those it considers its enemies. Who can tell what the future will bring?”

The ‘future’ has brought suicide bombs and terrorist attacks worldwide, including the destruction of the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001, leading one to question: “What lies ahead?"