A "One-State" Solution is a "Final Solution"

For those who may not know it, the original “Final Solution” refers to the strategy of exterminating all Jews during the Holocaust. I’m not suggesting that a One-State Solution is an overt plan for the physical annihilation of Jewish people; but when it comes to most Arab nations surrounding Israel, it’s a plan that includes erasing Jewish sovereignty.

Beneath what may seem like the peaceful idea of a One-State Solution, there’s a deeper intent to absorb the existing state of Israel into a new country that would dilute and erase the Israeli identity. In his latest work, Decolonizing Palestine (2023) [2], Lutheran Minister and theologian Mitri Raheb rejects the Jewish State as an "exclusivist ethnocentric vision" [p. 112]. Instead, he favors a single, "inclusive" model, where Jews and Arabs live together in a sort of “federation” [p. 112].

To understand the One-State Solution idea, we must move from the psychological “why” of Raheb’s intentions to the historical similarities of his proposals—which include theological justifications. Raheb claims that Israel is sustained by what he calls the “hardware” of military tanks and planes as well as the theological "software" composed of what he describes as a "biblical blueprint" [p. 130].

Raheb wants Christians to strip away three specific Biblical Jewish identifiers (software) that gives them the deed to the land:

• Israel: Raheb claims Israel is not a physical country, but a metaphor for faith.

• Election: He claims the Jews do not possess a unique covenant. Any oppressed group can possess the status of being elected.

• Chosen People: He claims the Jews are not the chosen people and that it is a myth used to j​ustify taking land.

Raheb’s claims clear the way for his One-State Solution map.

The 1930s “Renaming” Blueprint

Unfortunately, a plan that re-names holy sites and eliminates Israel is a tactic similar to 1930s Germany’s policy of surgical erasure used to delete any trace of Jewish identity. In the 1930s, the world watched as the German Nationalist movement sought to "Aryanize" Germany (creating a “pure” population Germanic or Nordic descent). This also included a “spiritual Aryanization,” where “German Christians” literally rewrote the Bible to create an Aryan Jesus. They performed a surgical erasure of Jewishness from the New Testament to serve the nationalist state.

Today’s process of “Palestinianization” in Bethlehem is a mirror image the German "Aryanization” methods of yesterday. Just as those German Christians prioritized their German blood over biblical truth, Rev. Mitri Raheb has built an Arab Christian theology to create, for example, a Palestinian Jesus [56]. His Arab heritage becomes the primary lens for his faith. In his first book, I Am a Palestinian Christian, Raheb famously argues that he is "Palestinian first, and then we are Christians" [1995].

This "Arab-First" priority is the core of Raheb’s religious and political foundations. His argument places him within the tradition of Contextual Theology, where one's social and political context—being an Arab under occupation—becomes the primary lens for reading the Bible. This allows him to rebrand Jews as “imperialists" to fit the Arab nationalist narrative.

Today, through these “Palestinianization” techniques, Raheb is creating a new spiritual and theological application of the Bible [56]. He rebrands Jesus as a "Canaanite Palestinian" and dismisses the Jewish Temple where Jesus worshipped as a "ghost" [pgs. 27, 56]. He attempts to "supersede" the physical reality of history with a modern political myth.

Raheb’s commitment to the Palestinian narrative is both a personal theological choice as well as a recognized political service. In early 2023, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas awarded Raheb the Star of Bethlehem (Order of Bethlehem), one of the highest Palestinian decorations. Abbas explicitly recognized Raheb's efforts in "transferring the Palestinian narrative to the world" and his role in international advocacy.

Mahmoud Abbas presenting the Order pof Bethlehem to Rev. Mitri Raheb.

Raheb believes that for Palestinian Christians, their Arab heritage is the genetic, nationalistic glue that welds them to their Muslim neighbors. Religious denominations are of secondary importance. By insisting they are "Arabs first," he creates a unified front that cannot be fractured by theological debates.

For Raheb, a physical Jewish history in Jerusalem is a "theological wedge" that must be removed. It is a direct "obstacle" to his Arab-first goals. This explains why he fights so hard to turn that history into a ghost—he is trying to evaporate the physical evidence so it no longer stands in the way of a new national unity in the form of a federation.

Raheb uses a grounded reading of placenames to prioritize modern context over ancient roots [27]. To him, the name "Temple Mount" (where the Temples of Judaism stood and in which Jesus worshipped) is not a physical reality, but a phantom [p. 27]. The reality he promotes is the "living stones" on top: the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, known as Haram ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) [53].

In a similar fashion, the 1930s German Nationalists systematically renamed streets and towns that bore Jewish names to make the map "German." In Berlin, Mendelssohnstraße 

(named after the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn) was renamed, Joseph-Haydn-Straße after the world-renowned “Aryan” Austrian composer.

By prioritizing Arabic names over original Jewish ones, Raheb follows a direct parallel to this German strategy. He calls the Palestinian people the "Living Stones" of the land. This is a tactical move. By framing Palestinian people as "Living Stones," he seeks to make the actual archaeological stones of Jewish history seem cold, dead, and, especially, colonial.

There is a profound difference between a metaphor and a 

500-ton block of limestone. For the first time in 2,000 years, the Western Wall Tunnel excavations have allowed Christians and Jews to touch the "Master Course"—original Herodian stones that Jesus himself would have walked past and touched. The Arab leadership, and theologians like Raheb, didn't just oppose these excavations for political reasons; they opposed them for archaeological reasons. They understood that if the world could touch the physical reality of the Second Temple, their efforts of erasure would fail.

• The Fear of Exposure: This is why the opening of the tunnel exit in 1996 was met with violent riots and death. It was about the fear of having the undeniable Jewish roots of the site exposed to the light of day.

• The Spiritual Distinction: Raheb mockingly asks why Christians come to see "dead stones" instead of the "lived reality" of the mosques [p. 53]. But our retort is simple: Christians come to the Holy Land to connect with the physical history of our faith.

• Spiritual Kin: Our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ are spiritual kin. A Palestinian Christian is spiritually identical to a Christian in London or New York—but the stones of the Temple are unique physical witnesses to Jewish indigeneity and the very reality of the incarnation.

Conclusion

We have exposed a strategy that relies on turning facts into ghosts. But no matter how many "ghost stories" Raheb tells, the 500-ton stones of the Temple and the 3,000-year-old Hebrew names are immovable witnesses. Truth isn't found in a narrative; it’s found in the soil [p. 27].

The half-truths of an academic are just as destructive as a rocket barrage from Hamas or Hezbollah; one hits the body, while this propaganda hits the mind and heart. Western sympathy is being weaponized against well-intentioned Westerners. While they think they are supporting "peace," the "party lines" they’ve adopted, include the extermination of Israel.

This is the ultimate "Identity Hack." Mitri Raheb uses Western Liberalism—democracy, human rights, and pluralism—to present a vision that sounds fair to the ear [112]. He uses "inclusive" as a marketing term to sell an "exclusive" takeover. He calls this veneer of peace "decolonizing," but we have unmasked his strategy—a surgical erasure—that seeks to strip the land of its Jewish identity, by which he will annihilate Jewish sovereignty. As Christians, we must recognize that supporting this software of erasure is not a path to peace; it is a theological betrayal of the Parent of our faith, Judaism.

References

Raheb, M. (1995). I am a Palestinian Christian. Fortress Press.

Raheb, M. (2023). Decolonizing Palestine: The connection between land, people, and God. Orbis Books.

Heschel, S. (2008). The Aryan Jesus: Christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Princeton University Press.