‘The Day After’ Is Moving From a Military Solution To A Religious One, Not a Political One

Tor Wennesland is the Norwegian-born United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. His obvious inability to coordinate peace among the warring parties or even to separate them has certainly frustrated him since he took the position in 2021.

Wennesland has seemingly resorted to converting simultaneously to both Judaism and Islam, declaring himself both a rabbi and imam, and issued religious rulings and fatwas against both the Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews.

On March 12, 2024, Wennesland produced a curious declaration that flies in the face of facts, reality and dignity.

His opening salvo was against Jews around the world saying “I call for the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem to be upheld and respected.” That ‘status quo’ is the current ban on Jews praying at their holiest site of the Temple Mount, a complete trampling on the basic rights of Jews around the world. His language of “I call” was an interesting phrase, seemingly not offering his personal preference but taking the role of a rabbi to inform Jews that praying on the Temple Mount is forbidden.

He then turned to the Palestinian Islamists and said “Any attempt by extremists to turn the conflict into a religious one must be staunchly rejected.”

But that is the very core of the conflict and current Hamas war. Hamas’ foundational charter is a religious war against the Jews and the Jewish State with phrases such as:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” (Opening)
“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” (Preamble)
“Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)… there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Article 7)
“Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land” (Article 12)
“In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.” (Article 15)
“Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.” (Article 28)
“fight with the warmongering Jews.” (Article 32)
“everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad.” (Article 33)
“Moslems were able to retrieve the land only when they stood under the wing of their religious banner… This is the only way to liberate Palestine… confront the Zionist invasion and defeat it… rid themselves of the effects of ideological invasion.” (Article 34)

Wennesland is obviously familiar with Hamas, its charter and philosophy. He knows that Palestinian Arabs support the group and the savage attack on Israelis on October 7. He therefore opted to don an Islamic tunic, promote himself and declare a fatwa that “The sanctity of Ramadan cannot and should not be used for political gains and calculations.” A curious declaration from a Christian to tell Muslims what to do with their holy month of Ramadan.

Beyond my obvious mocking and teasing of the absurdity of Wennesland’s dual conversions to both Judaism and Islam, perhaps there is a kernel of an idea in what he said.

For all these years, the global community specifically tried to frame the conflict as one solely about land and pretended that religion played no part. The foundation for that approach was that religion operates in absolutes and offers no compromises, and therefore no solutions to two people fighting over the same holy sites.

Unless, as Wennesland attempted to do, a single person – or perhaps a committee – represents both Muslims and Jews. A new council which would meet and find a way to respect the other’s faiths and traditions and map a pathway towards coexistence.

People have argued that there is no military solution to the middle east but history has shown that there is no political solution either. Now may be the time to find a religious path to peace in the holy land.