A review of Reverend Sam Adesua’s book, Israel and The Rest of Them: Perspective of a Christian by Adewale Oshodi
AT a time of chaos in the Middle East, Reverend Sam Adesua, through his new book, Israel and The Rest of Them: Perspective of a Christian, has been able to delve into the history of the Jewish state and how if found itself in the midst of ‘the rest of them.’
Reverend Adesua, whose work is from a personal perspective based on his knowledge of the Bible, highlights the relationship between Israel and the countries/peoples surrounding it since time immemorial.
The 20-chapter book starts with an introduction before the second chapter delves into, ‘Israel: A Panoramic View,’ where the author takes the reader to beginning of the Jewish state, which he described as a long turbulent history.
The author documents the challenges Israel faced to the extent that it was out of existence for about 2,000 years following series of perennial political crises and wars. Of note was the determination for total subjugation of Israel by the Roman Empire in the middle of the first century, as the Roman Legion, led by General Titus, defeated Israel as a nation in 70 A.D. The result of this was that the Jewish people remained seemingly lost among other nations worldwide for about 2,000 years.
‘However, one of the unique notable characteristics of the Jews from ages was that, as much as possible, they always tried to maintain their Jewish identity anywhere they found themselves,’ the author writes.
After being scattered all over the world, the Israeli nation, however, reemerged as a corporate political entity on May 14, 1948, and since then, the nations around them had been locked in battle with the new state. The author documents some of the existential wars the Israel nation had fought to ward off their enemies. Among the wars was on May 15, 1948, just a day after Israel became an official state, its neighbours, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, invaded the new state.
‘Their sole aim was to mercilessly kill the new nation of Israel at birth. To the Arab enemies, the new state must not be allowed to even take off, not to talk of surviving. (Pg127).’
That war lasted from May 15, 1948 till March 10, 1949 and an armistice agreement formally ended the war and established a green line between the adversaries. There was also the six-day 1967 Arab-Israel war, the 1973 Yom Kippur war, among others, but in all, Israel emerged victorious. The latest war, which started on October 7, 2023, is also documented, with the author describing it as a misadventure by Hamas.
However, before then, the author writes that Israel came into existence from an ancient man called Abram, who is popularly known as the progenitor of the Jewish people or Israelites.
Adesua traces the history of Abraham, who was the first man to be referred to as a Hebrew and how the people who emerged from his family finally became Israelites. The book further takes the reader to the period of Moses, Joshua and how they led the Israelites at various times during their challenging periods.
He further writes about the Jewish peoples’ turbulent years, which particularly came as a result of their stubbornness and disobedience to the laws of their God. The world-wide persecution of Jews also took centre stage in the book, before the rebirth of the modern Israeli state, which came shortly after the end of the second world war.
Of all the challenges the Jewish people faced, they always emerged victorious and stronger, which the author traced to the divine hand of God in action.
The final chapter, ‘Genesis of the Problem and Solution,’ is perhaps the most important aspect of the book, as the author lays the blame of the crises in the region at the feet of the United Nations, which he said made a mistake in the partitioning of Palestine through the allocation of land between the people of Israel and their Arab neighbours, as: ‘Both Arabs and Jews at this time were just Palestinians because they resided and operated in the area. There was no recognised nation-state there at the time.’
The author then said the solution to the chaos is the one proposed by United States President Donald Trump for peace to reign in the region.
Adesua, a former Managing Director/Editor in Chief (EiC) of African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc and retired Senior Pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church, has done a great work in tracing the history of Jewish people from the Biblical period to the current war Israel is waging in the region, which began following the October 7, 2023 invasion of the Jewish state by Hamas.
This book is, therefore, a must read for lovers of global affairs, history students, academic, religious leaders, among others, as it will give them a sound perspective of what is really happening in the Middle East and how it got to where it is today.