Does the Bible teach that as the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabs are sworn enemies of the Jews?
Unfortunately, when evangelical Christians view the hostility between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, many fatalistically shrug their shoulders and say, “The situation is hopeless. The Bible says that the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac will always hate each other.” The Bible does not support this despairing and fatalistic perspective regarding the hostility between Arabs and Jews. Those who take this fatalistic view might be inadvertently supporting the continuation of Middle East conflict. It is true that there is a genuine sense in which we can compare the hostility of modern Israel and the Arab/Muslim world as a “conflict between Isaac and Ishmael.” However, the basis of this hostility of Arabs and Jews towards each other isn’t genetic, but religious. Passages that are misunderstood to imply physical/genetic basis for their hostility are Genesis 16:12 and 25:18. “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will li
