Jesus left Judea and went through Samaria to Galilee. He came to a town called Sychar and rested at Jacob's well.

When Jesus sat down by the well, a Samaritan woman, who came to draw water, asked Jesus, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."(John4:3-24)

Recently a public symposium entitled "Thinking about the Holocaust and Israel" was held at Meiji University Liberty Hall in Tokyo where Professor Yakov M. Rabkin of the University of Montreal talked about reasons why orthodox Jews opposed to Zionism.

According to him, who calls founders of Israel after the world war 2 secular Jews and calls himself a religious Jew, what is important for religious Jews is to maintain continuity of Judaism. Keeping God's commandments, the Sabbath, Yom Kipuru and to eat Jewish food, that is all. It is irrelevant to political and military power. For Jews, Hebron (city in west bank of the Jordan river), where Abraham, the founder of the religion of Scripture is buried, is important as a holy site. However it needs not to occupy and live there. He said, "We can love Hebron in Tel Aviv and from New York also. Jewish attitude is always very pragmatic and also compromised. Jewish identity is beyond borders and territories. That is why the Jews can live in Chile, Kobe and Moscow too."

Professor Rabkin also said if religion was a hindrance to peace in the Middle East, the biggest factor was probably Christian Zionism which has more followers in the right wing of the U.S. religious community. According to him, for them, Zionism is a purely religious issue, there is no room for compromise. They believe that they must gather the Jews to Israel to hasten the second coming of Christ. And if the second coming of Christ is realized, Jews are faced with two options. The Jews, who do not consider Christ is the Messiah, acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and convert themselves to Christianity or die after the Last Judgement. The professor was afraid and said, "We Jews will disappear in the fourth act of the whole five-act play."

Zionism can be described as the movement for independence of the Jewish people dispersed around the world. It is by no means peculiar to the Jews. There are oppressed people, who do not have settlements or have settlements without independence, around the world. If Zionists took notice of it before they founded Israel, Palestinians would not be dispersed and Middle East conflict would not happen. In fact, about 3300 years ago, because Moses took notice of it, he and his people kept wandering in the wilderness for 40 years after seeing the Promised Land Canaan in front of them. The Zionists expelled the native population as the successor of Moses had done. However all mankind repeated the same sins all over the world for thousands of years.

Professor Rabkin has raised the questions such as "what is self-determination beyond borders and territories and even religions?" and "What is independent?" In fact, Professor Rabkin's explanation of the religious Jews' attitude is the answer itself that Jesus showed the Samaritan woman drawing water.

Teaching of Jesus, who said, "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also", "If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles", is the one with the teachings of the Old Testament prophets who preached not to fight even arrest as war prisoners when Israel faced the threats of invasion by Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia and so on.

Jesus preached to return to the Jewish origin or the origin of religion. Therefore the Jews need not to be converted to Christians just because the the second coming of Christ. Jesus prophesied that the time was coming when the Palestinians, the Jews, Muslims and even Buddhists worship each other in spirit and truth.

The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. (Isaiah8:13-14)

So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. (Isaiah28:16)

God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced."(Romans9:33)

Gap among Jews widens on question of Zionism, by Yakov M. Rabkin

ユダヤ教徒がシオニズムに反発する理由 ヤコブ・ラブキン Yakov Rabkin モントリオール大教授（歴史学）