Dr. Peter Bonadie: Israeli-Hamas War ‘a very deep spiritual problem’

Dr. Peter Bonadie, the chief executive officer of Kingdom Life Ministries International in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, says that the current war between Israel and Hamas is “a very deep spiritual problem and cannot be resolved by the United Nations or international opinions or sanctions.”

“Because the laws of spirituality are either not understood by the minds driving international response, or at the very least appreciated, this problem will only grow worse,” warned Dr. Bonadie, who is also chief executive officer of Peter Bonadie Worldwide, Inc. and Peter Bonadie Prayer Academy.

Rather than attempting to provide a historical, socio-economic or political analysis of this problem, the Vincentian-born Dr. Bonadie told Caribbean Life exclusively, over the weekend, that he will attempt to bring a spiritual understanding, with the hope that he can “sow a small seed into the soil of the array of modern perspectives.”

Dr. Bonadie – a published author of over 16 books, who has ministered to over half a billion souls, preached over 60,000 messages and delivered thousands of personal prophecies – noted that, in October 2023, Hamas launched “a huge surprise attack on southern Israel, and is believed to have killed about 1, 400 Israelite citizens and taken dozens more hostage.”

In response, he said Israel has reportedly killed tens of thousands of Hamas supporters and civilians in the Gaza Strip and “devastated their cities, which will, perhaps, take tens of billions of dollars to reverse.”

In attempting to understand the spiritual nature of the problem, Dr. Bonadie — who earned his Ph. D in Religious Philosophy from the West Indies School of Theology in Saint Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago – said it is “prudent that we understand who Hamas is.”

He said Hamas is “an Islamic organization whose existence is to provide armed resistance to Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip.

“The United Nations in 1948 gave Israel the right to exist as a state,” Dr. Bonadie said. “The problem, though, is that no formal position was established to end decades of conflict by promoting a two-state solution. Israel continued to occupy the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”

He said Hamas has developed “a vicious mission to resist Israel’s occupation, and it is widely believed that their mission is the destruction of Israel as a State and as a people.”

Since the United States and the European Community have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, Israel, consequently, “treats them as such,” Dr. Bonadie said.

“And so, with their superior armaments of war, they devastate Hamas and their occupied territories,” he said, adding that “the problem here is that there are forces driving centuries of hatred and animosity that transcend the need for the Palestinian people to have a home of their own and peacefully coexist with Israel as their neighbor.”

In this nexus, Dr. Bonadie said the international community has repeatedly called for the enforcement of United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for the complete withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories.

In getting to what he regarded as “the root of the problem,” he said Israel was chosen by God to be the “incubator for the birth of the Redeemer of the world (Jesus) and so is blessed by Jehovah God for it.”

After man sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, Dr. Bonadie said God’s plan of redemption was enacted.

He said God chose a people to preserve from a sinful culture, so that he could bring Christ the redeemer to die “a substitutionary death and appease the anger of God for the sins of man (atonement).”

Dr. Bonadie said God could have chosen any people, but he chose Israel.

Under the leadership of Moses, he said God gave them a redemptive covenant that included about 630 laws, a system of sacrifice, a set of promises and a priesthood.

“These sacred elements allowed them to establish and maintain their relationship with God and to experience his sovereign power,” Dr. Bonadie said. “Herein is the investment of God in Israel’s place in the history of the world and a sense of uniqueness in their spiritual culture.”

He said while he is not antisemitic, he postulated that “most of the Christian community have misinterpreted this to mean that they alone are God’s people and are favored by Him over all the other nations of the earth, and that the rest of the people of the world are second class and inferior citizens.

“This is not so, as God is not unjust and does love all the people of the world equally,” Dr. Bonadie said. “As such, not only does Israel have the right to defend itself, but they must also execute this right with respect for innocent Palestinian life.”

In terms of the Abrahamic Covenant, he said God visited a man called Abraham, who lived in the Ur of the Chaldees, called him out from his country and his people, and sent him to the Land of Palestine.

At this time, Dr. Bonadie said the land was occupied by tribes that did not represent the sacred values and purposes of God in Israel.

He said God made a covenant with Abraham that gave him the land of Israel.

“Therefore, as far as the Jewish people is concerned, God gave them this land, and it is to be their inheritance forever,” said Dr. Bonadie, stating that a covenant is “a sovereign disposition of God by which He obligates himself to fulfill certain promises and purposes in a people.”

He said God’s sovereign pronouncements in this Abrahamic Covenant “must be deemed as flawless and authoritative.

“It does not matter what the best minds think, nor does it matter what resolutions the United Nations passes, the unfortunate truth is whether anyone likes it or not, it can’t be ratified, nor can we successfully oppose it,” Dr. Bonadie declared.

In considering Gen. 12:1-3, he noted that the Lord had said to Abraham: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and, whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

In this covenantal proclamation, Dr. Bonadie said God blessed Israel with “certain pleasantries.”

In his book, “Things to Come,” he noted that Eschatologist Dwight Pentecost cites on page 72, certain elements of the covenant: “That Abraham’s name will be great; a great nation will come out of him; through him all the other nations of the earth would be blessed (empowered to prosper); and the Land of Palestine will be for a home.”

Dr. Bonadie said all the main world religions, namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism, have their claims here.

But he said this covenantal position is “buried in the psyche of the Jew, and they will not retreat, nor will they surrender.

“The commitment of both Islam and the Jewish people is rooted in this belief,” Dr. Bonadie stressed. “As they are monotheistic, their beliefs hold a sense of absoluteness, and there is but little room for reason.”

He said the Islamic people are descendants of Ishmael, who is the first-born son of Abraham, adding that they “should be the rightful heir of this covenant.”

But Dr. Bonadie said God chose Isaac, who was 13 years younger, to be the heir of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant.

“Consequently, the land belongs to Israel, and they have a divine right to live there peacefully,” he said. “The shocking pronouncement of Ishmael seems to be descriptive of certain Islamic fractions postulating years of terrorism.”

In this regard, Dr. Bonadie referred to Gen. 16:11-12: “You are now with child, and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

But Dr. Bonadie said the purpose of this covenant “modifies the absoluteness of their covenantal rights and privileges.”

He said the purpose was the create a holy culture through which the Messiah, Jesus, was to be born.

“Once this was done, there is no need for Israel to deny the Palestinian people the rights of self-government and co-existence in peace and prosperity,” he said. “Also, they are a people of one blood, as they are all seeds of Abraham. Both Isaac and Ishmael are brothers.”

Therefore, Dr. Bonadie said “our church is committed to praying for the peace of the people in the region.”

He said, when he travels around the world, speaking at conferences, seminars and workshops and addresses the issue, he leans on “the Pauline position – that, in the Kingdom of God, the Jewish people are not superior to any other nation in the world.

“Indeed, God has chosen them for a purpose and has blessed them,” said Dr. Bonadie, speaking on “Modifying the Religious Superiority of Israel without being Anti-Semitic to Peacefully address The War in Palestine.”

“Let me echo the sentiments of Moses, ‘In Abraham, all the nations of the earth are Blessed,’” he added. “I declare that the global community has a divine right to hold them accountable for excesses and any injustice dished out to the Palestinian people.”

Some of Dr. Bonadie’s top book sellers are: “Understanding the Kingdom,” “Curses, Causes, and Cures,” “7 Manifestations of the Curse,” “Altars to Thrones” and “10 Habits That Block Success!”