If you have any kind of soul or conscience, you are probably in constant mourning – as I am – about what is happening in Gaza. Israelis and Palestinians are under attack by Hamas, and innocent people are dying throughout Israel and beyond. And although this chapter in this conflict began with Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 – an attack in which Hamas murdered approximately 1200 people and kidnapped hundreds, resulting in their being abused, raped, murdered, and mutilated – this conflict has been going on for generations, if not centuries. Like so many regional conflicts throughout history, this is tribal. Many Palestinians and Jews want peace and a two-nation solution, but many others don’t. The cry, “From the River to the Sea” isn’t about freedom; it is about a desire for genocide of the Jews. Hamas, and other groups like them, want to finish what Hitler started.
I want the bloodshed to end, and so do most of you. Calls for a ceasefire make sense to those who see this is a two-sided conflict between two nations that have equal grievances that should be addressed. Israel has tried to make this work in the past, and so have most Palestinians, but Hamas is and always has been a terrorist organization. And I am not a fan of Israel’s government, at times, because I think there have been a lot of instances in which they have committed crimes against innocent people. Still, the question is always this: if you think a group is waiting around the corner to murder you at any time, what should you do? As one historian (sorry, can’t remember his name) said in an interview a couple of years ago, “If Hamas stops fighting, the war will end. If Israel stops fighting, Israel will end.”
I was discussing this with a friend the other day, and he made what I think is a good analogy. He said that asking Israel to stop seeking to end Hamas and join in a ceasefire is like telling a woman being abused by her husband that they should both step back and be reasonable. Even if you gave both of them guns, the abuser is the offender, and the victim is defending herself. A ceasefire puts Israeli soldiers at even more risk than they are now, and it gives Hamas a break; a chance to regroup and reload. Again – all of us want this to end yesterday. How that end is achieved is up for debate. One thing that could help is if the Palestinian people turned on Hamas. Easily said, because they would become Hamas’s next murder victim. Like so many people have said over the years, you can’t reason with terrorists. All they want is death.
We all have a role to play in lessening war around the world, this is clear to me. Palestinians have the right to live, and so do Israelis. Terrorists are formed for a lot of reasons, but much of it is based on a warped understanding of their religion. We see that in every faith tradition; we have our own Christian terrorists in this country as well. I wasn’t a big fan of Ronald Reagan, but he was correct – we can’t make deals with terrorists. Hamas is terrorizing Israelis and Palestinians, and their sibling organizations are doing the same to other parts of the region. It is that evil we need to address first. Then we can begin to work on healing.
Prayer – God of love, not war, give us wisdom as we try to understand how to bring about peace and justice. Amen.
Today’s art is a Shulamit Elson painting titled “Water and Peace in the Middle East.”