What to Say and What to Pray about Israel and Gaza?
Like many of you, I was shocked and sickened by the violent Hamas attack on Israeli civilians last week. The violence was brutal and barbaric and will lead to a further cycle of war, turmoil, and terror. I think of the Israeli victims, their families, as well as the Gazan civilians who again find themselves in the midst of bombings and destitution.
I grieve the death of so many, I feel anger at Hamas, and yet I also feel great sympathy for the Palestinians and all they’ve been through in their struggle for a land of their own.
I look at the 1200 fatalities in Israel, the hostages taken to Gaza and subjected to God knows what kind of torments and tortures, plus the imminent Israeli ground assault that will see thousands more killed no doubt. When I click on things like Twitter, I see too the horrible mixture of anti-Semitism by so-called intellectuals, protestors, professors, and student organizations around the world and it is appalling. Then there are right-wing commentators calling for Israel to liquidate Gaza in some kind of retaliatory cleansing. I just want to turn the TV off, escape social media, get away from the yelling, calls to cancel this guy or this woman, and shut my eyes.
The problem is that saying anything about the Palestinian-Israel conflict in general and current events in particular will undoubtedly offend someone. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to elicit irate responses from a die-hard Israel supporter or a die-hard Palestinian supporter. Now is not the time for “whataboutism” or jeering at people who see things differently.
Most of us are operating at an emotional level because of historical grievances or the sheer evil that is being screened before our eyes. I don’t want to argue with anyone. I want to weep, mourn, and make it all stop. I want to be pro-peace above all.
Which is why I’ve been thinking to myself that maybe now is a good time to remember the saying, “Not every thought has to be published.”
Just shut up and pray quietly. That’s probably a good strategy. As it says in Amos 5:13, “The prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time.”
Yet, we need to understand, we need to listen, to learn, in order to know how to pray and what to do.
So here goes … but only for friends in the Aviary. I’m not going to broadcast this to all and sundry, what follows is a word for my supporters and friends. I have no desire to own the libs or stick it to right-wing populists. I just want to explain, as fairly as I can, how I understand recent events and how we might pray wisely and graciously for peace in the Middle East.