The Israeli enemy in its aggression has written its next chapter in the world which will have no place for them. They shelled everyone in Gaza. They shelled children and hospitals and mosques and in doing so, they gave us legitimacy to strike them in the same way.
- Mouhmad Zahar, Hamas leader
Israel, in response to these claims, alleges that its targets were military, housing rocket launchers or militants. But Israel has offered no evidence of these defenses, and is allowing no journalists in the area, and is allowing no international military, paramilitary or interpol presence in the warzone. So there is no accountability for either side.
Meanwhile, Hamas foolishly continues to pepper the nearest Israeli city with rockets, making international calls for an Israeli-led ceasefire difficult to support.
What does the church say to this situation? Nothing substantially new, I think. The church would call for a ceasefire from both sides, and I think has to hold both sides accountable for the levels this has escalated to. What is important now, though, is not blame, not even peace, but aid for those civilians trapped in the warzone, where water is scarce, bodies of slain militants lay strewn about the streets, and one in five Palestinian dead are civilian.
In appealing to Israel, the church should speak to our commonality, calling Israel to stand on the moral high ground it has consistently claimed for itself. The church should speak unequivocally and publicly to Israel, urging for, if nothing else, an honest declaration of intent. If Israel will not cease the military campaign, it must at the very least allow journalists and humanitarian relief workers into the area. Their refusal to do so strikes the same chords with the world as Hamas' continual firing of rockets into Israeli residential areas.
In all of this, I believe God has a word for the church as well. I would imagine that if the church were unified and true enough to Christ's way, it would have the moral authority to simply walk into the area (or it would already be in the area) to minister to those in need. Certainly, we could work in ways unknown to the nations. Even if denied access at gunpoint to the warzone, the church could by its prophetic presence make a spectacle of the Israeli military, if it would truly prefer to point their guns at Christians rather than to see their enemies' wives and children cared for.
In the end, the point is made in the spiteful quote above as Jesus himself made it. Don't you know that he who takes the sword shall die by the sword? All these cycles of violence, someone has to stand outside it all and break the cycles of retribution.
-NDSR
Comments (6)
To be honest, my time in Israel revealed two things:
Thing A: It claims to be a theocracy to American Christians and Jews who fund its military existence. Thing B: It is a military state, created by the American Christians and Jews who fund its military existence believing it to be a theocracy.I have never witnessed a more tortured, humiliated group than the Arabs living in Israel. This is not the people of God.
@aledawithwings@xanga - I have heard it claimed that Arabs living in Israel have more rights than many Arabs living in Arab states, and certainly more than Jews living in Arab states. From what you saw, do you think that's true?
@sirnickdon - I think that if you compare Israel to.. say... Kabul or something, you're making a comparison that is probably inaccurate right off the bat.
For a few reasons, the first of course being that Arabs oppressing Arabs in order to more accurately follow the Koran or to follow it in a specific way is viewed entirely differently than a Jew oppressing a Muslim, specifically in Israel where that specific Jew was placed there without your permission on land your family held for years by a force your family did not acknowledge in the first place in a land you consider holy. Most muslims living in oppressive states have had families there for ages, when a man from among them came into power (likely with US help) and became a dictator. The trouble is that in alot of these states the issue is following the Koran (or avoiding a westernization they see as greedy and sinful) and how to do it well and the validity of the people group and their place in the land is not being questioned.It is not true that they have more rights than all Arab states, or even most. Women have more rights, that's for sure, but most choose not to utilize them for the purpose of following the Koran more accurately. But the daily shame and humiliation of an outsider supported blindly by the world, the strategic institutionalizing of fear, things like that... Those things are not a part of oppressive arab regimes.
The silent cold war against the middle east and Israel's anti-muslim sentiment have become partners in making a close-by military power managed by the US and its constant in-flux of cash and weapons. Meanwhile, blind Christians are donating money to send Russian Jews back to Israel and plant trees in their land. All this while the US is creating a nuclear super power for Jesus.
@aledawithwings@xanga - What do you think the church's wisest counsel would be on the matter?
Excellent entry and a discussion that should definitely be continued further.
@aledawithwings@xanga - Right on sister! Im glad to see you have woke up to the truth...Israel is NOT a fullfillment of Bible prophecy! Plz check this site out:www.roytov.com...Lets try to convince str8guy69 what a joke Israel is.