The Worsening Crisis in Israel/Palestine

 Sixth Friday of Easter

Lectionary Texts:

Acts 1:12-26

John 17:1-19

Psalm 1 (UMH #738)

 

Things are getting worse in Israel, and especially in Gaza. Israeli troops are amassing on the Gaza border. Hamas in Gaza are firing thousands of ancient scud rockets which they obtain from Iran. The Israeli "Iron Dome" shoots down about 98% of them but enough have gotten through to kill seven Israelis in Tel-Aviv. Missles are now coming into Tel-Aviv from the north, from Hezbollah controlled areas of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is also backed by Iran.

 

Meanwhile in Gaza Israeli airstrikes and missiles, though targeted primarily at buildings, have killed several hundred Palestinians. Right-wing Israeli mobs are attacking Arab-Israeli citizens who have lived for generations in Israeli and are Israeli citizens. 

 

I have been increasingly disturbed by American news reporting from left to right, from CNN to Fox News, as well as newspapers from the NY Times to the Wall Street Journal, all being very pro-Israeli. President Biden has been cautious, but yesterday said simply,"Israel has a right to defend itself." Do Palestinians not have a right to defend themselves?

Here's what started it. Israeli Police are evicting and threatening to evict Arabs who live in East Jerusalem  from their homes and remove them to the West Bank. Israelis intend to tear down Arab houses and apartment buildings and build new Israeli neighborhoods. Arabs have protested. A center of protest is the Temple Mount outside the Al-Aqsa mosque. Israeli police forces raided and vandalized Al-Aqsa last week. Al-Aqsa is one of the holiest shrines in Islam.  

 

This Israeli Police raid jacked up the violence. The Palestinian Authority, Arabs who govern the West Bank have remained largely non-violent. Hamas, the much more violent group, which controls the Gaza Strip, started shooting rockets. The vastly more powerful Israeli artillery and air forces have responded with overwhelming force.

The U.N. voted overwhelmingly for a resolution condemning Israeli actions. The U.S. vetoed the resolution. The U.S. reflexively supports Israel in any conflict, even as Israel violates its treaties and its own laws. 

Depending on how you count them, there have been six wars between Israel and Arabs since Israel was founded in 1948. Israel has one all of them. Only the 1983 Yom-Kippur War was even close. Israel's oppression of Palestinian Arabs is similar to the treatment of African-Americans in the days of Jim Crow or the days of Aparteid in South Africa. 

The Israeli Defense Force is the best trained military in the world. Israel's military technology is vastly superior to that of any other country, including the U.S.  The converse can be said about the Palestinians. They have no air force or navy. They have no organized military. Israel does not allow it. In any conflict the Palestinians lose.

Israel continues to build more and more illegal settlements on the West Bank. Although many Israelis want fairer treatment of Palestinians, the Israeli government appears to be moving toward the eventual expulsion of all Palestinian Arabs from their land, in a way somewhat similar to the American expulsion of Native American tribes from their land.

I am not anti-Israeli. I want Israel to remain a great country with secure boundaries and a homeland for Jews. But I also want fair treatment for Palestinian Arabs, who lived on this land for hundreds of years before 1948.

God of Peace,

I pray for a de-escalation of warfare between Israelis and Arabs in the Holy Land and that this war torn land might someday be a haven of peace for all. In the name of the Prince of Peace, Amen.

Faithfully,

Christian 

P.S. I would welome any questions or different perspectives on this subject.