In a perfect world I would have the leisure to sit down and become far better informed about the issues creating such tension in the Middle East. At present, though, there are a few things of which I am quite certain:
1) Americans, and American Christians especially, ought not blindly back Israel in all she does. Israel is a government which will act according to its own self-interest. Those actions, like those of any government, will sometimes be just and sometimes be unjust. The modern day state of Israel is not to be equated with Biblical Israel, though some, through a mistaken interpretation of the Bible so argue and somehow conclude that Israel can do no wrong. That is, to my mind, foolish.
2) Though the Palestinian people may have just cause for a complaint against Israel, as well as against the international community which created Israel, we cannot justify the continual chain of terror by those who claim to act on their behalf. Sympathy is not o be won that way. Such acts are to be repudiated.
Of those things I am certain.
If one seeks more insight, I am told by knowledgeable friends that this is a trusted site for information regarding the existing conflict. I have not had time to peruse the site, but some of you may find insight there.
And I am reminded often that these conflicts do not simply involve Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims. There are Christians caught in the crossfire, both Israeli and Palestinian, who are a forgotten people, and yet who are trying desperately to live out Christ’s demolition of the dividing wall of hostility.
Finally, here is a portion of a note from the director of development of the United Bible Societies in Gaza, a Christian and a Palestinian. I like what he says.
Whom to blame and how far back we should go? What is the baseline for deciding justice? As a Palestinian/Jordanian Arab Christian I should naturally blame Israel and hold them responsible for the killing of many children in Gaza. But at the same time a Jewish friend can come and say the same against Hamas or other Palestinian or Arab governments or organizations and hold them responsible for the killing of many Jewish children. To engage in the blame game is to perpetuate the effect of violence and evil; it adds fuel to the fire. This does not mean acquitting the guilty, it means we submit the file of all the guilty ones, and I am one of them, to the One who judges justly and whose gates of mercy are always open for those who seek it.