Si vis pacem, para bellum (Publius Flavious, fourth or fifth century)
“If you want peace, prepare for war.”
That hasn’t worked out so well in the Middle East.
On 7 October 2023, a significant escalation of the Gaza–Israel conflict began with a coordinated surprise offensive by multiple Palestinian militant groups against nearby Israeli cities, Gaza border crossings, adjacent military installations, and civilian settlements.
The images are horrifying: Innocent Israeli citizens being pulled out of their private cars and homes by Hamas (Palestinian) rebels and kidnapped, taken to one of the many underground tunnels in the city to be used as human shields.
Other images show homes and apartments and office buildings in Gaza being bombed, destroyed and demolished. People, innocent men, women, and children, being killed.
There is no doubt that this is the beginning of another long, protracted war in the Middle East. In the end, I fear Gaza will be no more, neither side wishing the other to live there.
I am no advocate of war. I abhor violence. Violence and war have never – ever – paved the pathway to peace.
Let me be clear: Hamas is a terrorist organization (not "a people" as one lovely but uneducated Christian lady told me) that has not served the Palestinians well.
Their actions should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The images we are seeing are hideous and terrifying and no one – no one who’s been paying attention – ought to be surprised.
I'll repeat: No one ought to be surprised.
And, I'll say this: No one’s hands are clean.
There have been so many thousands of years of blood spilled on the ground of Israel and Palestine, that it is hard to believe any kind of life can be sustained there.
The ancient war continues today between the offspring of Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham and Haggar, and the offspring of Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, over who is the “legitimate” heir of the land. The offspring of Ishmael are known as the Muslims and those of Isaac, the Jews.
Israel became an independent nation in 1948, shortly after the end of WWII. The Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, provided the urgent impulse for the re-establishment of the Jewish state. The hope was to solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.
However, the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was never implemented and, in fact, provoked the 1947–1949 Palestine War. Providing a home state for one nation prompted the expulsion of another. The UN agency created to serve the displaced population (UNRWA), reports that 5.9 million Palestinian are currently registered as refugees.
There have been flare-ups, escalations, and de-escalations but ancient tensions persist. Most recently, the Israeli military has been carrying out an intensified campaign of arrest raids, particularly in and around the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, after a spate of terrorist attacks in Israeli cities that killed 19 people in the Spring.
The military raids, which take place almost nightly, are often deadly. Close to 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis have been killed so far this year – already surpassing last year's annual figures and the highest number since 2005.
The Israeli authorities say that many of those were militants killed during clashes or while trying to perpetrate attacks, but some Palestinian protesters and uninvolved civilians have also been killed.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth makes both people blind and toothless.
When I was there in 2020, I saw The Wall. It is, in a word, hideous. The Wall separates families, and forces people to drive miles out of their way to get to work, or the clinic, or the hospital, or school. The Israelis have blatantly ignored the agreement made with the UN and built settlements on land that has been designated Palestinian.
Worse, when you look at the pattern of Israeli settlements on Palestinian-designated land, you see that they have done so with strategic limitations to access to water.
The Israelis control the flow of water and frequently and without explanation shut off the water supply. When pressed for a reason, they will say “routine maintenance” but everyone knows it is “routine power play” – just to let the Palestinians know who is in control.
I was struck by the number of large black cylinders on the rooftops of Palestinian homes. When I inquired what they were, I was informed that this was a reserve water supply, for those times when they would be denied water – sometimes for as long as 4-6 weeks – for “routine maintenance”. Besides homes, this affects Palestinian shops, stores, clinics, and hospitals.
Palestinians have no sovereignty as they are occupied by Israel. They are disenfranchised – they have no voice or vote or their own system of government, laws, local or national defense. They cannot travel freely as Israel will not issue them passports; Jordan will, but Israel looks scrupulously over their shoulder.
I’m just going to say this, flat out: The violence we see in the Middle East is the inevitable outcome of Israel’s persistent and systematic violation of the rights of Palestinians.
Golda Meir famously said, “Peace will come when Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” Yasser Arafat just as famously said, “Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.”
I saw these words of Nelson Mandela written on The Wall in Palestine: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
All I’m saying is this: Palestinians who are Muslims are not monsters. Neither are Israelis who are Jews. The descendants of Isaac and Ishmael are all – each and every one – children of God.
It is important to note that after Abraham tried to sacrifice his son, Isaac appears never to return home. He is not reported in attendance at his mother’s funeral. After the attempted sacrifice, Isaac is seen again in Beer-la’hai-roi, when his bride Rebekah is brought to him.
If you look on a map, Beer-la’hai-roi is not at all far from Beer-sheba and Paran which is the place where Haggar and Ishmael came to live after surviving banishment by Abraham at the behest of Sarah, his wife.
I wonder. Did Isaac reject his parents and find comfort in the arms of Haggar? Did he find solace in his relationship with his brother Haggar?
How many years of peace existed between the tribes of Isaac and those of Ishmael? I wonder what difference it might make if the Israelites and Palestinians came to recognize and embrace this part of their mutual history and ancestry.
All I am saying is this: Any comment or analysis of what is going on presently in Israel and Palestine that doesn’t take ALL of these facts into consideration today is shallow, hollow, immoral, and dehumanizing.
And, any interference by Christian evangelists who are invested in their interpretation of the Rapture at the cost of human lives is theologically and morally bankrupt.
Good Christians asking for prayers for Israel without asking for prayers for the Palestinian people are playing politics with prayer
All I am saying is this: I pray for the sovereign nation of Israel.
I also pray to see the formation of the sovereign nation of Palestine.
Because the origin of peace is not the preparation of war. Both the Torah and the Qur'an are quite clear: Peace is one of the names of God, and the origin of peace is in right relationship with God.
All I am saying (with no apology to John Lennon), is give God a chance.
Here's a short timeline of some of the more recent history of the Middle East Conflict
PS: For a balanced religious perspective on the Middle East, please check out FOSNA: Friends of Sabeel North America.
“If you want peace, prepare for war.”
That hasn’t worked out so well in the Middle East.
On 7 October 2023, a significant escalation of the Gaza–Israel conflict began with a coordinated surprise offensive by multiple Palestinian militant groups against nearby Israeli cities, Gaza border crossings, adjacent military installations, and civilian settlements.
The images are horrifying: Innocent Israeli citizens being pulled out of their private cars and homes by Hamas (Palestinian) rebels and kidnapped, taken to one of the many underground tunnels in the city to be used as human shields.
Other images show homes and apartments and office buildings in Gaza being bombed, destroyed and demolished. People, innocent men, women, and children, being killed.
There is no doubt that this is the beginning of another long, protracted war in the Middle East. In the end, I fear Gaza will be no more, neither side wishing the other to live there.
I am no advocate of war. I abhor violence. Violence and war have never – ever – paved the pathway to peace.
Let me be clear: Hamas is a terrorist organization (not "a people" as one lovely but uneducated Christian lady told me) that has not served the Palestinians well.
Their actions should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The images we are seeing are hideous and terrifying and no one – no one who’s been paying attention – ought to be surprised.
I'll repeat: No one ought to be surprised.
And, I'll say this: No one’s hands are clean.
There have been so many thousands of years of blood spilled on the ground of Israel and Palestine, that it is hard to believe any kind of life can be sustained there.
The ancient war continues today between the offspring of Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham and Haggar, and the offspring of Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, over who is the “legitimate” heir of the land. The offspring of Ishmael are known as the Muslims and those of Isaac, the Jews.
Israel became an independent nation in 1948, shortly after the end of WWII. The Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, provided the urgent impulse for the re-establishment of the Jewish state. The hope was to solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.
However, the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was never implemented and, in fact, provoked the 1947–1949 Palestine War. Providing a home state for one nation prompted the expulsion of another. The UN agency created to serve the displaced population (UNRWA), reports that 5.9 million Palestinian are currently registered as refugees.
There have been flare-ups, escalations, and de-escalations but ancient tensions persist. Most recently, the Israeli military has been carrying out an intensified campaign of arrest raids, particularly in and around the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, after a spate of terrorist attacks in Israeli cities that killed 19 people in the Spring.
The military raids, which take place almost nightly, are often deadly. Close to 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis have been killed so far this year – already surpassing last year's annual figures and the highest number since 2005.
The Israeli authorities say that many of those were militants killed during clashes or while trying to perpetrate attacks, but some Palestinian protesters and uninvolved civilians have also been killed.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth makes both people blind and toothless.
When I was there in 2020, I saw The Wall. It is, in a word, hideous. The Wall separates families, and forces people to drive miles out of their way to get to work, or the clinic, or the hospital, or school. The Israelis have blatantly ignored the agreement made with the UN and built settlements on land that has been designated Palestinian.
Worse, when you look at the pattern of Israeli settlements on Palestinian-designated land, you see that they have done so with strategic limitations to access to water.
The Israelis control the flow of water and frequently and without explanation shut off the water supply. When pressed for a reason, they will say “routine maintenance” but everyone knows it is “routine power play” – just to let the Palestinians know who is in control.
I was struck by the number of large black cylinders on the rooftops of Palestinian homes. When I inquired what they were, I was informed that this was a reserve water supply, for those times when they would be denied water – sometimes for as long as 4-6 weeks – for “routine maintenance”. Besides homes, this affects Palestinian shops, stores, clinics, and hospitals.
Palestinians have no sovereignty as they are occupied by Israel. They are disenfranchised – they have no voice or vote or their own system of government, laws, local or national defense. They cannot travel freely as Israel will not issue them passports; Jordan will, but Israel looks scrupulously over their shoulder.
I’m just going to say this, flat out: The violence we see in the Middle East is the inevitable outcome of Israel’s persistent and systematic violation of the rights of Palestinians.
Golda Meir famously said, “Peace will come when Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” Yasser Arafat just as famously said, “Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.”
I saw these words of Nelson Mandela written on The Wall in Palestine: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
All I’m saying is this: Palestinians who are Muslims are not monsters. Neither are Israelis who are Jews. The descendants of Isaac and Ishmael are all – each and every one – children of God.
It is important to note that after Abraham tried to sacrifice his son, Isaac appears never to return home. He is not reported in attendance at his mother’s funeral. After the attempted sacrifice, Isaac is seen again in Beer-la’hai-roi, when his bride Rebekah is brought to him.
If you look on a map, Beer-la’hai-roi is not at all far from Beer-sheba and Paran which is the place where Haggar and Ishmael came to live after surviving banishment by Abraham at the behest of Sarah, his wife.
I wonder. Did Isaac reject his parents and find comfort in the arms of Haggar? Did he find solace in his relationship with his brother Haggar?
How many years of peace existed between the tribes of Isaac and those of Ishmael? I wonder what difference it might make if the Israelites and Palestinians came to recognize and embrace this part of their mutual history and ancestry.
All I am saying is this: Any comment or analysis of what is going on presently in Israel and Palestine that doesn’t take ALL of these facts into consideration today is shallow, hollow, immoral, and dehumanizing.
And, any interference by Christian evangelists who are invested in their interpretation of the Rapture at the cost of human lives is theologically and morally bankrupt.
Good Christians asking for prayers for Israel without asking for prayers for the Palestinian people are playing politics with prayer
All I am saying is this: I pray for the sovereign nation of Israel.
I also pray to see the formation of the sovereign nation of Palestine.
Because the origin of peace is not the preparation of war. Both the Torah and the Qur'an are quite clear: Peace is one of the names of God, and the origin of peace is in right relationship with God.
All I am saying (with no apology to John Lennon), is give God a chance.
Here's a short timeline of some of the more recent history of the Middle East Conflict
PS: For a balanced religious perspective on the Middle East, please check out FOSNA: Friends of Sabeel North America.
Please consider a contribution to these efforts:
American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
The Princess Basma Center
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