How are we to think about Gaza and Israel?

From virtually every angle our thinking on more recent events, and everything leading from the Balfour Declaration to them is enmeshed with confusion and emotion. In this country we have many who seem to believe Israel can do no wrong and middle easterners can do know right. The bulk of Christians have little notion of the number of Christians in the Middle East, nor how western policies impact them. We likewise have Americans who believe Israel can do no right and anything done by Muslims against them is justly deserved. Add in the mix the complicated history of the crusades, the horror of the holocaust, the allied relationship between Israel and the United States, the tangled family history of Christians and Jews, the secular perspective of the Israeli government and, well, it’s a mess.

When we face a mess the first thing we need to do, after acknowledging the mess, is seeking out what we can know and what we can untangle. We set aside, without denying the scope of the horror, our understandable emotional responses and try to coolly apply the wisdom of God. For instance, even if you have embraced the fevered dreams of raving antisemitic conspiracy theorists, even if you are right, such doesn’t justify terrorism. An anti-communist John Bircher might have thought it a good and wise thing for the United States to fight against the Viet Cong, lest all the southeast Asian dominoes fall. Such could not, however, justify the My Lai Massacre. Whether Gaza is a free country given to Palestinians in exchange for a peace they are now breaking, or an open air prison may be a difficult question. Assaulting civilians is not.

What tends to justify such horrors in the minds of Hamas radicals is the perception of being gravely wronged by Israel. Israel, having been gravely wronged, now faces the temptation to retaliate. Seeking out enemy combatants, destroying weapons caches, bombarding rocket launching sites is not retaliation. It is waging war against an aggressing army. On the other hand, carpet bombing cities, targeting civilians is retaliation.

To put it another way, one thing we ought to know is the difference between terrorism and war. They have death and destruction in common. They differ as to the targets. Terrorism attacks civilians. War attacks soldiers. If this is not clear, chances are high that emotion is clouding your judgment. A wicked enemy that practices terrorism must have war waged against it, not have terrorism terrorizing the innocent.

I don’t pretend to know where all this is going. We could be in the early stages of World War III. Or, this could turn out to be the biggest brushfire in a long history of brushfires. I do know that thousands have died by the deliberate acts of thousands. Which means we need more light than heat, more just war commitments than jingoism. We need to mourn for our fallen natures, that we are all capable of barbarism. And we need to pray for the peace of the whole of the war-torn and terrorism torn region.