Of War and Resurrection

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Dear family and friends,

As Israel’s war against Gaza drags into the seventh month with no end in sight, both Palestinians and Israelis remain traumatized and have grown weary by the effects this war has brought to the lives of so many.

Israelis count the days, Palestinians count the days, and both sides count the dead. Clearly, however, the Palestinians have suffered and continue to suffer the highest casualties, and the majority of those killed, which now numbers over 35,000, are non-combatants, and many are women and children.

The posters of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas stare down at those who pass by, some fading, some showing signs of age. Yet they are far from forgotten in the minds of Israelis, who protest in Tel Aviv every Saturday night and chant the slogan “Bring Them Home Now.” Palestinian prisoners continue to languish in Israeli jails, many with no due process of law, and with no charges brought against them. They are also seen as “hostages,” and their families would also like them released and brought home.

[ngg src="galleries" ids="1238" display="pro_horizontal_filmstrip" show_captions="1"]The around-the-clock news on Al Jazeera, whose offices were shut down by the Israeli government in early May, tells a daunting, sobering story of the deaths due to the ongoing, Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Their reporters are largely Palestinians, living inside Gaza. Writing in the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz (The Land), Amit Varshizky states that “a society so indifferent to death and destruction has already lost the war.” He goes on to say that “only those who are weak feel a need to unleash such exaggerated force and are indifferent to the killing of thousands of children, as Israel has done in Gaza.” 

The Biden Administration bears an enormous responsibility, as it has both armed and supplied weapons to Israel in order to carry out this war. It is estimated that the equivalent of two atomic bombs have been dropped on the civilian population of Gaza. How could this be happening in the 21st Century? On the one hand, the U.S. stands poised to feed the starving population of the Gaza Strip, and on the other hand, it supplies Israel with the military hardware, bombs and weapons to keep this genocide going. 

Right-wing Israelis have even participated in attempting to stop the aid convoys from reaching the starving population in the Gaza Strip. Using starvation as a weapon of war is nothing short of a war crime. The ongoing evil that humankind is capable of seems to know no end.

At the same time, Palestinians in the West Bank are also feeling under threat from right-wing Israeli settlers, intent on moving Palestinians, particularly the Bedouin herding communities, off of their land. The United States has sanctioned nine Israeli settlers for their violence against the Palestinian population. Canada has done the same, and so has Great Britain. It’s not nearly enough, but it is a start towards reining in those who would seek to dispossess the Palestinians from their land.

In our deafening silence, we are inexcusably complicit with this genocide, and that includes the church. I do not, I cannot condone Hamas’ bloody attack against Israel and its civilians on October 7, 2023. As I have stated previously, in an earlier newsletter, the notion that things were OK, prior to October 7, is simply not true.

Years of “managing” this conflict, rather than solving it, have only led to more suffering, more death, more destruction, and more hatred. 

Amid the tense atmosphere of the region, the churches in Jerusalem decided to carry on with Holy Week and Easter commemorations. After all, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His ultimate victory over sin and death, not the linchpin upon which our faith turns?

Both Western or Protestant Easter (March 31) and Orthodox Easter (May 5) were about as far apart from one another as they ever occur, this year. Good Friday in Jerusalem was not surprisingly devoid of tourists, and the remnant of those of us still living and working here retraced Christ’s final steps along Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa, which took on new meaning this year. For, if ever the “Way of Sorrows” made one reflect on Christ’s suffering and death, carried out by empire, it was this year.

Likewise, the gathering was much slimmer this year, on the back side of the Mount of Olives, as we welcomed Easter morning amidst the tragedy of war.

The entire world appears to be caught up in the conflict, either as pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel advocates. The International Court of Justice has declared that Israel must stop its assault on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, yet even this has fallen on the deaf ears of the most right-wing, extremist government that Israel has even known.

In the early morning hours of April 14, Iran launched over 300 drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles toward Israel, following an Israeli attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria two weeks earlier, which killed 16 persons, including several top Iranian military advisors. The vast majority of these incoming missiles and drones were intercepted and shot down by the U.S., Jordan and Israel.

If Christ wept over Jerusalem once, surely, He weeps bitter tears today. His words from Luke 19:42 resonate loudly, in a world that appears to have gone mad. “If you had known on this day – even you – the things that make for peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.”

In Steadfastness,

Doug