As I sort through the scrambled emotions elicited by recent events, I find myself returning to historical touchpoints to frame the current conflict between Israel, Hamas, the Palestinians, and the Arab world. I do so with the prayer that history’s lessons can illuminate a path to peace for the region and the world.
Hebrew scriptures tell an origin tale of promise and bloody conquest that informs Jewish claims to Israel. In that narrative, an enslaved band of Israelites escaped from Egypt with the blessing of Yahweh and the leadership of Moses and Joshua. The “promised land” was won by bloody conquest of occupying tribes. Stability depended on honoring Yahweh, while apostasy resulted in defeat and exile. Perhaps those ancient lessons need to be revisited.
The Holocaust and 9/11 serve as important contemporary touchstones for Israel, as reports often compare current casualties and emotional trauma to those events. Comparisons note the intelligence failures, the surprise element, the brutality of Hamas’ actions, and Hamas’ stated goal of Jewish extermination.
From the Palestinian perspective, the establishment of Israel pushed them from lands they had occupied for centuries. They remain refugees. Israel has seized and occupied much of the remaining lands given to the Palestinians by international treaties and agreements. Walls were built, creating open-air prisons. Israeli Palestinians live as second-class citizens. The genocide and displacement of indigenous Americans, the Warsaw Ghetto, South African apartheid, the wall on our southern border, and racial unrest following George Floyd’s murder resonate.
President Joe Biden’s pleas for Israel to avoid retribution and to learn from historical mistakes were on target. Security rarely comes through violence, occupation or oppression — the oppressed become the oppressor and the cycle continues. Our only hope is the cultivation of a just peace. May we begin the work. Global stability depends on it.
Ellen Brady, Women’s Democratic Club of Utah Issues Director, Murray