The Israeli/Palestine war is causing me sadness, frustration and anger that is consuming me.
The Israeli/Palestine, Hamas/IDF, Muslim/Jewish war (call it what you will, it is after all a religious war) is not a new or recent conflict. The blood feuds that are behind this current conflict have been ongoing through the arc of time.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all cut from the same cloth. The basic tenets of these religions are all laudable ones of their faiths, including loving one’s neighbor. Why then is there such angst and vitriol between them? It seems that morality and love take a back seat to righteous dogma and indignation.
The “leaders” of both parties in this conflict have lost their way in the morass of conflict and their decisions are no longer grounded in their faiths. The media are complicit in causing my current mental state. Both the journalistic media and social media are prodding me to make a choice, to take a stand, to take a side. I cannot in good conscience choose to condone anything that is going on now.
Which of the explicit horrors that have taken place do I side with? Do I say that Hamas was justified in committing the atrocities of the killing of 1,410 Israelis because Palestinians have been living in unconscionable conditions? No! Do I say that Benjamin Netanyahu’s IDF is justified in leveling the whole of Gaza and killing over 33,000 Palestinians because of those Israelis killed and hostages taken? No!
What I can condone is the world community’s call to end this madness now. Let us please claw back what humanity remains to be salvaged.
Hamas, Netanyahu: Quit using the hostages as chattel to further your ends. Both parties have been reduced to a Machiavellian maxim that “the end justifies the means.” This maxim has been the underpinning of too many totalitarian, failed regimes in the past. The hostages are not goods to be bartered, they are fellow human beings. What is one Israeli hostage worth? One Palestinian? 10, 100, 1000? How many Palestinians must die before retribution is achieved — 35,000, 40,000?
Sadly, neither Israel, nor Hamas can win in the end. There will only be losers on both sides. Hamas will lose countless numbers of its citizenry, its cities turned to rubble. Israel will not defeat Hamas because it is not just terrorists with guns, but an ideology couched in an unreachable ideal that will exist long after the bombing has stopped. More importantly to Israel is that it will lose its position of acceptance and respect in the world community, and also, gains it has achieved towards peace with the Muslim world because of its handling of this crisis.
Hamas, Israel: If you both truly believe that Allah/God wishes the world to live in peace and harmony, then make it happen.
Wayne Belka, Midvale
