Praying for the Innocent in Palestine and Israel

Pray for the Little Ones

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem by order of King Herod. Receive into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims. By your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

Yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Innocents, where we remember those slaughtered by Herod (Mat. 2:13-18). I shared the above prayer on multiple social media platforms, and folk really responded to it, most probably seeing it as a commentary on what’s going on in Gaza; one person explicitly mentioned the 9,000 children killed there.

              Now, for a blog where at one time I commented on everything, quite frenetically, my saying nothing about 10/7 and the invasion of Gaza might seem strange. Well, in the tradition of my wife, the Quaker tradition, there is a question you ask, “Are you improving the silence?” Or to put it another way, would my hot take on the Middle East simply contribute to the noise? I thought so, so I took time to listen; I noticed the people I most trust regarding Israel and Palestine were silent or lamenting.

              The Sunday after 10/7 I did say a few pastoral words to my congregation, essentially, I’ve met Israelis and Palestinians who have worked together every day for decades, middle aged men engaging in commerce, sometimes across or through fences. Folk living their day to day the best they can, do not want war, do not want each other dead or wounded. War and violence rarely cause the powerful and the ideologically driven to be defeated. Those who will be hurt and will die, will be the little ones. We ought to pray for the little ones.

 

Reasons for Silence

              Since then, I’ve been silent, because it seems like any words of support get warped here on American soil. Compassion toward those murdered and mutilated and raped on 10/7 is transformed into support for Islamophobia; horror at bombs and disease and starvation decimating the Palestinians in Gaza bolsters Antisemitism.

              For that matter, it seems like we can’t even settle on what terms mean. I’ve seen people use “From the River to the Sea” as a way to talk about Gaza and the West Bank becoming an independent country cradling the equally independent country of Israel, and others who use it to call for killing every Jew in the Middle East. Likewise, I’ve heard people saying they are “Zionists” and mean that they advocate for depopulating every country from Kuwait to Egypt, in order to ensure that God will bless America, because God blesses those who bless Israel. I also know people who call themselves Zionists because they believe Israel has a right to exist within the framework of the 1947 UN partition plan.

People are choosing sides like it’s a baseball game, or a twitter poll. We’re picking a slogan and inserting whatever meaning we want into it. We’re excusing the excesses of our own side, because at least they are on our side. We are polarizing and radicalizing in the process, and I don’t want to participate in that!

 

Who Benefits

              It is worth asking, who benefits from the misery and death of so many?

Hamas, surely, that’s why they provoked Israel, knowing Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s similar provocation years back. Recently, more Arab countries have begun to make peace with Israel while sidestepping the Palestinian question. Hamas’ action stopped that process in its tracks. Peace in the Middle East can only go through Palestine.

Netanyahu, a politician uniquely despised by his own people. His policies toward the Palestinians tended to delegitimize Palestinian Statehood by weakening moderates and strengthening militants; the same militants who eventually attacked the country he was supposed to be protecting. He caused a revolt in his own military when he undermined Israel's court system. He might well go to prison once he is out of power… so keeping the conflict going as long as possible, is in his best interest. His government currently has the legitimacy of a national unity coalition in the face of an external threat, once the threat ends, so does his rule.

Russia, the attack happened on Putin’s birthday, and some say that was not a coincidence. 10/7 diverted US and EU attention, munitions, and funding from Ukraine. Russia can pretend to be a disinterested and responsible third party in negotiations between Israel and Palestine. Russia, not America, is lauded as the force of stability in the Middle East and the wider world.

Iran has declared that 10/7 was retaliation against America for killing their chief spy a few years back. The war in Gaza helps their ally, Russia. It undermines the alliance against them being formed between Israel and the Arab world. Additionally, it has given Iran reason and opportunity to attack US service people, in an effort to gain power in Iraq and set up a sympathetic regime.

 

Israel’s 9/11

              I’ve thought some about Biden’s warning to Netanyahu that responding to 10/7 like we did on 9/11 would be a mistake. The American people called for things to be smashed to undo the smashing of our precious city, death for death and eye for an eye. Then we occupied Afghanistan for 20 years and Iraq for 12. As I alluded to above, we still have troops in Iraq who Iran is taking pot-shots at.

We could have tackled Al Qaeda as a police action, but we did not. As with many things in global governance, I don’t know enough to second guess that choice, but I do often wonder how different my generation’s formative years would have been if we’d tried to restrain and redeem the evil of 9/11, instead of trying to destroy it.

Does Israel want to still be fighting in Gaza in 2043? Do they want to occupy Lebanon until 2035? Could those who killed, maimed, and raped Israeli citizens be brought to justice by non-military means?

              The other wrinkle in all this is there are hostages out there. A few of them have been accidentally killed by the Israeli army already. Bombs don’t seem to be getting them home; the brief ceasefire did bring some people back. And it be clear, the prisoner exchange did further legitimize Hamas in the eyes of some, so I’m not saying there aren’t consequences to such an action.

 

Ceasefire

              It seems like war only hurts the least of these. This war is propping up Hamas and Netanyahu, strengthening the hand of bad state actors, and spreading global chaos. War won’t get the hostages back. War encourages radicalization, polarization, and more war. War saps the creativity of people of goodwill.

              For all those reasons, it seems like the best bad option is a ceasefire in Gaza.

I hope saying all this has not created more noise and nothingness, and I surely don’t know enough about the Israeli Palestinian conflict to say as much as I have, but my conscious told me that I had to say something. I pray for the little ones who are bearing the brunt of this conflict, pray that the Spirit might spark a creative way out of this destruction, and that we might know war no more.