In the last few weeks we have seen the bloodiest conflict yet between Israel and Gaza. The last news story I saw reported that Israel was appearing to scale back its operation, but there is no way to know what tomorrow holds, and the situation at the moment is terribly bleak. The last figures I saw reported over 1800 killed and 8000 injured in an area about half the size of Orlando. That would be a huge crisis even if your still had all your medical facilities and your power plant, which they don’t.
Yesterday I received an email update from a Palestinian pastor who has contacts in Gaza, and had been involved in ministering to believers there before this began. With his permission I’m sharing it here to ask you to join me in prayer for them, and for those who are able, to send aid. Please take just five minutes to hear his phone conversation with a pastor inside Gaza, and his description of the situation there. He estimates there are 2000 believers there.
(video removed)
Now I want to bring up something this pastor never mentions. In the times I have heard him speak, or in the few brief conversations I’ve had with him, he has never complained or spoken negatively about the lack of interest the American evangelical church shows toward their suffering brothers and sisters in Gaza and the West Bank. But I personally know there is often shock when people are even asked to consider that Palestinian Christian exist at all! In our fervor to support Israel, we tend to see the Palestinians as one big block of terror – all dark and sinister. But there is still a light in Gaza, and it’s suffering.
I want to share a few words with you from a book written 12 years ago. Many have lost their lives since then in numerous conflicts. But the situation spoken of here is just as true today as it was then. Please put yourselves in their shoes and try to see through their eyes for a moment:
“For many years, I have been hurt so much, more by my brothers in the West than by Israel. And this is common throughout the evangelical churches in Palestine. We do not ask the churches in America to give us money. We just want them to identify with us and allow us to identify with them. And if not identify, at least feel with us. Say you understand us. On the contrary, many of the brothers from outside come to us with judgment. They even come with rebuke. We feel cut off, alone, away from the church. We want to be part of the church worldwide.” – Jack, Palestinian Believer
“We wake up in the morning and have breakfast like Christians in the U.S…. We go through difficult times like they do. We love the Lord as much as they do. And we need them to be with us, not against us. I don’t have a problem with any Christians supporting Israel with money and prayers. I don’t mind that. I just encourage them to look at the other side and to recognize that there are Palestinian believers too.
“But the only emails I receive from Christians in America say that Palestinians are terrorists and need to be killed. A Christian church in America donated money for a tank. Imagine how we felt as we watched the news and saw a tank crossing over on shipboard to Israel with a big sign on it reading, “Donated by the Christians of the United States.” – Waleed, Palestinian Believer
These quotes, along with many inspirational stories of faith are found in the book, Between Two Fires by Jack Kincaid.
Do you know anyone praying for Gaza? Do you know any churches or groups weeping for them, praying, and mobilizing resources to help in their time of need? I would love to hear about it! Please leave a comment. That’s why I’m writing this. Please share it with your friends. You can be the spark!
The suffering of every person should deeply touch us, Jew, Muslim, and Christian. But if we do not even know what those in our own family are suffering, how can we show compassion to the rest?
I also want to share with you a picture and message that has come through a brother, who hasn’t as far as I know, read the book I just quoted. But Jesus impresses his heart with images and words that express His pleadings for us to turn our hearts to Him and what He loves.
The Palestinian Bride
“Many of My people love Israel
and they pray for her often—
for her safety, peace, and prosperity.
They are proud to ‘stand for Israel’:
they preach it in their gatherings,
participate in conferences about it,
and assemble to protest and rally for it.
They support Israel’s politics;
they pray for Israel’s army,
for her military objectives,
and for her to be victorious.
They are attentive not only to the past
and present sufferings of Israel,
but also to potential sufferings that Jews
could experience under speculative scenarios.
But they cannot see the great sufferings
of their Christian brothers and sisters
in neighboring Gaza and the West Bank.
My Palestinian bride suffers,
but they do not mourn with her,
comfort her, encourage her or support her.
They do not ‘stand with’ her.
My bride in Palestine is an inconvenience
to the great devotion of many to Israel;
hearing of her suffering only interrupts
their unceasing prayers for Israel.
Many of My people in their hearts have sold
their suffering Palestinian brothers and sisters,
trading them for the hope of being rewarded
for unconditionally ‘standing with Israel.’
Although many in the church abroad
have forsaken My Palestinian bride,
yet I have not abandoned her,
and I have raised up a remnant of My people
to pray for her and support her.
Though she has not been loved
by many of her family—My people—
she shall be honored and called ‘My beloved’.”
My heart is broken today over the escalating violence in Israel and Palestine. I ache for all the suffering on both sides.
As an American citizen, I have no ground to confront the violence of any other nation. We romanticize our “wars” no matter how pointless, and worship our military. I love and respect everyone who serves, but I find it sad that reverence for selfless service is used as a barrier to discourage open discussion about what they are asked to do and how. As the whole world knows, we love our guns too. It’s hard to find an American, Christian or not, who doesn’t believe violence is an admirable way to solve a conflict.
Not only do we support violence, but Christians here have some strange beliefs about who God loves and doesn’t love, and therefore some people are of more value than others. As I try to see humans through God’s eyes, not political and religious bias, and realize none of us are without fault or deserving of more of God’s favor, it becomes increasingly painful for me to remember the lock-step allegiances I used to ascribe to, and the people I used to degrade in my speech.
Father forgive us for these blind hatreds and loyalties both. We are all in need of mercy.
Violence begets more violence, unless you achieve complete extermination or brokenness of an entire people group. Once again, my country was successful on this front too with the continent’s First Nations. While their total populations dwindled to only 250,000 at one point, and many believed they would vanish forever, there are now millions trying to reclaim their identity, and heal from centuries of genocidal practices toward every part of their lives for generations. Yet we are still proud for having put them under our feet and taken everything from them we could. I believe we have convinced ourselves they deserved it. The “settler” and the “pioneer” are some of the most revered icons of our history books, and indeed my own great-grandparents were among them.
Why do people with no power or hope of winning continue to fight and bring these battles of final wrath upon themselves? (Explore “The Great Indian Wars”) Because they see what little they have left continue to be taken from them, right down to their dignity and their ability to provide for their own families. Food is cut off, travel restricted, the space they are allowed to live becomes smaller and smaller as more settlers move in. They see lands their families worked and lived on for generations taken over so that houses can be built for those who hate and abuse them, with military protection.
To this day, few people ever stop to ask, “What right did we have?”.
I am living in peace on a land that 180 years ago was a war zone between the invaders and the people that had lived here for thousands of years. My people won, and are still proud of it. But when I go back and read the history, the broken promises, and learn of the devastated people, all I want to do is cry. Nothing then, nor now, will stand in the way of our prosperity.
This blog was not started to be political, and this discussion is much more about what the heart of Jesus sees when he looks at the world, not all the lies we tell ourselves about who is better or worse. As Christians, many of whom proudly “Stand with Israel”, I plead with you to not stand for violence toward any human beings. Endless discussions abound over what people have a right to do in order to defend themselves. Jesus had a right, but He set the example that it was more powerful to not exercise that right. The bigger question is, what is the revenge cycle going to solve, and when?
Genocide is a high price to exact in order to gain security. Yet it appears there are elements on both sides here who have made a pact to follow this track to the end. I know it is not the desire of all the people on either side. Which side has the ability to actually carry it out, and will it in the end be justified or later listed with all the other unfortunate events in history?
Where would Jesus stand? I would personally love to see Him standing somewhere on this earth anytime now. But my grasp on eschatology and prophecies wane a little hazy. All I know is that whether it’s next year or 500 years, my call is to stand in Love, not on either side of a battle line.
I am encouraged that many voices are speaking out, from Israel as well, and I feel less compelled to do so. But my husband and I both have discussed how our own past support of political sides that blinded us to the humanity of those we deemed as “enemies” leaves us with a burden to speak out for love, truth, and honesty. I am not on anyone’s side, or against anyone. I am for Love. And for those who choose to walk in it as the highest road.
If you are wanting people to believe the Jesus you speak of, you must put down the gun – both literal and figurative. My faith has been sorely tested more by those who profess to be of this religion than by any other challenge. “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?” Good question, Jesus.
Third time is a charm. A real, relevant post to end the day! Thank you for your patience. 😉 This is what I intended to post here today.
I began writing this a couple weeks ago. As things were heating up toward another armed conflict between my country and the Middle East, with possible ramifications for Israel, I decided to hold off on publishing. I deeply desire peace for Syria, and Israel, and all nations. With so much war and unrest in so many places it’s hard to read the news. While in hope of a diplomatic solution of some kind, I submit this subject:
For the Love of Israel Tonight I am sitting in a vacant house that my husband and I own. We have spent two weeks getting it ready to put on the market, but we lived here enough years to have two children and enjoy many times sharing hospitality with good friends. It is hard to let this house go thinking of all the memories. Today I was also remembering when our Hebrew Roots congregation went out in the front yard at night to blow shofars at the new moon. Okay, so we had some weird times too. But all the crazy fun times began for us, with a love for Israel.
How I Fell in Love I was not raised in the type of church that believed Israel still had Chosen People status because we believed we did. I never gave the modern state of Israel much thought and could never figure out what the big deal was about everyone wanting to go to the “Holy Land.” For us a pilgrimage of worth might be the house our prophet was born in, or the very first church building used by our denomination.
One day, years after leaving the late 1800’s variety of American-inspired “Chosen People” for good, I felt a desire to read the book of Ezekiel. Then I read other Old Testament prophets, majors and minors. I became very excited at the discovery of many things I had never seen before regarding the Jewish people and promises of their restoration. I began to wonder if the modern state of Israel was the beginning of these prophecies being fulfilled. Wouldn’t you know, many other people had exactly the same speculations!
I immersed myself in the study of the history of the Jewish people, and then of the history of the modern state. I had always felt a solidarity with the Holocaust victims from childhood because we also kept the Jewish Sabbath in our church, and were taught we would suffer a similar fate for it one day. I had read more World War II books than I could count. But now I wanted to know all about them as a people, past and present.
My husband, not so much interested in Israel, but in the Torah itself as a way of life, was also being drawn to identify with Jewishness as a path of life and worship. As our testimony here shares in far too much tedious detail, we did.
We began to see the Hebrew way as given to a tribal nation thousands of years ago, as the only way. We believed God ordained this forever and for always, and that any who would be obedient to follow Him in this were also Jewish. Judaism itself does teach this. Upon conversion you are as much a part of the nation as one natural born. This is the way the Old Testament teaches, to be circumcised and joined in obedience to Yahweh as explained by Moses, is to become a Hebrew.
Many people in the movement talked of moving to Israel. I studied about kibbutz life and nothing sounded more idyllic to me. I looked into ways to immigrate, and found full conversion to Judaism, proof of ethnic lineage, or joining the IDF were the options, all of which seemed problematic. But my now “Jewish” heart, longed to be in the Land. As many Christians believe, we thought by blessing Israel, we would be blessed and also have front-row privileges to end time events and insider information on current world affairs. That’s pretty intoxicating stuff.
Meeting a Real Jewish Zionist An Israeli man came to speak to our little tiny group. I’m sure he had bigger fish to fry with much larger pockets, but he was kind to come and speak for us. The way we prepared for his arrival you would have thought the Queen of England was coming to town. He was running a publicity campaign for the Temple Mount and the WHOLE land of Israel as described to Abraham, to be occupied by Jews. Any concession at all to give up an inch of land was condemned as evil and against the will of God. Any Israeli or American leader willing to make compromises for peace was in danger of a curse we believed, and he fueled our zealous convictions. We did not care to speak to him of his Messiah, but he did make many diplomatic patronizing remarks toward the idea of the Messiah – as he was accustomed to speaking in Christian circles. He also had amazing war stories that filled us with admiration and a sense of being on “God’s side”. Maybe the miracles were true. One thing I’ve learned about miracles – they mean God loves us. They don’t always mean we are necessarily right. He was a sweet, charismatic man and I have no reason to doubt the depth of his convictions.
Those Obstructing God’s Will As far as Palestinians were concerned, we had our talking points. We saw them as one big mob of hate-filled terrorists, not people. Not an ounce of concern or compassion for them found a place in our hearts, nor did we ever hear any of them speak about their situation. They didn’t matter to us. They didn’t belong there, and the sooner they were dealt with the better, although most of us had the realization that we would have to wait for the 2nd coming to see this problem solved. Seriously. I wonder what Jesus we were expecting?
Now, several years later with a new heart, open ears and eyes, I feel compelled to address this issue which is so closely linked not just to the Hebrew Roots Movement, but much of evangelical Christianity as well. I have questioned myself hundreds of times, “Why I should write these things?” They are hard. But it comes down to love. Love for Israel. All of it.
Honesty is Loving Before I begin to share the hard things, there are several guaranteed reactions to anyone who would dare to look at this situation from any alternate angles. I know, because I used to have the same violent knee jerks so that I nearly bruised my own chin. Calmly place both feet on the floor, and hear my words.
*I LOVE JEWISH PEOPLE no matter where they live.
*I don’t wish to see Israel wiped off the map.
*I am deeply moved by the fear they live in and am well aware of the threats surrounding them daily, and the great suffering they have experienced past and present.
* I could care less about the accusations of conspiracies and evil empires, because I have to include my own country in that discussion. This isn’t about blame.
Now that we have that clearly stated, I desire to speak with honesty. If at any point you feel your feet rising from the floor, please refer again to the list above.
Christians and Israel I speak now to those who call themselves by the term Christian. This would imply that you believe not only IN Jesus, but that you believe Him. I have been amazed at how easy I have in the past skimmed over very clear, direct teaching as “does not apply” to me. As He has gradually worked on my heart, I am constantly shocked at things I thought were okay that are completely out of line with how He is describing His Kingdom and how it works. This is an ongoing process for all of us who seek to follow Him. This isn’t just a matter of reading words on a page and managing to integrate my thinking from hypocrisy to honesty, but deep heart changes that are incredibly painful, yet freeing at the same time.
Many Christians, especially in the United States, feel a deep affinity for Israel and Jewish people. This isn’t wrong in any way, except when it creates the situation where we only love one side, and God loves both. When we cross over from loyalty to Jesus to blind, unbending loyalty to any earthly, fallen thing, no matter how good we perceive it, we create for ourselves a conflict of interest. This can happen with countless “good” things. The Biblical term for this is idolatry.
Just as we tend to see all Palestinians as terrorists, I think Christians also want to see Jewish people in a stereotype as well. We see them through the lens of the stories of David and Moses, and enjoy the common ground that we both accept the first edition of the Holy Book. Stereotypes generally lead us astray from seeing the diversity in a people. Israel is extremely diverse, maybe even more so than the United States in some ways. I saw recently that the Ultra-orthodox were in a conflict with the government over the mandatory military service. The article stated that they had large families and lived mostly on the welfare system as they believed their duty was to study the Torah and spend their time in the yeshiva. They were exempt from military service because they did not believe in the use of force, but rather trusted in God. I found great irony that this is the opposite perspective of most conservative Christian Zionist, on all issues.
Putting any and all end-time prophecy interpretations aside, because I honestly don’t know or care who is right or wrong about those things – it doesn’t change the foundational Way of the Jesus we follow – and that is to love. We love Him, each other, and our enemies. This “insanity” is the only real proof we have in this hate-filled world, and in my opinion, just as powerful as any miracle working you can manage to conjure up. Maybe more so. Pretty hard to fake loving your enemy. Funny thing happened as I began to listen to these people I had written off. God filled my heart with so much love for them too, just like He gave me for the Jewish people years before. I can’t even explain this love. It’s just there.
The Bottom side of the Security Fence Imagine for a moment that the Palestinians don’t understand God wanted the Jews to have all the land back at this point in time. You can understand the confusion. (There are those on both sides who want ALL the land, and those who want peace.) Imagine yourself in their shoes. We’d be finding some resistance fighters in our own ranks don’t you think? What’s all this I hear in the last few years about “Don’t tread on me?” Humans of any race or religion don’t take well to being pushed off their land, losing their livelihoods, having travel restricted, or living in fear that any moment you could be arrested or your house taken over for use by an army at their whim. Or shot in random gunfire. It doesn’t sound like a recipe for peace to me. For many on both sides, peace isn’t the goal. Only total victory will satisfy. But there are some on both sides as well who believe in non-violent solutions.
The situation in Israel is complicated, dangerous, and without any clear solutions. Many in Israel do not believe that meeting any Palestinian demands will bring peace. Palestinians do not believe Israel wants peace as long as they continue to build settlements in their territory, which creates the need for more buffer zones, and more confiscated land and difficulty with travel because of checkpoints and security fences.
I realize there is a very real threat of violence that Israel lives under daily. But their military response has been a heavy boot that is hard to imagine and is never talked about in my social circles. I truly believed in the past that any negative story at all about Israel was a lie and propaganda from the other side. The truth is, both sides have plenty of that to go around in any conflict.
Because I don’t live there, I am obviously not qualified in the least to speak of this one way or the other, but I am thankful to have found honesty and truth, from Israelis themselves. Not all Israel’s citizens are comfortable with the way things are. Many are now speaking out about the human rights abuses the IDF routinely displays toward the Palestinian people.
I admire these truth-tellers, because truth is always risky and it takes a lot of courage to speak against what everyone accepts as normal. My country is very severe to anyone who would dare speak out about the abuses of military and government, as we have seen so vividly in the last few years. Please understand I’m not on a witch hunt here. I am sickened by what has been done under the banner of my own flag as well, and what continues to happen. I have been writing about that in other places as this is not a political blog. As I heard one saying recently, “There is no flag big enough to cover the killing of innocent people”. Especially not my flag.
Breaking the Silence I don’t remember how or where I ran across this group, but their facebook page left me feeling ill and in tears. I have gleaned information from different sources, but this one by far has been the most inspiring. They are a group of former IDF members who have chosen to not remain silent about what they have seen, heard, and done. They also share current news stories of related items of interest. One of the founding members, Noam Chayut, wrote a book called, The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust – A Memoir. I identified with it deeply because the author is telling his story of “waking up”. Anyone who has been through that will recognize the process of gradually seeing things as they are, and the pivotal moments when your cotton candy structures dissolve and you are left ideologically homeless in a world of ideas.
One thing I can also relate to as an American is the contradiction between the good-guy persona, in this author’s case, “the most moral army in the world”, and the reality of human rights abuses as an accepted practice. Most of these actions are not taken as a direct intervention to any threat, but rather as a way to break a people psychologically and keep them in a state of fear and submission. He details the strategy to destroy the terror infrastructure as follows:
Exposure (razing – uprooting trees and flattening buildings)
Targeted Prevention (extrajudicial execution)
Show of Presence (humiliation, intimidation, vandalism)
Neighbor Procedure (using a random unarmed bystander as a human shield in order to enter a Palestinian house)
Passer-by Procedure (same thing, after “neighbor procedure” was ruled illegal by Israel’s High Court of Justice)
Searches (entering homes and damaging their contents)
Deterrent Fire (opening fire indiscriminately in all directions)
Making them pay the price (revenge, letting off steam and collective punishment)
Mapping (invading the last vestige of privacy in the refugee camps: entering every home, drawing the layout of the rooms, listing the names of the inhabitants, scanning their mobile phones, checking out family relations…)
And so “the Palestinian population is to learn that terrorism doesn’t pay.” p. 97
He begins the story with his childhood and growing up with the Holocaust deeply embedded in the psyche with the mantra, “Never forget, never forgive.” He traveled to Europe and was deeply moved by the museums and remnants of that horrific nightmare. Yearly celebrations kept it all fresh in everyone’s minds. In spite of his excelling in music, he chose to join the IDF as a combatant because of his admiration for the war heroes who had preceded his generation.
In one eventful moment as an IDF soldier, looking into the eyes of a young Palestinian girl who saw nothing redeeming in his smile toward her, an awakening happened that took years to fully acknowledge. Here is how he describes it:
“She took from me the belief that I was avenging my people’s destruction by absolute evil, that I was fighting absolute evil. For that girl, I embodied absolute evil… And ever since, I have been without my Holocaust. Ever since, everything in my life has taken on new meaning: the sense of belonging is blurred, pride has gone missing, belief has weakened, regret has grown strong, forgiveness has been born.”
Forgiveness. That is the way out isn’t it? What we refuse to forgive, we tend to repeat. As with fathers and sons, so with nations. This book is hard to read but yet hard to put down. I am sparing you the graphic details. Only that the author states from the time he went to his first post as a soldier in Gaza, to the publishing of this memoir in English, 3088 Palestinians had been killed who took no part in any combat action.
As with most truth-telling, one of the first objections raised is that the atrocities described are exceptional incidents and in no way characterize a regular pattern of behavior. While of course there are many good things to praise, the good things do not take away from the necessity to evaluate other patterns at work. As Chayut began collecting testimonies for Breaking the Silence he relates this discovery:
“I gathered testimonies, and listened to others gathered by my friends. In the first months, I was stunned by the dimensions of violence and humiliation they revealed. The excuse of “rotten apples” within the “moral occupation” cart disappeared In its stead, a whole system of organized evil was revealed….These were the stories of frightened boys who commanded checkpoints, enforced curfews, and patrolled streets and markets. These were the stories of the indifference and numbness they developed there, which swallowed up their own personalities.”
This is when the aggressor becomes the victim of his own war. So many in our military have suffered the same emotional damage and our veterans are committing suicide in record numbers. Fighting terror with terror solves nothing and hurts everyone it touches in some way. American Christians need to come to terms with this in their own country as much as seeing the reality of it anywhere else. Conservative Christians have historically been quick to join the war band-wagons, unless of course it is suggested by an unpopular president. This comes from a deep-seated patriotism that preaches “God and Country.” Not many seem to ask the question, “What does God THINK about my country right now and its actions towards our perceived enemies?” As a Christian, these questions should be thought out in light of the words of Jesus, not our nationalism or patriotism.
But this is not about politics or who decides policies. This is about love being the higher way. I recently saw a video of an Israeli man (on TED Talks) who has taken it on himself via the internet to send love messages to the people of Iran, saying he did not want a war with them, and many others joined in. Then there came many messages back from Iran to Israel with the same desires. What if love was stronger than fear?
I will end this portion with a few videos of Israeli IDF voices from Breaking the Silence. And I strongly recommend getting Noam Chayut’s book. In the next post I will talk about the Palestinian side of the equation (another book and movie review), and what a genuine loving Christian support for the region might look like, no matter what your end-time scenario includes.
Jesus called to them and said, "What do you want me to do for you?" They said to him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened." and Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him. - Matthew 20:32-34
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