what is not complicated
In response to my comment last Monday, a reader/friend sent a note about Peter Beinart’s recent book: “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning.” Though Beinart’s point of view is about the utter moral collapse of Israel with regard to the Palestinians’ plight and particularly Gaza, is well-known, I plan to read the book in respect for my friend. (Beinart is Jewish.) Also in response to his note, I called my Rabbi friend with whom I last traveled to Israel to have a coffee conversation because I’m disturbed by the whole situation. He concurred, and we plan to have a close conversation next week. It’s conversations like this that I think are necessary to move through the moral thickets that come from the hell of war. It’s difficult to find spaces where one can speak without fear of reprisals or mere condemnation for questions.
Finally, I found this piece below exceedingly helpful in expressing my convictions much better than I was able last week. Winn Collier is the Director of the Eugene Peterson Center at Western Theological Seminary. He found a way to address the complexity while speaking clearly about the intolerable suffering of the innocent. I hope you will join me in this conversation, too. Here is Winn’s piece originally posted on Facebook.
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The world is very complicated, and things are often more (or less) than they seem. War is almost never as simplistic as the powers pulling the strings want us to believe. If the complications (the evil motives and the misjudgments and the sheer ignorance) are allowed into the light, then we'll have far harder questions we want answered before a soldier pulls a trigger in our name or our government ships a bomb to an ally on our dollar.
But some threads are simple. Like these: 50,000 innocent killed in Gaza is unacceptable (are these numbers exaggerated? Ok, I'll revise by half: 25,000 innocents killed is unacceptable). Starving out a people is vile. Murdering 1200 in a rampage is butchery. Twenty-something hostages still being held (God, may they still be alive) is inhumane.
It is more than possible to support Israel's existence, even their right to defend themselves, and also insist the slaughter of innocents must end. The starvation must end. The complete destruction of healthcare must stop (the last hospital standing in Gaza has basically been bombed into closure). Hamas carries blame here for how they use their own people as pawns, but Israel holds almost all the power. And the vulnerable are always the ones who pay the price.
The same moral ethic, the same understanding of humanity as bearers of God's image (I'm speaking to Christians on this point) moving us to defend Jews when they are slaughtered also moves us to defend Palestinians when they are slaughtered. This part is not complicated. This is basic Christianity.
Winn Collier
Eugene Peterson Center of Christian Imagination
Western Theological Seminary
Rather than another photo of the horrendous, heart-breaking wreckage of humanity which we all have seen, I offer you a unusual imagine of a female wood duck perched high in a tree. Sometime peace seems as unlikely as duck in a tree.