Leave Them Be
In their fight against Middle-Eastern terrorism, who but God can truly say that Israel is overstepping?
On October 7th, 2023 the terrorist organization, Hamas, launched a deadly missile attack on Israel from Gaza. Twelve hundred civilians were killed, including children, and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel counterattacked the Gaza Strip, and continues to do so. According to the Palestinian News Network, over 73,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli retaliatory air & ground attacks since then. Another 174K have been injured since the conflict began, as they seek to root out all terrorist presence in the region. Many have said that Israel has no right to do what they have set out to do against their various terrorist enemies. In my conversation with acquaintances, some have said that they believe Israel is wrong for continuing the fight, seemingly without regard to innocent civilian casualties (a.k.a. “collateral damage”). But today’s Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are not commanded (nor required) to be as ruthless as in ancient times, though Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and others are attacking & killing Jewish people whenever and wherever they can.
I don’t claim to be an expert in foreign affairs, nor do I know all of the ins & outs of this particular Palestinian struggle. There are 2.3M inhabitants of the region (according to U.N. statistics) dealing with famine, neighborhoods in rubble, and a shortage of clean water. I am not unsympathetic to the supreme loss of life that is occurring, but what I am aware of is that this is not the first time in human history that mass casualties were caused by either party currently involved, nor the first time that Israeli troops were ordered to kill everything in sight in order to protect what they had been given!
Israel is the Jews homeland, promised to them for perpetual generations by God Himself (Genesis 17:7-8). He gave them the land, told them to go in and take it by force (Deuteronomy 31:3-6), leaving nothing alive; not man, woman, children, livestock nor plants (Joshua 6:20-21). They were told to go in and occupy! And that’s not all He promised them. “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:1-3); it’s as if those who defame or malign Israel are vilifying God Himself, because He claims them as His beloved people. Though they have lost and regained possession of their territory on several occasions in ancient times (and for various reasons), they most recently regained it through war (the Arab-Israeli War, 1948-1949, and the Six-Day War of 1967).
The Jewish nation is not unaccustomed to being a recipient of terror and violence either. There was a time when Israel’s neighbors threatened them, such as in 701 BC, when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria (a.k.a. Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Turkey/Iran/Syria) came against Israel (Isaiah 37:33-38); but God protected the Jews, and they didn’t have to raise a finger to win the victory! Additionally, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who attacked Israel regularly during his reign, destroyed their land and took some captive in 587 BC (see 2nd Chron 24:1-5). And this same king of Babylon/Chaldea (modern-day southern Iraq), massacred them, young and old, men and women (2 Chronicles 36:17-20), in 586 BC.
I imagine had the world had instant-access news the way we do now, many global citizens and 3rd party countries would be just as outraged at those occurrences then as folks are now. And I’m sure some version of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) would have advocated for political & policy reforms just as many are now. There’s truly nothing new under the sun.
I’d be hard-pressed to make a judgment call on the Middle Eastern political landscape from the outside looking in. Both sides have lost loved ones. Both sides have lost children. I dare say both believe they have rights to the land, to their autonomy, and to their future existence. Again, I am not promoting a callous disregard of the civilian death toll. But I don’t believe it’s fair nor appropriate, particularly for non-Middle Eastern Christians and others, to be too disparaging of the Israelis (nor of the U.S. government or other global actors on their behalf) in their efforts against terrorism, now nor over the past decades, especially in light of their own losses through the centuries, AND the promise of Genesis 12:3. The Israeli people are fighting for their very survival!
So what I will advocate is, Pray for Peace.
#twiggworks