The Mennonite Central Committee in Canada has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seeking an end to hostilities in Gaza. In the process, they leave me wondering whether they’ve been paying attention to anything going on in the Holy Land other than what they don’t like:
Israel claims that its attacks on Gaza are a response to Hamas militant rocket attacks on Israel. We deplore these rocket attacks. They kill people, damage property, and exacerbate the fear and insecurity that many Israelis experience.
You can hear the “BUT” even before it comes in the next paragraph.
That said,
We can go on to talk about what really bothers us, which is not the deaths or injuries of Israeli civilians.
we believe that Israel’s response of heavy bombing, with more than 300 dead, more than 1000 injured, and thousands more traumatized, is drastic and devastating, and it compounds an already serious humanitarian crisis.
It is “drastic and devastating,” and is meant to be. What the MCC-C leaves out, of course, is that the bulk of those dead are Hamas terrorists, and that Israel has been taking extraordinary–even unique–measures to ensure that civilian casualties are minimized.
Moreover, this response fails to acknowledge and take responsibility for the tremendous suffering that Israel has imposed on Palestinians through its eighteen-month siege on Gaza, and, perhaps more importantly, the occupation under which Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have lived for more than forty years. It is this very suffering, we believe, which fuels the rage which leads to the rocket attacks and ongoing anger and unrest.
The “siege” to which the MCC-C refers is a form of flexible economic blockade. It was imposed because, after Israel withdrew from Gaza (a withdrawal about which the MCC-C seems to be ignorant), Hamas began almost immediately using the Strip as a base to attack southern Israel. Those attacks only intensified after Hamas drove Fatah, the supposedly ruling party in the Palestinian territories, out of the Strip, doing so in part because Fatah wasn’t militant enough to suit the Islamist organization. Has there been suffering in Gaza because of Israel’s actions? Of course. That’s been the point–to make the population’s continued support of Hamas terrorism costly enough to get it stopped. The pity for Gazans is that those measures didn’t work.
MCC believes that peace and security for all people in the region can only be gained through peaceful means. It cannot come from rocket attacks. It cannot come from bombing and airstrikes. A lasting peace can only be achieved as all parties, including Hamas, engage in political negotiations to address the issues that divide them.
There is, simply put, no evidence that there is any basis in reality for this starry-eyed view of the situation. Given the history, actions, and continuing political goals of Hamas, Israel has no reason whatsoever to think that the terrorists would ever negotiate for any reason or purpose than to gain a breather to reload for further war. As for “the issues that divide them,” how about this: Israel won’t die.
We urge you, Mr. Prime Minister, to call Hamas leaders to stop their rocket attacks against Israel. We urge you, Mr. Prime Minister, to use your influence to call Israel to immediately stop its bombing, airstrikes and other military activity against Gaza. We urge you to insist that all parties allow humanitarian aid to reach the most vulnerable people. We ask you to join others in pursuing political negotiations that will bring an end to the forty-year occupation of Gaza and West Bank and that will free Palestinians from two generations of oppression.
The wording of those first two sentences strikes me as deliberate. If the MCC-C had its way, Israel would stop its military action this minute, while Hamas would stop its rocket attacks when it got around to it–the lack of the word “immediately” in the second sentence but not the first is telling. But it’s that last sentence that really makes me scratch my head. Is the MCC-C really unaware that Israel withdrew from Gaza over three years ago? Is it really unaware that Hamas has been in charge of Gaza since June of 2007? Is it really unaware that Hamas has been shelling southern Israel, regardless of what Israel has done or not done militarily, almost non-stop since 2001? Or are they just that self-deluded?
January 5, 2009 at 8:07 pm
David,
Thank you for continuing to post the same-old, same-old Anti-Israel rants by the Mainline Protestant churches.
While it is doubtful that your writings will change their opinion, it is good to put into the record that the Mainline Churches have been saying the same thing over and over again.
What is sad is the majority of the pew sitters in these mainline churches are supportive of Israel and also fully understand the Hamas objective of removing Jews from the face of the earth.
However, I have no sympathy for these pew sitters in the mainline churches who support Israel since it is because of the money they are sending to their denominational offices that makes this anti-Israel propaganda flourish.
When the mainline church pew sitters stop the money flow to their denominational offices, then those pew sitters will gain respect. Until then, they are nothing more than a bunch of useful idiots.
January 6, 2009 at 11:47 pm
It concerns me that as a pastor you seem to be demonizing those calling for peace while lifting up those using massive violence. Your opinions and theology seem contradictory to Christ’s call to love our neighbor.
January 7, 2009 at 8:27 am
“Demonizing”? I hope not, except to the extent that I make clear that there are muddle-headed Christians who insist on putting blame where it does not lie, and on siding with those who would kill innocents as a matter of policy. The Canadian Mennonites, like so many mainline Christians who desire to be “relevant” in the world of power politics, insist that everything would be fine if Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims would just act like good Mennonite Christians. That’s like saying my cat would make a good bloodhound if she’d just act like a dog. If they actually want to have something to say that the world might listen to, the first thing they’ve got to do is recognize the nature of the combatants, one of which wants nothing more than to be left alone, the other of which wants to exterminate its opposition.