I have Jewish friends whom I deeply value and respect, just as I have Palestinian friends whom I equally value and respect. Many of these folks are friends and co-workers with each other, deeply committed to affirming the value of all human beings; regardless of nationality, race, creed, or political convictions.
The events of the past several months have been deeply troubling to my friends, as they have been to me.
They are appalled and deeply troubled by Hamas’s slaughter of innocent Jews and Palestinians in the October 7th attacks. Many of the dead, wounded, and missing are their own friends, families, and co-workers. People they knew. People they loved across the divisions and strife their own leaders and governments continue to nurture in the name of maintaining and expanding their own power.
But equally, they are angered by the Jewish Government & IDF’s response to that attack. Few deny that Israel has the right to defend itself, and that a forceful response to the Hamas attack is reasonable. But many question, as do I, the ferocity and breadth of that response. They are angered, as am I, by Israel’s willingness to sacrifice tens of thousands of innocent lives in its campaign to extinguish Hamas. …A fruitless and self-defeating endeavor I might add, as such violence and contempt will create more new militants and new enemies than it kills. People who will dedicate their lives to making Israel pay for what it has done, just as Israel is punishing all Palestinians for what Hamas has done.
The grievances and pain both sides have experienced both before and since October 7th is real and cannot be denied. I know people on both sides of that fence. They are deeply wounded by the decades of conflicts and injustice they’ve suffered, wounds they will never fully be healed-of.
Israel has become what it despises, fears, and was once determined to prevent from ever happening again: a brutal regime determined to exterminate an enemy of its own creation. This cycle of ever increasing intensity, hate, and death is only amplified by such brutality. The crisis cannot be resolved, nor the wrongs done by Israel and Palestine to each other be absolved, through violence.
We have all seen and heard of the events of recent days here in the US, with student protests at major universities around the country, including here in the Boston area. I applaud the sentiment of the students, and their determination to right wrongs. However, some are seeking to dehumanize “the other” and some are actively engaging in destruction of property and other forms of violence.
The muscular response of several Universities and some state and local governments to this – calling out the National Guard or heavily armed police units to break up the protests – seems to me to be an overreaction. Yes, violence should be controlled and those responsible arrested. But a wholesale shutting down of a protest, or the expelling of the students engaged in them, is really problematic, and – as many have said – I hope to God that we don’t see a repetition of what happened at Kent State almost exactly 54 years ago, on May 4, 1970.
It’s a time to talk, not to fight. A time to work through our anger and pain so that we can see and listen to The Other, not eradicate them. A time to doggedly follow our faith wherever it may lead, not set it aside in pursuit of vengeance. A time to pursue healing, not bloodshed. A time to ponder where we stand in relation to these events and people, and determine how best we should each respond out of our own love and concern for all. We must weep for all who have died or experienced loss in this conflict, not just for some.
To put it another way, Jesus taught that we must love The Other – no prerequisites, no limitations, no exceptions. That’s a very, very hard thing to do – especially in times like this.
Yet, we must.
Copyright 2024, Allen Vander Meulen III, all rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Here and the Hereafter 