Israel Under Attack

"An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind."

            Mohandes Gandhi? Martin Luther King Jr.?

We turned on the news this morning to the disturbing report that the militant Hamas organization has launched a suprise offensive into Israel from Gaza. Hundreds of rockets have been fired and the attacks have come from air, land, and sea. More than 200 Israelis have died and hostages have been taken, likely with the goal of being used for prisoner swaps. 

I was a 19-year-old teenager when the Arab-Israeli war, also called the Yom Kippur war, commenced 50 years ago, almost to the day. There was a call on the part of the Israeli government for volunteers to go and work on the kibbutzes since every available reserve soldier had been called into action, and I seriously considered going, but the conflict ended relatively quickly.

There hasn't been an attack on Israel of today's magnitude since 1973 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the country is at war. The reprisals will be swift and severe. Everyone will suffer and everyone will lose as a result of this unprecedented incursion. 

The beleaguered people of Gaza, two million Palestinians crammed into a tiny strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, are already living in what amounts to a prison camp and circumstances will only become worse. The vast majority want to be able to go about their daily lives but this will change everything for months and perhaps years. The retaliatory strikes will kill civilians, likely hundreds of them, including children. 

Not only have Israelis died, all of the country is on high alert.We were in Israel in April and spent two weeks with one of Ruth's sisters and her husband. They are well aware of what they need to do when sirens sound but they live in a home without a basement or shelter, as is the case for millions. We now know that their pleasant suburban community is on lockdown. 

This is an unholy mess in the supposedly Holy Land for the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The attacks were supposedly spurred the 16-year blockade of Gaza, the growing number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and by the right-wing government's tacit support for incursions onto the Temple Mount and into the Al Aqsa mosque, sacred for Muslims. Again, nothing justifies what has unfolded and the international condemnation is warranted. 

 Needless to say, there is no justification for such violence, and while we can pray that there won't be more bloodshed it is a grim situation.