Higher Than Me

Yesterday, The Israeli Opera released a powerful adaptation of the song “Somewhere” from West Side Story, sung in Hebrew, Arabic and English with lyrics re-worked to capture a heart-longing for peace between Jews and Arabs in the face of this devastating conflict.

I wept for the duration of the video and felt as though it released a blockage within me. Suddenly I had words for the deep sense of pain I feel for the trauma and tragedy on both sides of the Gaza border.

The Israeli military had no choice but to go into Gaza and root out Hamas. Those who think that Israel should have simply turned the other cheek on 7th October when thousands of Hamas terrorists crossed over the border and carried out a spree of murder, torture and abduction in Israeli villages are not living in the real world.

I also believe that Hamas is directly responsible for the high level of devastation and civilian casualties caused by Israel’s counter-offensive. Civilian carnage was always part of Hamas’ war strategy. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that they established their military headquarters beneath schools and hospitals, built terror tunnels with entrances in family homes, and concealed weapons in baby cribs.

Hamas designed this war so that Gazan civilians would pay the heaviest price.

But these facts don’t make the reality of what’s happening in Gaza any less horrific.

Many thousands of Gazan people have been killed or injured by rockets that have devastated homes and infrastructure across the Gaza Strip. Millions have been evacuated, many of whom are living in tents on muddy ground as the rain sets in and the weather turns cold. Hundreds of people are sharing one toilet and there is raw sewerage on the ground. Sickness and disease is rampant, and there is not enough food or clean water.

The Gazan children we see on the news with big brown terrified eyes and pain etched on their faces as they receive treatment for some ghastly injury will be forever scarred by this conflict.

Of course, Israel isn’t to blame for their injuries when Hamas is launching missiles from civilian neighbourhoods. And of course, many of these images are captured and published by Hamas sympathizers whose goal is to generate an emotional response in those who see them in order to turn public opinion against Israel. There’s a very dirty PR war going on here, and the images of these injured children are powerful weapons in the arsenal of Hamas.

But let’s put all of our well-founded cynicism to one side for a minute. Even if these children are pawns in the hands of an ugly enemy, they are still suffering. And they are not to blame for their pain. They deserve our compassion.

Just like the many thousands of Israelis who have been struck with tragedy since the beginning of the war.

On 7th October, thousands of innocent Israelis were killed, raped, injured and abducted by Hamas terrorists in a brutal and unprovoked attack. Since then, thousands more have been killed or injured either in battle or as a result of Hamas and Hezbollah rockets. Many more have been displaced from their homes. Across the country, Israeli children are dealing with trauma and anxiety because of sirens and rockets. Or they are grieving the death or life-changing injuries of fathers, brothers or other family members.

Suffering isn’t a commodity that can be weighed on scales. It is pointless trying to determine who has suffered the most or whose suffering is more righteous.

In times of war, it can be so easy to dehumanize the “enemy.” Frighteningly easy, in fact.

Israelis are “evil occupiers,” so they are to blame for acts of terror carried out against them by poor and oppressed Palestinians.

Gaza is full of terrorists, so we don’t need to break our hearts over their current suffering. They brought it on themselves.

I believe that any rationalization that allows us to feel comfortable with the suffering of another group of people is dangerous.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to love our enemies. Never is this teaching more tested than in times of war. But the command remains.

Even if we believe in Israel’s right to go to war against Hamas, we can still weep for the suffering of the ordinary people in Gaza. Even as we grieve the loss of Jewish young men we know who died defending Israel, we can still stand with our Israeli Arab brothers and sisters who are in pain over the plight of Gazan Arabs. It is difficult and painful to hold these seemingly conflicting realities together. Dehumanising the other side and numbing ourselves to their pain is much easier.

But I believe that, in order to be the people who God is calling us to be in these days, we need to guard our hearts and keep hold of our humanity.

Right now, God is stretching out His arms to His hurting children on both sides of the Gaza border. “Come to Me,” He is saying, “And I will give you rest.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life – John 3:16