Higher Than Me

The other day, I came across a very moving and profound podcast discussing the issue of famine in Gaza.

I was so deeply impacted that I wanted to share it here.

As I listened to these two American Israeli Jews discussing their feelings and attitudes towards the war, particularly in view of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, I was deeply moved by their honesty and humility.

As this war has progressed, one of the things that has disturbed me most has been how polarized the debate has become. People assume that you have to choose a side. The Jews or the Arabs. The Israelis or the Palestinians. As though it’s not possible to support both.

I have often felt conflicted in my own emotions and loyalties. I love Israel, my adopted homeland, and I am horrified by the outpouring of hate and anti-Semitism that has erupted all over the world since October 7th. Even before Israel responded to the brutal massacres with a counter-attack, street protestors around the globe were calling for an end to the Jewish state. I have seen the false reporting and lies put out by the world media and I have been filled with fear and horror. I passionately defended Israel’s right to pursue military action against Hamas after the events of October 7th. I also agreed with Israel’s campaigns against Hezbollah and Iran.

But as the war has dragged on – we are now nearly two years in – I have felt increasingly uncomfortable about how it is being conducted.

I do not agree with the accusation that Israel is deliberately carrying out a genocide in Gaza. I do not believe that starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Nor do I believe that Israel’s soldiers are purposefully setting out to harm Palestinian civilians. I know many Israeli soldiers who are currently or have previously served in Gaza – young men and women with strong values who are doing their best to serve their country at high personal cost. These soldiers are not criminals, as they are often portrayed in the world media. But having said all of this, I do believe that a lack of careful planning and strategy on the part of Israel’s leadership is contributing to the suffering of Gazan people.

For a long time, there was a question mark over whether there were food shortages in Gaza. Right from the very early days of the war, Hamas and the UN made claims about mass starvation in Gaza. But it wasn’t true. Obviously Hamas, the terrorist regime in control of the Gaza Strip, thinks nothing of putting its own population in harm’s way and then embellishing a narrative about their suffering in order to generate international sympathy.

Still now, it’s hard to get a completely accurate picture of what’s happening inside Gaza and to know which images and stories are true. Some of the pictures that have made it on to the front pages of international newspapers in recent weeks, claiming to show starving Gazan chidren, have turned out to be lies. But despite all the murkiness, I believe that the weight of evidence does now point towards significant humanitarian distress in Gaza. As Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi say in the podcast, the fact that the Israeli government is now acknowledging food insecurity in Gaza tells us that this is a real issue. Also, as they say, it is impossible to imagine that a two-year war conducted within a densely populated area would not lead to humanitarian issues for the local population.

For my part, as a believer who holds seriously to the biblical teaching that God created Israel to be a servant nation and a blessing to the world, and who has spent the last sixteen years building close relationships with both Jews and Arabs within Israel and the Palestinian territories, I feel like I need to find a position that recognizes the dignity and the suffering of both people.

The debate as it exists at the moment focuses heavily on blame. Who is responsible for this mess that we’re in? Those in the pro-Palestinian camp immediately point the finger at Israel. They accuse the Jewish state of genocide – often with no mention at all of Hamas or the October 7th massacres that led to the war.

Those who take Israel’s side in the conflict sometimes deny that innocent people are suffering in Gaza. The argument is made that everyone in Gaza is complicit in terror – the Israeli hostages were held in family homes and Hamas weapons were discovered in children’s school bags. “No innocents in Gaza” is a hashtag that has been trending on Israeli social media since the beginning of the war. When the suffering of Gazan civilians is acknowledged, the conversation moves quickly to questions of blame. The argument goes like this… Even if there is hunger in Gaza, the people who are responsible are Hamas. They caused this war in the first place and are prolonging it by refusing to release the hostages. Not only this, but Hamas is also looting the aid that does enter Gaza. They are the ones to blame, not Israel.

Obviously, as an Israeli citizen, I have some sympathy for this position. I experienced the dark shadow that fell upon the whole land after the horrors of October 7th. I am well aquainted with the evils of Hamas. I am also grateful to friends around the world who continue to stand bravely with Israel against the explosion of anti-Semitism.

I just feel like there’s a way to champion Israel’s right to exist within safe and secure borders while still seeing and grieving the suffering that’s happening in Gaza… without immediately closing off our hearts and moving the conversation on to questions of blame. There’s something about taking a few minutes to grieve, to feel the pain, to “sit shiva” for those on the other side of the conflict that changes the tone of the debate. It’s no longer just an academic argument, a courtroom defence of our position. By allowing ourselves to feel each other’s suffering, we engage our humanity. And it’s from this place that hope springs up and new perspectives emerge.

I believe with everything in me that God has good purposes for Israel and the Middle East. I hold the words of Isaiah 19 close to my heart. I believe that one day there will be a spiritual highway between Israel, Egypt (the African lands) and Assyria (the Arab lands). And I believe we are at a cross-roads right now.

If we look deep within our hearts, I think that many of us here in Israel are suffering from traumatic stress. Trauma isolates people within a capsule of fear. It causes them to look at the world around them through a lens of danger and threat. If they’re not aware of what’s happening, trauma can make people hard and brittle.

But I believe that God wants to heal and restore. Even after two years walking deep in the valley of the shadow of death, we still serve a God of miracles. Living here in Israel at these times, I feel like we have sunk down to the grave. We are exhausted, discouraged, divided, struggling to see a way forward. Some may say that we have become a valley of dry bones.

But maybe, if we listen carefully, we will hear the faintest whisper of a question hanging in the air. “Son of man, can these bones live?”

God is reaching out his hand right now. He wants to lead us beyond our fears. With love and mercy, he wants to cover our sin. He wants to clothe us with righteousness. To raise the nation of Israel up once again to be blessing to the world.

“O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live” – Ezekiel 37:4-5.