Mid-June is smack dab in the middle between two patriotic holidays: Memorial Day and Independence Day. Both of these commemorate past times and heroes of our country, as well as the ongoing freedoms enjoyed and ongoing sacrifices made for those freedoms.
Recently, Israel has been in the news over a serious, violent conflict with their neighbors in the Gaza Strip as well as violent rioting and conflict on their own streets between Jews and Palestinians. Considering the situation in the Middle East, and our life here in the United States, I have a few thoughts:
1. I thank God for living in a country with so much freedom and so little conflict. We do have our problems, including rioting and looting but can you imagine if we had a hateful neighbor to the north lobbing missiles at us? I cannot fathom what it would be like to hear an air raid siren in the dead of the night and wake my family to rush them somewhere safe.
2. Conflict in Israel has been going on for millennia. The roots of it are beyond the scope of this article and beyond the scope of my understanding. However, some things are always true: (a) Violence begets violence. Just as in my own house, when tempers flare and someone starts to retaliate for what another did, the situation escalates. This is true on both a family level and a country level.
(b) Israel is a great ally of the United States and I am fully supportive of what they are today and their past in terms of their place of historical significance to Christianity. But, bad behavior is bad behavior no matter who is doing it. Again, in terms of a family, Israel is our brother. If my brother misbehaves, it may be my duty to call him out and ask him to consider his actions. I do not know the whole story on the origin of this recent conflict but pushing families out of their generational homes is a like throwing a spark into a cinder box.
(c) I do support self defense, and Israel’s right to strike back when attacked. If Canada started to lob missiles across at us, what kind of response would we have? Swift, decisive and justifiable.
3. Love wins out. In the family, conflict is resolved when love is shown. Petty differences swollen into mountains shrink back to molehills. Most Jews and Palestinians in Israel have been living together peacefully for decades. When the few rabble-rousers, troublemakers, and malcontents cause problems, it is time to deal with them, but not at the expense of the peaceful, normal, everyday people willing to live next door to those who do not believe the same as they do, or look the same as they do, or worship the same as they do.
Let’s pray for ongoing peace, love and forgiveness in both Israel and our own country.
"conflict" - Google News
June 17, 2021 at 12:02AM
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Conflict resolution - Seeley Swan Pathfinder
"conflict" - Google News
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