It is hard to understand how the big political players of the West manage to go on ignoring the real elephant in the room in the context of the Gaza-Israel conflict - the dehumanising poverty and material oppression inflicted by the stronger on the weaker, sustained on the part of the oppressor through the politics of fear, to which the affluent West seems to be turning a blind eye. For all his talk of moving forward, President Obama is standing still on this one. Important as his visit to Burma may be, it also signals to the rest of the world that it is OK to ignore the all too obvious obstacle to peace in Israel-Palestine, poverty and the oppression of one side by the other. The difference in standard of living on either side of this conflict, if you can call what the people of Gaza have to endure a 'standard of living', is there for all of us to see on a daily basis. The streets of Tel Aviv, glimpsed in the news, are as affluent as any street in any European or American city. The scene on the other side is about as different as hell is from heaven.
If we are serious about resoloving this particular conflict in the Middle East, the issue of social justice, of restoring to Palestinians their basic dignity as fellow human beings must be the foundational basis for peace. This is something on which the whole world needs to focus. For a cease-fire to hold, the rest of the world, and not only Israel, must commit to what the bible calls righteousness. Righteousness is as close as we can get to describing the character of God. The righteousness of God embraces both justice and mercy and yields peace, and it is only in bringing together these two facets of God's character that we shall see real peace in Palestine-Israel. Our common human task is therefore to embrace this kind of righteousness and apply it in the way we think and subsequently act in regard to the Gaza conflict. What is needed is the will to be reconciled, along with practical action, the former motivating and energising the latter.
For this to be possible, there has to be the beginnings of trust. Trust only comes about when the stronger and wealthier party, Israel and its allies, dare to proffer the hand of unconditional peace to the poorer and weaker nation. That nation will have to be open to the possibility that those who wish to 'begin again', or 'repent', are acting in good faith. The smaller weaker nation will therefore need to reciprocate in kind, first, by being hospitable to the proffering of a righteous peace, as well as undertaking to stop the futile shelling of its neighbour.
I do not think this is wishing or dreaming for utopia, because I believe what I hear when people from both sides of this conflict declare that they have no personal quarrel with the other. All are caught in a hellish trap. All need to begin again. But when it comes to righteousness, understood in biblical terms, it is Israel and the wealthier and more powerful West, along with some of Israel's more wealthy Arab neighbours, who will have to take the initiative. A ground offensive of righteousness and justice, and not of armies and guns, is what is called for. It will consist in investment in Palestinian businesses, agriculture and industry and the renewal of that land in the rebuilding of homes, hospitals, schools and police stations and lastly, of course, the tearing down of the terrible wall of hostility which condemns Palestinians to dangerous isolation.
Deep down, all people of faith, whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian, know that this kind of 'beginning again' is what they really want, and that it is the righteousness which the God of Abraham requires of his people, because it is the outworking of his truth and mercy and the only way to peace and the renewal of that land.
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