Israel Hamas War: The Pursuit of Peace
by Sathish Joseph Simon, Director, TRACI:
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas that began with a brutal terror attack by the latter and the disproportionate retaliation by the former has so far led to the death of about 9,000 individuals including a substantial number of women and children, 25,000 wounded, 200 plus Israeli hostages and the displacement of lakhs of Palestinians. Besides being heartrending, this is a reflection of its intractable nature in finding a lasting solution to one of the protracted political and territorial issues.
The conflict has two key components. First, the Israelis are deeply concerned about the existential threat that they face given the racial, ethnic and religious fault lines; geopolitics of the region, against the backdrop of Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and 2006; Hamas’ ideology of viewing the establishment of the State of Israel as illegal. Thus, the Israelis are determined to root out Hamas and its ideology of armed resistance.
Second, the lived reality of the Palestinians who are under the yoke of Israel for the last seven decades. They attribute the spiral of violence to its settlements and control over West Bank and Gaza.
The best solution to bring an end to the war and the festering seven-decade conflict is the two-state formula that was envisioned in the Oslo Accords, signed between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993 and 1995. These Accords provide a roadmap for the resolution of the conflict with the “recognition of Israel to live in peace and the creation of Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern West Bank and Gaza Strip” besides a number of contentious issues including the status of Jerusalem that was to be addressed by the end of 1990s. There was considerable progress in the next few years after signing the Accords whereby Palestinians began to govern themselves in West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Unfortunately, the rise of religious right-wing radicals and those who opposed the twostate solution in Israel and the increasing terror attacks by the Palestinians, particularly AlAqsa Intifada that unfolded in 2000, derailed the process. Fatah and Hamas, the two political parties in Palestine have divergent approaches to the resolution of the conflict. While Fatah has been following the path of negotiations after being forced to give up violence in the 1980s, Hamas, especially its military wing, continues to walk the path of terror, making the resolution difficult. Fatah was the dominant political party in both West Bank and Gaza until 2006. Thereafter, Hamas began to strengthen its foothold in Gaza by defeating Fatah. The Palestinians, particularly those who support Hamas in Gaza, are being radicalized to take up arms and unleash brutal attacks on Israel that in turn leads to another round of violence.
The idea and the belief that Israelis and the Palestinians are created in the image of God provide us a distinct lens to approach the conflict, especially in the context of the lives lost on both sides. Loss of life, either Israelis or Palestinians, is tragic and both sides must commit themselves to end the war and violence in all its forms and move towards finding a lasting solution. This is feasible only when those who believe in the ideology of Hamas come forward to recognize the State of Israel and stop terror attacks. Similarly, the Israeli government must loosen its grip and revive the process of two-state solution to its logical conclusion.
The Israelis, as heirs of the First Covenant, having a state of their own, need to facilitate the emergence of a full-fledged Palestinian state and co-exist peacefully as some of the states in Europe and other continents have been doing in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Meanwhile, the heir of the Second Covenant, the Christian community including the churches, para-church organizations, think-tanks and NGOs across the world not only pray for the peace of Jerusalem but also strive towards bringing the two warring entities to the negotiating table and walk with them in the pursuit of peace. The passionate articulation by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, may be a guiding light in our endevours to ensure that the vestiges of injustice are addressed and strive to see that justice is inclusive and done to all.
Dr. Varaprasad S. Dolla is Professor in Chinese Studies at The Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is also a Society member of Theological Research and Communication Institute, New Delhi
“God indeed has no Favourites”
One of the compelling books that seeks our reading for these times is ‘God Has No Favourites: The New Testament on First Century Religions’, by Rev Basil Scott (also one of the founding members of TRACI).
While the book is a study of New Testament attitudes towards other religion of the ancient world, the author uses the NT evidence to give a strong ‘theocentric assessment of the issues’ especially our hatred of one religion over the other.
The present situation in Israel and Palestine, seems to lead us to take the side of one nation over the other. And especially for those inclined to Zionistic fanaticism, we fail to understand that the prophet Amos made it very clear that Yahweh has no favourites; and that Israel as a nation cannot take it for granted that they would never be defeated or go to exile just because Yahweh is their God or that He is on their side. Yahweh had made it very clear to Israel that He was indeed involved with the surrounding nations (Amos 9.7), and he was also the Lord of the Nations ‘who shows not partiality’ (Deut 10.17). The shattering defeat and captivity of Israel affirmed the fact that God treated each nation impartially and that they would not be defended.
With the failure of ‘Israel as a nation’ to be the ‘People of God’, God’s purpose is now carried forth in a Christocentric manner. It is through Jesus Christ that Yahweh will be known as the God of all nations. In other words, ‘the God of Israel whose declared mission was to make himself known to the nations through Israel, now will be known to the nations through the Messiah, the one who embodies Israel in His own person and fulfils the mission of Israel to the nations’. (CJH Wright, The Mission of God).
God had no favourites either, when he entrusted the task of taking His Gospel to the nations. On the day the Holy Spirit was poured to his disciples, there was no demarcation on whom the Spirit dwelt, be it the Jew or the Gentile, woman or man, young or old. And when they spoke in tongues, there was again no demarcation of the languages spoken. I am sure there was both Aramaic and Arabic spoken ‘declaring out loud the wonderful works of God’ (Acts 2.1-11).
The present People of God are people from all nations and languages, gratefully embracing the love of God and being built as one body; here there is no partiality. We need to make it very clear therefore that the present nation of Israel, having failed in their calling cannot be seen any more as the Israel of Biblical times.
Therefore, in meeting out justice, if we hold on to theologies that are faulty, as a Church, we then witness partisanship and we shall fail to embrace peace and justice for all peoples. May we as the New Testament ‘People of God,’ declare along with apostle Paul that “Christ is our living peace. He has made a unity of the conflicting elements of Jew and Gentile by breaking down the barrier which lay between us. By his sacrifice he removed the hostility of the Law, with all its commandments and rules, and made in himself out of the two, Jew and Gentile, one new man, thus producing peace. For he reconciled both to God by the sacrifice of one body on the cross, and by this act made utterly irrelevant the antagonism between them. Then he came and told both you who were far from God and us who were near that the war was over. And it is through him that both of us now can approach the Father in the one Spirit. (Eph 2.14-18). In Christ, there are no favourites.
Sathish Joseph Simon, Director TRACI.
Theological Research and Communication Institute, New Delhi Newsletter October 2023
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