A wish for peace

Today in Gaza was one of the bloodiest days of "battle" between the Hamas militants there and the Israeli government since Hamas took over Gaza last June. I am sure that most of the world is aware of this conflict. Hamas has been shooting missiles into Israeli neighborhoods and Israel has retaliated by shooting at those responsible. This has gone back and forth almost daily since we arrived in Israel in October. Many innocent civilians on both sides but in Gaza in particular, have been injured in this process. Today a baby was killed, a baby like our little Ben.

Living in the Middle East has been an education to say the least. I told Ryan today that this is probably the worst POSSIBLE place to bring our family on a sabbatical year - if rest is what we seek. This is not a place to find rest, or peace. The conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians is palpable. Aside from terrorism, which shows no respect for the innocent, I can see validity to every side. When I walked through Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum here, I felt sick to see the way the Jews were dehumanized and killed. I feel sympathy and maybe can start to understand the hardness that is at the core of many of them. The Jewish people and the country of Israel does not find many friends, and that can harden a heart.

I have also spent a lot of time talking with the Palestinians here. They are an indigiones people who have been displaced, who have been through war, who have been pushed aside and treated like an inferior race. I can understand the feelings of hopelessness, but also of rage and even hate by some. I am oversimplifying the situation here of course. A lifetime of writing could not do justice to the depth of it. There is certainly no way to escape it here. A Palestinian shopkeeper in Old Jerusalem shared with me just last week, as I was taking shelter in his shop in a sudden rainstorm. His family lost everything when Israel became a state. But then I see footage of the Israeli soldiers taking back the Holy Land, weeping at the western wall, and I once again see there are no easy answers.

Living here is so surreal. To think that there are pilgrims from three major faiths who come here daily - not only to find spiritual connection and enlightenment, but also to be tourists. There are people buying miniature menorahs and shot glasses with pictures of the western wall, while a war is being fought all around us.

What is interesting to note is that there are many people in this country of all faiths and origins who desire peace. Today in Jerusalem, the "city of peace," my family and I played at a large park near our home. There were American Jewish boys playing football, Arab families grilling meat for a Saturday picnic, Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike - all enjoying a warm and beautiful pre-spring day. On the way out with my boys I noticed a plaque overlooking the park that I had never noticed before - it read "For all the children of Abraham."

It breaks my heart to be here sometimes. To be in the middle of so much unrest and so much conflict between people. Not just between Palestinians and Jews, but among the Palestinians, among the Jews, between Jews and Christians and Muslims, between young and old. I know that peace can only truly be brought about by God's intervention here and I beg him to do so.