Since this past Saturday, when Hamas conducted its own “Tet Offensive” in the nation of Israel, I have thought of the great amount of violence and shedding of human blood that has been absorbed deeply into the soil of this land. So often, descriptive accounts of battle next to bodies of water, speak of rivers running red with the blood of those killed. When one digs into the soil of Palestine, it is a land saturated by thousands and thousands of years of human blood shed in war.
Over the past 60 years, archaeologists in their digs have dug deep into the history of this land. They have discovered all sorts of information, from the illnesses, the parasites, and diets of ancient peoples to finding no archaeological proof that King David ever existed. They have revealed falsehoods in the biblical texts for instance, the Israelites crossed the Reed Sea, not the Red Sea, manna is a natural occurring phenomena not just a miracle, and though the Israelites were a warrior nomadic tribe, they did not militarily overcome the populations of Canaan, but rather intermarried with the people of Canaan to such an extent that their culture overcame the native cultures of Canaan (the very thing the Egyptians feared and led to the Israelites being enslaved). However, the one brutal thing the archaeologists have uncovered has been thousands of years of warfare that has been linked to this land.
Many cities in this area, are built upon Tells, the ruined remains of cities destroyed by war. Upon the ruins of Jerusalem, and all other major populated areas, new cities have arisen, only to be destroyed by war again and again and again, and new cities built upon the destroyed bones, human and structural, of former civilizations.
This whole area is a vast graveyard of human beings, rather reminiscent of the vision that Ezekiel was given by God of a vast valley covered with the bleached bones of a destroyed army (Ezekiel 17:1-10).
The closest thing to this kind of phenomena happened in the American Civil War. Two battles (Bull Run) were fought in Manassas, Virginia, on the same battlefield, one year apart. The North lost both battles. Eyewitness accounts by those who fought in the second bitter, destructive battle, spoke of marching on and fighting upon the bleached bones of soldiers and horses that were killed during the first battle of Manassas. They literally fought on a vast graveyard of war and in the second battle, contributed their own bodies to those killed the year before. And so it is in all of Palestine.
What is it about this cursed land that the Babylonian armies of Nebuchadenezzar, the armies of Persia, the Greeks, the Egyptians, or the Romans, the Saracens, the Crusaders, the French, the English, to name just a few, were willing to sacrifice so much life to occupy this bleached, barren place? I cannot think of some vast mineral deposit, or carbon based energy that would make Palestine such a desired piece of property for people to exploit for wealth. We call it the “Holy Land”, I think it more the “Cursed Land.” If the “New Jerusalem”, about which is often sung in a lot of melodramatic hymns, is this place, I am not so sure I would wish to spend eternity there.
Now, there is war in Palestine. Another war added on top of thousands of years of countless war and destruction. Hamas and Hizballah plan is to destroy the state of Israel and all Israelis. They are willing to commit any level of atrocity against the populace of Israel. The brutality of violence and the heightened war crimes against the Israelites this past weekend is only matched by the Nazis in World War II.
Hamas intent to end the existence of the state of Israel will ironically put an end to Hamas, and tragically the Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip. Hammurabis’ ‘law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth will be enacted upon by Israel. As the state of Israel hunted down and assassinated all involved in the massacre during the Olympic games in Munich, so they will be relentless in hunting down all involved in the attack that has butchered so many innocent Israelis. Israel will avenge the atrocities committed by Hamas and Hizballah. Whether it takes a year or many years, Israel will hunt the perpetrators down and destroy them.
Nobody believes Jesus when he taught that violence will only beget more violence. In the Gospels, Jesus abrogated Hammurabi and Moses’ laws of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. One of his last teachings to his disciples was that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. As Mahatma Ghandi once preached, “An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.” Instead, both Jesus, and many years later, Ghandi, taught love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you. In simple terms, both Jesus and Ghandi tells us to “END THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE!” The only way you can end the cycle of violence is to love!
I believe, especially for those who are disciples of Jesus, and those who are disciples of Ghandi, that it is up to us to end the cycle of violence by love. In our own way, we are called, as the prophet Ezekiel, to preach God’s word of love to the bleached, dried, dead bones that litter our societies. If you remember the story, Ezekiel started to prophesy to the dead bones. As he prophesized, the scattered bones began to take shape again as bodies, sinews started to grow upon the bones, and flesh began to form upon the bodies. But they remained lifeless. Then God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the four winds and as the winds blew through the valley, they breathed life into the dead bodies. As God’s breath filled the bodies, they arose and lived again. The message our lives must prophesy is the message of Jesus to love. Ghandi prophesied the same message with his life. Dr Martin Luther King Jr prophesied the same message with his life. Dag Hammarskjold prophesied the same message with his life. Mother Teresa prophesied the same message with her life. I believe, Pope Francis is prophesying the same message right now. This is the message we must be devoted to prophesy, too, in our lives.
Those involved in the massacre of innocent Israelis this past weekend will be hunted down like animals and will, in turn, be ruthlessly taken out. The cycle of violence will only continue. One of the very few things said by John Paul II with which I agree, are the words he uttered when the United States unilaterally declared war on Iraq. In condemning the invasion of the United States, John Paul II said, “All war is a defeat for humanity.” With this war being waged by Hamas, Hizballah, and Israel, the circle of violence will continue, And H.G. Wells words, above, will become true.
