Minus the Hebrew and Arabic street signs and the garish posters of local politicians, the sunny tree-lined streets of Sderot could almost be any other sleepy Mediterranean town. Nearby Ashkelon, with its slick modern suburbs, instead resembles that much-loved refuge of the rich and famous, Southern California.
Of course, these towns, where I walked just a few weeks ago, are not quite like any other in the West; they are a short drive away from a jurisdiction in which every one of their residents could expect to be vulnerable to a terrifying terrorist attack.
At an observation point near the Nahal Or kibbutz, I could see the steady jet of sprinklers, and hear the hum of lawnmowers and the soothing music of the Adhan from Gazan mosques reverberating across the surrounding fields and thickets. It all felt too pretty, too calm, too good, to be true. Now I know it was.
On Saturday these sites, which hold happy memories for me and countless others, saw Hamas terrorists drag women outside to be raped, and murdered and tortured civilians, with hostages, including women and children, whose fate now hangs in the balance.
If yesterday’s videos of terrorists parading the half-naked body of a Jewish woman through the streets, spitting on her head and shoving her face against their crotch are not a lesson for how Hamas operates, I am sure nothing on earth could convince you.
They have never been quiet about their hatred. It is in their charter and broadcast on their TV channels-even the ones for children-every day. But there are plenty who have long preferred to remain deaf to it, and perhaps just as many who make excuses for it.
Nor are Hamas and their fellow travellers and sometimes-rivals, including Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) the underdogs some would have you believe. They receive generous financial and military support from Qatar and Iran. The European Union provides millions of euros to highly politicised non-governmental organisations, including ones with ties to the PFLP, a terror group that the EU itself proscribes. Lots of ordinary Gazans suffer economic distress, but the territory suffers just as much from a poverty mindset as it does resources.
While visiting Jerusalem a few weeks ago I spoke with a Palestinian journalist who was keen to stress the influence of honour culture on the conflict, to the bafflement of several of my liberal western co-diners.
They, along with countless naive Christian leaders, wrongly assume that everyone operates by liberal democratic rules, or at least in reaction to logical grievance. He explained that while he did not think Palestinians should be forced to accept every Israeli government demand, their leadership and broader society must accept that a Jewish State exists, to approach any realistic solution. That I don’t feel it is safe to name the journalist in question here is a testament to that.
No such concept lingers in the mainstream of Western societies so it’s no surprise that even those few mainstream pundits who might be willing to admit its influence fail to pick up on it.
This phenomenon is partly why Lebanon has failed to become the Maronite Catholic haven it might have become, and why Christians have faced genocide across Iraq and Syria in recent years. Islamists can never tolerate the self-rule of the “Other” and they consider any lost control over such people a humiliation that must be avenged with blood.
My very atheist younger brother- who woke me at 6 a.m on Saturday. after receiving a barrage of phone notifications- even went so far as to wish there was a God so that the innocents caught up in this have not experienced pain and death to be met with nothing divine. Despair and death are sure routes to feel further from the World, and closer to God, even if you feel you are crying out for him to help you.
The general regard for life held by Israel society, and by the Western societies that live in the afterglow of Christianity has no parallel under the leaders responsible for these horrors. This is why I have seen countless images of little children forced into bomb vests and Islamist regalia and why Hamas plants rocket launchpads under nurseries. To them, death, not life, is the prize. This attitude holds an entire civilization hostage.
Of course, Israeli society has its unsavoury elements, some of which have recently gone viral on social media for their antics. The difference is that in Israeli society, these people are overwhelmingly regarded as what they are, unacceptable extremists who are not only morally reprehensible but a national security risk. In Gaza, those who seek to stand up to hatred, or even just pursue a lifestyle condemned by Islamist fundamentalism, can expect to live in fear of their lives.
I have received diverse responses to my coverage of the issue this weekend, with some referring to terrorists as “subhumans” and “animals”. This is not the case. Christianity’s concept of imago dei-or “tzelem elohim” in Judaism- demands we acknowledge all human beings as equal in essence, because they were each made in the image of God. This is the cornerstone of the Catholic, and any biblically faithful, worldview. It is also the assumption that guides all modern human rights doctrines, despite many attempts to divorce from this fact.
The horrors of war, torture and genocide reinforce why the Bible’s instruction for us to obey this is far more radical, and difficult, than it may seem at first glance, especially if the neighbours we ought to love share no such aim. Yet it is not just physical safety, but this truth, that we must fight for, wherever in the world we live.
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