World Affairs

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For many years this little piece of land has caused so much pain. Its history and politics are so confusing I cannot even give it a name without people taking sides. But caught up in the stupidity, madness, chaos and evil are a people known as the Palestinians. To some they are terrorists, while to others they are freedom fighters. But I pray that we can push aside the politics and grieve for this people.

Without apportioning blame, the ordinary people of Palestine (especially the women and children) have suffered so much since 1948. For many there has been the loss of home and identity. For others it has meant exile into a land that has never accepted them. For generations now the young have been raised in the squalor of refugee camps. Infants have been reared in despair and nourished on hatred. For too long violence and terror have become the refuge of this peoples' leadership. At times leaders have spoken peace but it has not been delivered. Occasional real chances of peace were squandered. Religion has been used to fuel hatred and rage. The indignity of occupation, checkpoints, harassment, and walls of separation has left open wounds. Equally tragic, this pain has also led to generations of violence, revenge and terrorism, which have inflicted untold pain on the ordinary people of Israel (once again, especially the women and children).

When all seems hopeless, tragically it has become even worse. Now the Palestinians have descended into civil war. On one side is a democratically elected organization whose public platform is violence and revenge. On the other side is the corrupt previous leadership, whose supposedly moderate stance is contradicted by their past commitments to terrorism and violence. Mixed up in all this are hatred, aggression frustration, and a huge number of automatic weapons. Is this the final evidence of the hopelessness of everything Palestinian? Or are there still outside forces agitating to divide and conquer? How would anyone ever know? And lest we think this is really just a little internal, Middle Eastern matter, we must remember that the poison of Palestine infects so much of international, extremist, Islamic rage.

There are times when evil seems to have won the war over good. History reminds us that in the past it has been tempting to despair. From the Somme to the Dardanelles; from the Blitz to Dresden; from Pearl Harbour to Hiroshima; and from Jerry Adams to Ian Paisley, we have supped on the feast of evil much to often.

Pray for peace, for mercy, for wisdom, and for a miracle that one day evil will be defeated - not by greater evil, but by good! In the meantime we need to be wide-eyed to evil's quick fix and avoid its bloody, hate-filled, violent and militaristic temptations.

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil." Proverbs 3: 7

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