Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Understanding of an Old Conflict

The Israeli-Gaza conflict...

It hits different when it is a place you have been. Places I visited only days before the conflict heightened. My understanding of the conflict has shifted greatly as a result of the people we encountered, the conversations we held, the places we visited. I fear in different ways when I have friends there, whether they are in immediate danger or not. Instead of allowing this fear to cripple me or allow me to worry, it is a fear that brings anger at injustice and positively draws more prayer.

The injustice of how we define "terrorist" makes me sick to my stomach, and I think the name calling in this conflict is backwards. I wish we (the United States) weren't funding all of these lives being destroyed... and that I could do more about it than having sent letters to my senators and an appeal through Amnesty to our Secretary of State.

I cannot shake the image of the teenagers (as young as 16) carrying around huge guns all over Israel. As Israel sends ground troops into Gaza today, I can't shake the pictures of a "substantial number" of teenagers moving in and using those very weapons...

I continue to pray for peace in the Middle East...

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