What Of These People?

It's very easy to express support for the pitiful Palestinian people.  Their lives are a not endless misery, because many of them are, indeed, ended.  We can sympathize with them, pray for them, perhaps donate relief money, it is easy to speak of the Palestinians.

But what can one say about Israelis?  We know the Israelis overwhelmingly support their government's crimes against creation.  These people, such as the one in the tweet above, shamelessly promote genocide.  What are we to think of such deranged, violent people?  

Is it as simple as the old Christian bromide: Hate the sin, love the sinner?

The Israelis are an ugly, mean-spirited, sadistic, arrogant, racist people.  They revel and delight in the suffering of the Palestinians.  They are beyond human feeling, their consciences have been seared with a hot iron.

Speaking only for myself, if I am being honest, I must say I know them.  I was them.  I am them.  I will be them.  I can look back at my life and see moments when I felt other particular individuals were not human, were not the same as me.  Without getting into needless specifics, I can simply say, at times, people I was forced to associate with became vessels upon whom I poured out my wrath.  If I felt especially wronged or inconvenienced (upon later reflection I would realize I had exaggerated my injury), it created an anger which needed a human target, whether or not they had anything to do with my perceived persecution.  I had complete disregard for these people’s feelings.  They were, indeed, targets.  Human silhouettes.

Under the wrong circumstances, most people are capable of murder.  All people are capable of unfeeling.  Most times it is simply the grind of our own life that leaves us unconcerned with the plight of the other.    

The Israelis, for over eighty years of reasons, collectively feel similarly, and have been, for at least seventy-seven years, pouring out their wrath upon Palestinians.  At times they have been capable of reflection, and debated a new course of action.  But the internal debate has now long since ended, and only the annihilation of the Palestinians seems reasonable to them.  They cannot view themselves as the rational, feeling world outside of the Anglo Axis of Evil see them.  They are genuinely surprised and offended when it is suggested they are acting criminally.  

It’s not that difficult for the individual to free himself from such misguided action. A word from the wise, a rebuke, resistance, time, a decent meal or movie, can snap one back into a sense of shared humanity.

But for the Israelis, their collective hatred is reinforced in their tribe, there is no one to rebuke them, the only rebuke comes from those outside the tribe, from those whom they despise.  The only possibility of the Israelis recognizing the humanity of the Palestinians is through supernatural revelation.

Currently we can view the Israelis as the enemies of all mankind, and as our Lord instructed, they should be prayed for. Barring supernatural revelation, the Israelis will continue to torture and murder the Palestinians until they are annihilated.  Will their psychopathy then end?  Or will they discover yet another insult to their collective body (even in the midst of their crimes against creation in Palestine they also kill in Lebanon and Syria)?  Perhaps Iran has offended them?

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

This is all we can do for Israel (or all that can be done for us).  There is no guarantee of a different result.  But at least in this instance we will have followed the Lord's command, and in doing so, we confess ourselves, as probably the only souls who can honestly pray for the Israelis are those who recognize themselves in Israel.