The events of the past couple of weeks in Gaza (more than 120 Palestinians dead), and now today in Jerusalem (8 Orthodox rabbinical students shot and killed), are weighing heavy on my heart. I'm not even sure what to say--my instinct is to try to summarize what's happened and then comment. But instead I'll just say that the only thing this proves is that violence is not going to solve this problem, and somebody's going to have to be the one to decide not to go that way anymore.
The other thing to remember is that in addition to the back and forth military/militant violence, there continues the everyday violence experienced by Palestinians living under occupation. The thought of people in Gaza dancing in the streets over the 8 Israeli deaths in Jerusalem is terrible, and at the same time, the situation they're living under is absolutely untenable. Desperate people do desperate things. That doesn't make it OK, but it seems like there are some ways to reduce that level of desperation in the lives of Palestinians, ways that would only help move the land toward peace. There's a chicken-and-the-egg thing going on here, and addressing issues of basic dignity would be one place to try to break that cycle.
Again I'm remembering the call of Christian people in the land of Christ--pray for peace, work for justice non-violently, and look with determination for God to make a way.
