Our Wednesday News Analysis | Opinion | Israel Killed Thousands of Children in Gaza. How Can So Many Israelis Remain Indifferent?

Children walk along a street in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 12, 2023.Credit: MOHAMMED ABED - AFP

The Gaza Strip is gradually being erased, along with its families, its people, its children, their smiles and laughter. What enables the majority of Jewish Israelis to support this systematic and mass erasure?

"We've been in denial of Palestinian history and the rootedness of Palestinian existence between the river and the sea."

What enables them to see it as the only suitable response to the massacre that Hamas and its accomplices perpetrated, to the military humiliation of Israel and to the indescribable suffering of the hostages, the wounded, the survivors, their families and the families of the hundreds killed?

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Editor’s Note | What happened to ‘Revere the Stranger,’ ‘Justice, justice shall I pursue,’ Love My Neighbor.’ As once a proud Jew, I share the pain, the shame, the blame. Will we ever become the light among nations?

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Israel's military is erasing the streets of Gaza's cities and the alleys of its refugee camps. It's erasing Gaza's beach promenades, villages and its unexpected yet existing agricultural areas. It's erasing its cultural institutions, universities and archaeological sites...

Read more: Opinion | Israel Killed Thousands of Children in Gaza. How Can So Many Israelis Remain Indifferent?

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OPINION: THE END TIMES – AMERICA, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY, AND ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE

Source: Al-Hakam
https://www.alhakam.org/opinion-the-end-times-america-evangelical-christianity-and-israels-occupation-of-palestine/

By Abdul Haleem, UK
Published December 15, 2023

Marek Piwnicki | Unsplash

The ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestinians have deeply affected a vast majority of the global population. People worldwide are exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed by the distressing scenes unfolding before their eyes. It is the first time in history that we can witness the live massacre of a nation with a simple click of a button. This has taken a toll on everyone globally, sparking protests worldwide, with tens of thousands expressing their outrage over the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.

However, despite widespread global opposition to these attacks, America, it seems, stands as an exception by staunchly supporting Israel. It remained the singular country that vetoed humanitarian aid to Gaza, has not yet agreed to a ceasefire, and continues to provide Israel with billions in military aid. So, the question arises: Why does America provide such extensive support to Israel, and what do they gain from this?

There are multiple explanations, but one that is highly significant is often not discussed enough and is tied to Christianity and its concept of the End Times.

Evangelical Christians greatly influence the political decisions made by the United States government, because they dominate one of the most powerful pro-Israel lobbies in America with over 10 million members. (“The American Evangelical Christians and the U.S. Middle East policy: A case study of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI)”, www.proquest.com)

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Editor’s Note |

“I have faith, and, in terms of belief, outlook, and attitude towards scripture, I would place myself in the Liberal Reform Jewish tradition I grew up in. I read the Bible, and if I’m in a church service and the gospel is read, I remind myself that this is Jewish writing rooted in the Hebrew Bible, particularly the Hebrew prophets.”

He sees himself standing in the tradition of Isaiah, Amos, and Micah and aspires to be “a prophetic Jewish voice” himself. He says who he is married to is “really beside the point. Either what I’m saying is correct, or it isn’t. Christians and Jews have got to talk about these things, and we’ve got to talk about them honestly.

“We Jews have got to acknowledge our culpability in what has happened to the Palestinian people, and that has to be the first step in trying to reach a just settlement.”

Read More: An Outsider in My Own Community by Robert A. H. Cohen
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Read more: Opinion: The End Times – America, Evangelical Christianity, and Israel’s occupation of Palestine

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THE COST OF FREEDOM

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/the-cost-of-freedom/

By TAREQ S. HAJJAJ
Published December 15, 2023

PALESTINIANS SEARCH FOR ANY REMNANTS OF THEIR BELONGINGS AMIDST THE DEBRIS OF THEIR DESTROYED HOME FOLLOWING ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT IN RAFAH, DECEMBER 14, 2023. (PHOTO: © ABED RAHIM KHATIB/DPA VIA ZUMA PRESS/APA IMAGES)

He refuses this option, resolving to travel to Egypt,
the closest country to Gaza.

This is called “voluntary flight” today, but nothing is voluntary when staying means certain death or humiliation.

Leaving for Egypt was always an option that was available to him
before the war, but he refused it."

Rafah is all that is left to those still standing.

In the days before, I looked upon the cold winter nights with fondness, days I spent sipping coffee underneath the starlight, wearing my favorite clothes in my favorite place with my favorite people. These days are over now — not just for myself, but for an entire society. Yet even though our realities have now been reduced to bare existence, we won’t content ourselves to aspire for small things. We still want it all — because, to put it simply, we will never stop wanting everything out of life, no matter the series of displacements we’ve had to endure.

The majority of people are staying in designated shelters, either in schools or UNRWA compounds, meaning that most families of a typical size of seven people are separated from other similarly sized families by little more than a sheet of cloth or a nylon tarp. Rows upon rows of families are hemmed in these close quarters.

Obtaining basic necessities like diapers or baby formula can take two days of searching. Al-Awda street, Rafah’s main marketplace, is teeming with people attempting to find food, water, or anything to sustain their families. But simply needing something for survival is not a guarantee that you will get it...

Read more: The cost of freedom