Israel’s war on Gaza: When is it “enough”?

An interviewer asks a medical doctor, “Are children in Gaza being shot by snipers?”

His reply was, “Definitively! I have two children who were shot so perfectly in the chest that I couldn’t put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately and directly on the side of the head in the same child. No toddler gets shot in the head by the world’s best sniper. And they were dead-center shots. All of the disasters I’ve seen combined–40 mission trips over 30 years, ground zero, earthquakes, all of that combined–doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza.”

“Is it mostly children?”

“Almost exclusively children. I’ve never seen that before . . . I’ve seen more incinerated children in Gaza than I have seen in my entire life combined. I’ve seen more shredded children.”

“What do you mean?”

“Missing body parts. Being crushed by buildings. The greatest majority. And then there are bomb explosions, the next greatest majority. We’ve taken shrapnel the size of my thumb out of 8-year-olds. And then there are sniper bullets.”

Then, there is the testimony of Gazan Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan: “What’s the point of people like me saying, ‘Look, it is genocide. Look, most of the people we are resuscitating are children. Look, they attacked the hospital while I was in it. I was there. I saw it. I know there were no militant activities inside it. I know they killed patients?”

Christening Holy Week with the bombing of a hospital

Israel opened Holy Week by bombing the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza. Israel claims that it contained a “command and control center used by Hamas.”

And here we go. I can hear the response: Israel is justified. Israel cares about human casualties. Israel gave them 20 minutes to evacuate.

How thoughtful.

When will we ask, “How many command and control centers does Hamas have?”

The fact that Israel has bombed every hospital in Gaza leads one to believe that this is a systematic destruction designed to displace (ethnically cleanse) Gazans. Or should we suppose that every hospital is a command and control center?

The fact that Israel has bombed 90% of the housing units in Gaza leads one to believe that this is a planned, systematic destruction designed to displace (ethnically cleanse) Gazans.

The fact that Israel has leveled every school, bakery, and government building in Gaza leads one to believe that this is a planned, systematic destruction designed to displace (ethnically cleanse) Gazans.

This is not about eliminating Hamas. Eliminating Hamas has merely provided Israel with the cover for its long-desired ethnic cleansing and genocide of Gaza. And the West Bank will soon follow, which, of course, is already underway.

NB: This may sound far-fetched, but Israeli sources, going back to David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, have

explicitly stated their desire to ethnically cleanse all the Palestinians from all of the land. One need remember that in the months before Oct 7, the current Prime Minister of Israel a map before the UN–note it has no Palestinians, no West Bank, no Gaza. Calling this out previously may have sounded far-fetched, but calling it out now seems quite justified. (copyright doesn’t permit me to use this image. So search images.google yourself and type in “Netanyahu map before the UN). 

The rhetoric that Israel and the US are fully justified in their acts is beyond belief. Are we supposed to believe that the 15 paramedics and the UN humanitarian worker who were blown to pieces with hundreds of bullets and then buried along with the ambulances were justified? The video shot by one of the paramedics who was killed proves that the IDF’s allegations that the ambulances were driving without lights and thus were plausibly hiding terrorists as they sped down the road is clearly false (sorry, IDF, but you forgot to get all the phones). See the Guardian report.

If the IDF can so easily lie about this, how much more have they lied about? 

When is it enough?

At some point, we have to agree that this has gone too far. Many of us, while condemning Hamas’ attack on Oct 7, expressed tremendous fear that Israel would go too far. But what is too far? And how do we know when enough is enough?

Well, it is true that “too far” and “enough” are relative terms that may be defined differently.

On Oct 8, 2023, I published a post that Israel would inflict ten-fold suffering on Gaza. I suspected then that that was “too far” or “enough.”

Others told me directly that Israel had to eliminate Hamas. When I shared with them that you cannot eliminate an ideology and that using violence against an ideology that was created because of injustice would only strengthen that ideology, I was told, “Well, they (Israel) have to try.”

So, I ask you now, “Is 50,000” “too far”? Is it “enough”? Is the virtual annihilation of the entire Gaza Strip “too far” and “enough”?  

We need to stop the rhetoric defending the US and Israel

Almost daily, I have been responding to criticisms on my social media feed claiming that Israel is justified, Israel is trying to limit casualties, Israel has no choice, and Hamas is the evil behind it all.

When will we stop hiding behind the rhetoric and recognize the horror we face?

We must set aside the debates over whether or not the Jews are God’s chosen people.

We must set aside the debates as to whose land it is.

We must set aside the debates about whether or not this fulfills prophecy.

Perhaps we can resume them when we have ended this nightmare and rescued the last child from the rubble and the last hostage has been returned home. However, I doubt that such theological rancor will be of much concern for many years.

What do you do when calling it a “genocide” upsets people?

I recently heard someone ask, “What do you do when calling out a genocide as a genocide upsets people more than the genocide itself?”

Sadly, many have responded by suggesting that we call it something else.

Well, I don’t care anymore what you call it. It is time that we agreed that it is beyond “enough.”

I know the response, “Well, when will you call ‘enough’ with Hamas?”

Really? I have heard this also for the past 18 months. This is the way the game is played: unless I call “enough” with Hamas, which I have done repeatedly since Oct 7, 2023, you somehow do not have to call “enough” when it comes to Israel. Why don’t we join forces and call “enough” to both?

In the image of humanity, we made god. In our image, we made him.

The God I worship is the God of Love who manifested Himself in the life of Jesus Christ. This is the very Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection we remember this week. Holy week reminds us that our God is not a God of violence but love. Our God suffers violence.

NB: Many Christians turn to the Book of Revelation to justify their belief in a violent god. Here is my lengthy response: Revelation: a Love Story.

I say that the god who condones such violence is not the God who reveals Himself in the Scriptures. The god who justifies the genocide of the Palestinians is nothing more than a golden calf that we have erected in the wilderness. Instead of bearing God’s image, we have erected a god that reflects ours.

I wonder if we have not really come out of Egypt but have instead just moved Egypt to where we are.

Much more can be said, but this is a holy week, and we have much to do.

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