Recent U.N. reports about extensive starvation and incipient famine in Gaza spurred me to write this article about the current crisis there and to suggest how we should respond.
Caitlin Johnstone is an Australian journalist and
political commentator. Last week, I
happened to come across her August 14 newsletter with the heading that I have
used for the title of this blog post.**
A year earlier (on 8/18/24), Johnstone boldly posted
this statement with which most USAmericans will strongly disagree:
The US is the single most murderous and tyrannical regime on the planet and retains its power by creating a mind-controlled dystopia where the public is brainwashed with propaganda, and its politicians fearmonger about the nation falling to "communism" or "fascism" if you cast the wrong vote.
Granted, Johnstone’s statement is somewhat
exaggerated, but Israel’s war against Hamas occurring in Gaza, which has led to
the worsening of the chronic hunger/malnutrition situation there, is due partly
to the multifaceted U.S. support of Israel and its Prime Minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.
The U.S. has provided substantial financial assistance to the State of Israel since its formation in 1948, as well as additional funding and
military support since October 2023. In contrast to most current issues, especially
on the U.S. funding of Israel’s warfare in Gaza, I stand in opposition to both
political Parties.
Perhaps now Johnstone’s 2024 statement could/should
be updated to refer to fearmongering about the U.S. falling to radical Islam (such
as is seen in Hamas).
The famine in Gaza is due to genocide, not war. Some news sources, such as BBC and Al Jazeera,
refer to what is currently going on as the “Israel-Gaza war.” But that term has
been rightly rejected by theologian Miguel De La Torre in “This is Not a “War,”
his perceptive August 14 essay.
The designation which should be used is genocide,
for as De La Torre asserts, “Israel, with the military backing of the United
States, is engaged in the genocide of the Palestinian people—wiping out those
who refuse to self-deport so settler colonialists can complete the full
occupation of Palestine.”
A week after De La Torre’s essay, “The
Conversation” posted, “Israel’s plan for massive new West Bank settlement would
make a Palestinian state impossible,” (see
here).
“Israel’s razing of Gaza is … about the erasure of a people, a culture and a history that expose the lies used to justify the Israeli state.” This is the sub-headline of Chris Hedges’s hard-hitting article in opposition to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people from 1948 until the present.
Reflecting on the way the Palestinians have been mistreated by Israel for more than 75 years now, Hedges expresses the type of anger that Johnstone calls for in her lament, and at the head of his August 22 “report,” Hedges uses the following image of “Beelzebibi” by Mr. Fish (cartoonist Dwayne Booth).
“Be angry but do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). Yes, the New Testament
admonishes us to be angry, and the genocide-induced famine in Gaza is an
appropriate target for our anger as Johnstone asserts.
As a pacifist, I do not agree with the concept of
just war, for I don’t think one can participate in war without sinning.
How can killing people be sinless when Jesus commanded us to love our enemies?
But I think there can and should be what can be called just anger.
Many of us want to show concern,
sympathy/empathy, compassion, and so on to people in need. But in many cases,
anger is more appropriate than merely expressing shared grief and shedding tears.
Sympathetic tears are appropriate when there are
natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, droughts, and the like.
But when widespread suffering is deliberately caused by humans, anger is the
better response.
That is Johnstone’s point: the death and
destruction in Gaza is entirely human-made. That is the reason the dire
situation there elicits our anger rather than our tears.
If there is any hope for Gaza, it will come by increasing
numbers of people heeding the words of theologian Augustine of Hippo: “Hope
has two beautiful daughters, their names are Anger and Courage. Anger that
things are the way they are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they
are.”
_____
** Here
is information about the three articles I cite in this blog post:
Gaza
Doesn't Need Our Tears, It Needs Our Anger (Aug. 14) by Caitlin
Johnstone (b. 1974), an Australian journalist and activist.
This
is Not a “War”: Israel and Hamas by the Numbers - Good Faith Media (Aug.
14) by Miguel De La Torre (b. 1958), a Cuban American who is a professor at
Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. (I am pleased that he is also one
of my Thinking Friends.)
Israel’s
Assassination of Memory - The Chris Hedges Report (Aug.
22) by Chris Hedges (b. 1956), a USAmerican journalist, author, and commentator.
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Johnstone’s comments are not seen as radical outside the U.S.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I don't know who you are, but I appreciate your pointed comment. I (sadly) think you are probably right.
DeleteI apologize to all of you Thinking Friends to whom I sent an email informing you about this blog post. I said that today is the last Saturday in August, but a little later I realized that today is Friday. Although I got the day of the week wrong, I wasn't wrong in wishing all of you Thinking Friends in the U.S. a good and safe Labor Day weekend, which starts this evening.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the moving and comments, especially the reminders. I think of authoritarianism in its warmaking; historically it is pretty clear that the essence of war, ("just" or "not' for it is almost never just) has been annihilation and humiliation, essentially genocide, at least in the Eurasian world.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree that many folk outside the US do see us more clearly than we do ourselves. All the more reason to be concerned (angered but courageous) about the American withdrawal from responsibility in the world, which only increases our own blindness.
Suppose we strip away generations of apocalyptic eschatological delusion across the "USA"? Is it not the refusal (inability) of revanchists to let go of the belief in the messianic restoration of Israel (which, by the way, only God could do, and God actually may not intend to do it territorially and nationally with the modern national state of Israel)? Surely one might object: delusion, you say? delusion, really? But how else can one explain the complete abdication of global awareness and responsibility of the "USA"? The would-be dictatorship of a "Republican" administration that is spiritually impoverished, functionally contemptuous of the rule of law and covenants at home and abroad, and eager to profit from every lie and prejudice about the rest of the world?
I'm sure Jesus weeps even more over all of this than he did when the English went crazy in the 1600s! I refer to the Fifth Monarchists as but one example of the desire to usher in the kingdom by revolution ("if we conquer and facilitate the evangelization of Jews, then Jesus will be free to come again"). What presumptuous arrogance. What a sleazy substitute for the real Rule of God.
I have news for people who refuse to see and to mourn the genocide (long past any justification of retaliation): Jesus does weep, but Jesus weeps with all who suffer. He is in the midst of families (how many thousands of children?) dead in bombing or missile attacks in Gaza--he is there suffering with them--Muslims or Christians, just as he was with those murdered by Hamas. Jesus is with their families. This is the story of the world.
Netanyahu and DT are of similar minds, not caring one whit for the presence and vision of Jesus and the prophets. I suppose Jesus even weeps about that, for bad conduct invites wrath. Respice Finum.
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ReplyDeleteI just now saw this article posted yesterday by the World Food Programme, whose head is CIndy McCain.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-visits-palestine-and-israel-calls-immediate-surge-aid-gaza-and-safe-access-reach
Here are comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard, who (as he says) has just returned from Europe to his home in Chicago:
ReplyDelete"Once again, Leroy, I am in full agreement with your comments. I just returned from Europe, where there is much greater sympathy for Palestinians. There are almost daily pro-Palestinian protests in the plaza in front of the royal palace in Amsterdam. These demonstrations have been fully peaceful with almost no police present as the police are not needed. The protestors were a mix of Europeans and Palestinians. (I saw signs in Dublin which said that all are welcome in Ireland except for American Zionists.)
"One of the tragedies of Gaza (and the West Bank as well) is that the situation in Gaza parallels the Holocaust during WWII. Many Jews are deeply conflicted because they support Israel, but not the fascist policies of the Netanyahu government. Although American politicians are reluctant to call the events in Gaza as genocide, it certainly appears to be genocide to me."
"The US should immediately cut off funding and arm shipments to Israel until Israel agrees to a just peace with the Palestinians. That will not happen under the current regime in Washington."
A few minutes ago, I received an email from Thinking Friend Glen Davis in Canada:
ReplyDelete"This post expresses much of what I have been thinking and feeling for many months. I have been struggling with what we are to do with our anger. It must lead to some action that will promote an end to the genocide in Gaza and a resolution that will lead to a peaceful two-state future. There is nothing easy about that but surely we must play our part. The US is deeply complicit in the genocide, famine, and starvation carried out by Israel. As a Canadian I am not subject to the punishment that your president might inflict on Americans who dispute and condemn his unflagging support for Israel.
"I hope you will follow up this post with one that suggests appropriate actions that our anger might lead us to."
While I was posting the above comments, an email arrived from local Thinking Friend Vern Barnet with the following comments. If you have the time and interest, I hope you will read the fascinating article he linked to in his comments.
ReplyDelete"I was recently reviewing a post I made three months after Israel began its 'genocide' in Gaza. It was about an artistic protest in Mill Creek Park where I frequently walk. The statistics that seemed so overwhelming then today seem paled by what Israel has since 'achieved':
https://cres.org/programs2024.htm#240103 ."