Israel’s 9/11

I remember where I was and how I felt on September 11, 2001. The sense of shock and uncertainty. Wondering if we were under attack as a nation and if we would be going to war.

Last Saturday was worse for the people of Israel. They didn’t have a few devastating but isolated attacks. They were invaded and are at war. More Jewish lives were taken by violence in a single day than has happened since the Holocaust. That alone is shocking.

Even more horrifying is how some academics and news pundits immediately started justifying the violence. Within a few days, people on college campuses and in cities around the world were even celebrating these terrorist attacks.

Looking for better insights into this situation, I came across an article by Ivan Mesa & Bernard N. Howard titled, “Israel’s 9/11: The Need for Moral Clarity”. During a time when people have fair disagreements over Israeli/Palestinian relations, they show how some things are clear.

The images and videos emerging on social media are horrifying: unsuspecting partygoers slaughtered at a music festival; a father helping his children escape through a roof only to be murdered himself; terrorists parading a naked woman on the back of a pickup truck; an elderly Holocaust survivor forced to hold a gun and pose with a Hamas soldier; a young woman with two daughters, ages 5 and 3, taken as hostages. Some have likened the psychological toll on Israel to 9/11’s on America. It’s the most deadly mass killing of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, and it’s bound to transform Israeli society in profound ways.

Irrespective of Christians’ differing views on the place of the modern nation of Israel in God’s redemptive plan, we believe this is a moment when it’s not only possible but necessary to speak out with moral clarity.

They show how it is possible and necessary for us to have moral clarity and to be able to denounce these evil actions.

…the inevitable existence of wrongdoing on both sides doesn’t always produce a moral fog. Sometimes the fog lifts. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for instance, can be condemned by Christians without hesitation. Hamas’s attack on Israel is a similarly clear example of wrongdoing that can be firmly condemned without equivocation.

This is a necessary exercise, not just for the current situation in Israel, but for many issues in life. We live in a complex world where there are plenty of wrongs and rights “on both sides.” Within that chaos, there are still clear lines. Places where we can speak up and say, “This is wrong.” Or even, “This is sin.”

Jesus didn’t shy away from clear statements of right and wrong, along with gracious offers to “repent and believe.” In a world without moral clarity, there can be neither repentance nor redemption. By grace, God offers us both.

I know this is a big issue, but let’s pray that God quickly brings peace. Let’s make sure we don’t join the thongs of people who are defending the indefensible (i.e., characterizing the murder, rape, the beheading of infants, and kidnapping as “resistance”). Finally, let’s pray Jesus comes soon.

With You;
Pastor Tim