Tag Archives: Palestinians

Exiting Gaza

“After decades of failed international engagement in Gaza, we owe it this time to the Palestinians, Israelis and Egyptians—and to ourselves—to get this right.” (Yair Lapid, speech to Israeli Knesset, October 16, 2023, as reported in “A Positive Exit Strategy From Gaza,” The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, by Robert Silverman, October 2023.)

In his speech, Mr. Lapid outlines steps for achieving a real victory. “The real victory comes not from defeating our enemy but from achieving a better place for Israel and our Palestinian neighbors.”

Further, “Instead of taking the easy way out of town by dumping Gaza on some set of beguiling expatriates, the multinational governance team should be prepared to work with the local Gazans to build governance capacity—over the course of years.”

Mr. Lapid calls for withdrawing the Israeli Defense Forces as soon as possible. They would be replaced by a multinational force “with two separate missions . . . under a single head.”

One mission would be a multinational force “to maintain order and begin training a new Gazan police force . . .”

The other mission would be “a multinational civilian governance to help the Gazans rebuild economically and begin the process of governing themselves politically.”

Israeli-Palestinian issues became a tangled web due to the interests of numerous groups, nations, and historic events over centuries.

Mr. Lapid’s suggestions would seem a fair start toward a practical solution.

Middle East Quicksand

 

The Middle East has embroiled U.S. presidents since the end of World War II. Harry Truman’s administration recognized the establishment of the modern day state of Israel.

Under Dwight Eisenhower, the United States aided in the overthrow of a popular leader in the country of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh. This action has influenced Iranian sentiment against the U.S. ever since.

John F. Kennedy attempted to mend ties with Arab leaders while maintaining strong relations with Israel.

Lyndon Johnson, though involved with the Vietnamese conflict, pushed Israel to a cease fire agreement following the 1967 war between Israel and Arab nations.

Henry Kissinger worked under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to effect agreements to end the Arab/Israeli war of 1973.

Jimmy Carter’s sponsorship of meetings between Israeli and Egyptian leaders led to the Camp David Accords and eventually to Egypt’s recognition of Israel, the first for an Arab state. In 1979, the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, resulted in the hostage taking of American diplomats. This event haunted the rest of Carter’s administration literally to the last day of his stay in office, when they were finally released.

In Ronald Reagan’s administration, a truck bomb killed sixty-three people at the U.S. embassy in Lebanon. Later, the bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon killed 241 military personnel. Though promising not to negotiate with terrorists, the Iran-contra affair revealed that negotiations were nevertheless carried on between the Reagan administration and Hezbollah for the release of hostages taken by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

George H. W. Bush led a coalition which pushed Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Bill Clinton’s administration shepherded the Oslo Accords, an agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders that promised peace between the two sides. The agreement fell apart in 2000 during failed meetings at Camp David. A terrorist called Osama bin Laden formed groups that began attacking American interests around the world. The Clinton administration responded by raids on Afghan camps of the terrorists.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, on U.S. targets by bin Laden led to U.S. military campaigns in both Afghanistan and Iraq under George W. Bush.

Barack Obama’s administration has struggled to extricate the U.S. from the military campaigns in these countries and has withdrawn troops completely from Iraq. However, the events in Libya and Egypt and especially the horrors in Syria bedevil his administration and promise no easy exit from Middle Eastern problems.

 

Peace With Justice in the Holy Land

 

Dr. Lloyd Johnson has a passionate interest in peace with justice in the Holy Land. He is the guest writer today to introduce his novel, “Living Stones,” which touches on this theme and will be available this summer. He writes:

“Ann Gaylia O’Barr, published author of five books and with experience in the Middle East, invited me to write as a guest.  I’m honored since we share a common interest in the Holy Land today.

living-stones-cover-image1“Living Stones” being published by Koehler, a fiction imprint of Morgan James Publishers of New York, will be available in June as an e-book, and paperback in September 2013.  Briefly it’s the story of a beautiful graduate student Ashley Wells who is the victim of a jihadist bombing and is abducted in Jerusalem. She falls in love with a Christian Palestinian and is torn by her Zionist beliefs and her new desire to help the Palestinian cause

 She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nearly killed in Seattle during a jihadist bombing, Ashley recognizes the synagogue bomber and is later stalked by a hired Muslim hit man in Israel. There she visits the home of Najid, the Christian Palestinian scholar she had left behind at the University of Washington. She falls in love with him, putting her at odds with her Zionist pro-Israeli convictions.

 

 On the run, Ashley sees the beautiful rock churches and shrines. But the living stones, the people of the Holy Land intrigue her. She meets Jews and Palestinians, Rabbis for and against Israeli settlement expansion. Gentle Palestinians like Najid’s family, and those in the West Bank suffering under military occupation. Both Muslims and Christians living peacefully together.

 

Najid and Ashley find the bomber in Seattle despite the FBI dragnet put out to arrest him. Living Stones is the story of an American woman coming to terms with the truth of the Middle East, and the lies she had been fed. Will she survive the forces that threaten to tear her apart?

 

Visiting Israel/Palestine twice in past years, and living in Bethlehem this past summer, our hearts broke with the stories of ordinary people suffering the lack of freedom under Israeli military occupation.  For 46 years.  Imprisonment of kids for long periods, walls separating Palestinians from each other, even from their own farms.  Home demolitions, land evictions.  Israeli settlers continuing to displace local residents of family land dating back decades.  A historic and on-going national effort to cleanse Palestine of Arab citizens.  It’s the idea that one ethnic group has the exclusive right to the Holy Land.  The “others” must go.

 

Many Jewish groups of conscience actively oppose the Israeli government’s Zionist ambitions. E.g.,  http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/  This cruelty does not represent Judaism’s welcoming the strangers as Abraham did, nor the Good Samaritan teachings of Jesus about loving even our enemies, and doing to others as we would have them do to us.

 

The WallThat wall of separation larger and longer than the Berlin wall promotes the same apartheid we finally shed in the American South, and condemned in South Africa.  But now our American tax dollars enable it by funding this injustice.  Is this what we in the U.S. really want to do?

 

Our Christian Palestinian brothers and sisters realize most of us Americans know little of their suffering under military occupation as second-class citizens.  Although many excellent books currently available tell their stories, they are non-fiction accounts, often overlooked by all but the most interested readers.  (However, “Lemon Tree” by Sandy Tolan has become popular in America, a true story.  And Jimmy Carter’s “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”)

 

Dr. Lloyd JohnsonFiction appeals to many.  Who doesn’t like a good story with lots of adventure and a bit of romance?  So I am offering “Living Stones” as a story that will entertain, but also inform and leave readers questioning what they have always believed.  It may become another voice for peace with justice in the Holy Land.  At least I hope so.”

 

www.lloydjohnson.org

 

http://www.koehlerbooks.com/books/living-stones/

Palestinian Christians in the Middle East

 

As the first Gulf War (early 1990’s) against Saddam Hussein threatened, I worked at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. One of our tasks was aiding Americans who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia but who now wanted to leave before the war began.

Our consular unit included three U.S. Foreign Service officers and six locally hired employees. Two were Palestinians. Both had served at the Consulate many years, using their long term contact with Saudi Arabian officialdom to help us in our tasks. Without them, our work would have been more difficult: checking on Americans in prison, for example, or setting up visits with foreign parents of American children involved in custody cases.

One of the American women we helped to evacuate expressed unease at riding to the airport with one of the Palestinians, despite the fact that he was aiding her in getting home to the U.S. Perhaps she thought all Palestinians were terrorists, a laughable view considering the dedication of our hardworking employees.

I thought of this incident recently when I listened to Elias Chacour, Archbishop of Galilee in Israel for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Melkite Christians trace their origins back to Syrian Christians in the early days of Christianity. They have endured centuries of conquests, persecutions, and minority status in the tumultuous Middle East. Archbishop Chacour was born in Palestine in 1939 in a Christian village. He is an Israeli citizen, a Palestinian, and a Christian.

In the 1980’s, he began a school which today is one of the top schools in Israel. Its students include Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Archbishop Chacour is a committed Christian who works for peace in a conflicted land.

He tells his story in several books, including Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel. It is available online in digital and print editions.

Perhaps his story and that of others like him will give us a more balanced view of the inhabitants of that stretch of the Middle East known to Christians as the Holy Land.

Peace in Jerusalem

 

One Christmas season years ago, I cut an article from a newspaper. The article bemoaned the lack of peace in Bethlehem, the place where the Prince of Peace was born, whose birthday we Christians celebrate during this season of advent.

Today, peace in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Gaza and Hebron appears as elusive as ever. Only the very old can remember a time when Israelis and Palestinians were not at odds. A recent truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza brought yet another lull in a long series of halts that never seem to last. Hopelessness tempts us. Two ancient peoples trace roots to the same bit of land. Each can point to atrocities committed against them.

Diplomacy may bring halts to the violence, not a small thing. Diplomacy seeks a negotiated settlement, not a small thing, either, but in this land, all the wrongs can never be righted.

Christians, of all people, should practice hope, especially at this season, because this season brings the answer. The answer is forgiveness.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and pray for forgiveness that can erase the hurts between two peoples and cause them to live together in harmony.