Dear G-d/Allah, It's me Yvonne, are you there? As you know since December 27th, 2008, Hamas and Israel have been at war. Over 800 Palestinians and 11 Israelis have been killed. A significant number of the Palestinians dead are your most precious - children. This very viscous and bloody engagement has the whole world watching in utter disbelief. We share feelings of powerlessness, distress, anger, frustration and pity about a situation that has been going on for decades. However, taking into consideration when you were more actively on the scene a few thousand years ago, you spoke to Arabs and Hebrews aloud. Lord, you remember the problems started with Ibrahim/Abraham, his wife Sara(h) and Hagar/Hajar? No matter how the enmity between these two great nations began, at this point, the people of the rest of the world want to know a few things from you. Who are the real victims? Who is right or who is wrong - The Israelis or the Arabs? Is it possible they both could be right?
Lord, I ask about the Arabs because the issue of Israel's existence is an underlying contention by the entire Arab world with Israel and how their re-establishment came about dating back to the Brits and the Balfour Declaration and since that time what they perceive to be a lot of broken promises by your Christian servants from the West.
The enraged massive protests in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon and the unprecedented amounts of charity raised by the wealthy liquid black gold states of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to provide food, water, clothing and medical supplies to relieve the people in Gaza points to the fact that their sentiments are with their poorer Arab brothers and sisters they have greatly ignored in the past until now. While some countries may question why Hamas initiated the first strike, many also feel the Palestinians' oppression in the most densely populated tiny strip of land in the world provoked the situation. Many Arabs ask Israel and the West, "If the life of a Palestinian is worth less than an Israeli?" They want to know how the United States is going to show its moral authority as an objective negotiator when it has clearly stated its full throated position for Israel?
Lord, on the other hand the Israelis' most important concern is to shore up its security for its homeland. Like your prophet Jehu the zealot, they feel they must stop any threat that will prevent its people from living freely and peacefully without ever repeating its past history of extermination. The memory of the Holocaust happened to them from 1933-1945. Their living bubbehs recount what you know they have horrifically suffered as the rest of the world initially watched without lifting a finger as millions were poisoned, baked and burned at the behest of an insanely demonic man named Hitler who blamed them for Germany's economic and social suffering. He despised the way they believed in you.
They believe they are surrounded by their enemies who do not want them to exist as a nation. The reason why they are ignoring the U.N. Security Council vote for an immediate cease fire is because they remember the words of Israel's founding Father Ben Gurion echoing from Haifa to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, ""Oom-shmoom" - the feeling of distrust and betrayal by the United Nations since formulation of the Jewish State in 1948. A very proud people, their policy for self preservation is to never back down when attacked -"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." G-d, is this a righteous war?
The Palestinians are a valuable people with a rich History. With an unbreakable belief in you, they sing praises to you with reverence, worship and love, "Allah Hu Akbar." They are praying to you for deliverance from their occupation. They deserve to not live in bondage, but in peace in their homeland too. A very proud people, their conviction is to never give up. To them, their current deaths signify martyrdom for you. Allah, is it?
We see too many Israeli mother's sobbing from insecurity and fear of the unknown, and more than enough Palestinian mothers wringing their hands as they sing out blood curdling screams of despair. Does the pain of both mothers 'cut through heaven's gate and reaches your heart? During the depths of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said "Both.....pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered."
On January 20th, when President Elect Barack Obama takes the oath of Office for the Presidency, will you speak through him and reveal your answer to him? Will you allow us mortals to try to figure it out as Christians, Muslims and Jews continue to try to interpret your will for the Middle East.? Or is it possible that all of this has nothing to do with you and you will you stay out of this fight? Either way, foreign policy on this issue as it stands right now is not working, and if we can't get an answer soon, then we might need a Divine intervention if you are interested - Second Coming of Jesus Christ, The Moshiach, The Mahdi?