anti-zionism is NOT the same as anti-semitism

Let me start off by acknowledging that OFTEN I am late to the party practically, politically, theologically, sometimes spiritually but RARELY emotionally. My soul grasps the wounds and blessings of creation long before my head catches up to my heart. That's part of the legacy of being an adult child of alcoholics where rage was mixed with affection and safety came and went without warning. Being outwardly cautious, therefore, not only became my default position during times of conflict, but became a discipline I cultivated as I matured. My hesitations are a natural part of a childhood legacy - I KNOW I am terrified of conflict and physical violence - as well as part of my quest for wisdom and humility. In many situations, I find its best to go slowly rather than spontaneously both to sort out what is authentic and true when feelings are swirling and because no one can see their own shadow. Watching and waiting, observing and testing the waters of life have proven to be healthier and safer for me than all the alternatives. 

Which isn't to say I haven't rushed to judgment. Clearly, I have in matters of the heart, politics, the buzz of a party, the heat of an argument and so much more. But as St. Irenaeus of Lyons insisted during the second century CE: we were made to grow into the image of God by learning from our mistakes. There is NO original sin, just humans growing in faith and becoming incrementally more Christlike in the process. The Eastern Orthodox celebrate this as "divinization" and I affirm it in spades. As life has ripened, my mantra has become: be still and know! As well as: follow me and learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

Consequently, most of the time, it takes forever for me to share my take on the events of the day: not only are they transitory - and often a distraction from living into Christ's compassion - but shifting sands that are rarely clear at the outset. I am not one who will jump on today's cause celebre: intellectually, morally, politically, and ethically I can't do it. And that brings me to the agony of owning that Israel's war against Hamas is genocide. Today's horrors are the most naked example of Israel's historic hatred of Palestine. At times over the past 78 years their violence has been clandestine, at other times blatantly vulgar, and always a violation of the spirit of hope that emerged out of the ashes of  the Holocaust. 

I know such a conclusion is generational, ok? Like many of my peace-making peers, for decades I only heard part of the story. I was morally blinded by the incomprehensible horrors of Auschwitz. I knew nothing of the Nakba. I only read what the NY Times wanted me to read. Until the 90's I believed that Israel truly acted only defensively against aggressors hell-bent on its destruction. And while that's part of the truth, it's not the whole truth so help me God as the nearly 40,000 and counting Palestinian deaths document. The terrorist slaughter of October 7th can never be excused or rationalized as a righteous consequence of oppression. But let's be clear: the wildly disproportionate violence the IDF has rained down upon women and children as well as the innocent sick and elderly - to say nothing of the campaign of starvation currently in place throughout Gaza - stands as proof of Israel's commitment to genocide. I hate that this is true. But I hate the brutality and death that innocent Palestinians are enduring more than my own broken heart. 

So, what I have long known within - and been hesitant to say out loud - is now all too obvious . As Chris Hedges presciently wrote in February: 

There was never any possibility that the Israeli government would agree to a pause in the fighting proposed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, much less a ceasefire. Israel is on the verge of delivering the coup de grâce in its war on Palestinians in Gaza – mass starvation. When Israeli leaders use the term “absolute victory,” they mean total decimation, total elimination. The Nazis in 1942 systematically starved the 500,000 men, women and children in the Warsaw Ghetto. This is a number Israel intends to exceed. Israel, and its chief patron the United States, by attempting to shut down the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides food and aid to Gaza, is not only committing a war crime, but is in flagrant defiance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court found the charges of genocide brought by South Africa, which included statements and facts gathered by UNWRA, plausible. It ordered Israel to abide by six provisional measures to prevent genocide and alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe. The fourth provisional measure calls on Israel to secure immediate and effective steps to provide humanitarian assistance and essential services in Gaza. https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/08/chris-hedges-let-them-eat-dirt/

Pope Francis has noted us that: we are living in an era overcome by the magnitude of the violence and the acute hopelessness that surfaces when the scale of destruction, violence and injustice comes to the surface... this sense of apathy and willful ignorance arises in the face of global violence. In today's world, the sense of belonging to a single human family is fading, and the dream of working together for justice and peace seems an outdated utopia. What reigns instead is a cool, comfortable and globalized indifference, born of deep disillusionment concealed behind a deceptive illusion: thinking that we are all-powerful, while failing to realize that we are all in the same boat. Or as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it: few of us are guilty, but all of us are responsible. 

My caution has its place - I will always trust it - but now it has run its course and can serve only to excuse and deny the genocide born of blind and arrogant Zionism.