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I received this a couple of days ago - it's a forward of an e-mail sent from a Methodist missionary serving in Palestine.
Dear Friends,
I have received many emails just since yesterday from people concerned about my safety. Thank you all so much. It’s nice to be remembered. It’s also nice to know that the US is finally reporting on something other than the Miss Universe Pageant and Iraq! I see the same news here via internet on BBC, CNN, Reuters etc. and I am a bit concerned that certain stations are playing on peoples’ emotions by showing Israeli families weeping over lost or injured family members while the Lebanese are shown with weapons or simply standing on the streets. There is tragedy all around! If you look at the simple numbers of casualties there are many more Arab women weeping than Israelis. The government of Lebanon is too weak to deal with Hizbollah. Iran and Syria are holding back together. Regarding the disaster in Gaza, entire families (16-20 at a time!) are being wiped out with shelling all night long. (I will include an attachment that was just released by Sabeel today on the situation in Gaza.) Meanwhile, Israel continues to pound the hammer down on innocent civilians. People are dying here on all sides. The UN is calling for intervention and the US keeps vetoing. Are you ready to stand up and say, “Enough!”? According to the recent CNN poll the majority of Americans think Israel is using excessive force. Fine. But thinking it will not stop them! (There’s a challenge there.)
Meanwhile, for those who asked, a personal update: I was in Haifa on Sunday to go to mass and bring a Greek Catholic deacon back to Jerusalem with me. I had spent the night in one of the nearby villages and was in my car following the Bishop and the deacon into Haifa to the church. (I get hopelessly lost in Haifa!) We had to pass by the port area on the main road. Suddenly there were three big blasts. The bishop’s driver pulled over so I followed. Just then we saw smoke begin rising from the warehouse just off to the right of our cars. The warehouses had been hit. This was the beginning of two days of heavy shelling. The air raid sirens began, ambulances started rolling, people on their cell phones rushing for the shelters (every building has one here). We got to the church and the poor deacon (who is from Germany and has only been here for a few months) was really in a panic. Yusef, the Bishop’s driver, and I tried to calm him. Yusef lives in Haifa and has been through this many times. Since Israel was still at war with Lebanon when I first moved here in ’94, (about ½ hour drive from where I lived) I was not unfamiliar either. I lived in Bethlehem for years with tanks rumbling past my door (they drove right over my landlady’s car!), and where I had to sleep in the hallway to avoid the bullets going past the bedroom windows. That’s life here. You just pray hard and keep your head down! So we watched and waited at the entrance to the church. The sirens went off several times during the next half hour. Needless to say, no one showed up for mass!
After about 45 minutes we could hear the shells beginning to hit Akko across the bay, so I grabbed the deacon, got him into the car, and we headed out of town. It was a great day to be driving in Haifa. No traffic! I told the deacon (who could not even sit still in his seat, looking here and there for shells to fall on our heads, poor man) that we would take the road through the Jordan Valley since it would be safer than the coast road. What I didn’t tell him is that we would have to cross the country to get there and pass through Nazareth and Afula along with a few other towns before getting to the valley! (Nazareth and Afula both got hit.) The thing about Qatusha rockets is that, although they are small and deadly, they are horribly inaccurate. They wobble in the wind and are hard to aim. Consequently the surrounding villages are also at risk. (My daughter’s friend is from the Palestinian village of Kfar Yasif which is near Akko. It got hit as well.)
Meanwhile, the Israeli army, navy and air force are supplied with the best that American taxes can provide. They are pounding the Lebanese with heavy bombs and missiles that are as high-tech as you can get. Hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded. It is not a war when one side has all the firepower. It’s an annihilation. Just look at the numbers. Look at Gaza. Look into the eyes of a mother who has lost her whole family in one blast. Look at the little boy in Haifa who is wandering the street wondering where to hide. Then ask yourself, is this justice? Is this mercy? Is this the “love one another” rule that all our religions teach us?
There’s a great song that came to mind as I was driving back to Jerusalem sung by Sweet honey in the Rock. It goes:
“Lord, must I do unto others before they do unto me? Oh Lord, this is not the lesson that I learned on my mother’s knee when she taught me to do unto others only what I’d have them do unto me.”
Now there’s a lesson! Too bad the people with the explosives aren’t paying attention.
As I lie in bed at night here in Jerusalem I can hear the bombers flying over on their way to Gaza, only an hour away. I can hear the explosions. I can hear the bombers returning to base. It is the same war that has been waged here for thousands of years; only the players have changed and the weapons grown more deadly. So we pray. After all, this is the land of miracles. We read, “Let justice roll down like water and mercy like a never-ending stream.” And we remember that when you pray from the Holy City, it’s a local call!
In God’s hands,
Janet
UM Mission Personnel in Palestine
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