Tag Archives: Hamas

Contrasting prayers during wartime

Posted on by
1

The first is a combined effort from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada:

God of peace and justice,
Our hearts weep as the rockets fall in Israel and Gaza,
As families are bereaved
As men, women and children are taken hostage,
As anger and hatred are fuelled again.

In the land you chose for your people and your Son we pray
for those bereaved by the violence,
For the wounded and injured,
For the hostages
That your love will surround and comfort them.

We pray for strength and compassion
for all offering medical care, especially our partners, the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital
and Augusta Victoria Hospital.

We pray for Bishop Sani Azar and Archbishop Hosam Naoum and all Christians in the Holy Land for their safety and their leadership in this time of crisis.

We pray for all leaders in Israel and Palestine that a just and lasting peace will be found.

In the midst of our grief and sorrow we trust in your unfailing love for all people, and
for your Land, and ask that your wisdom would prevail, for we ask in the name of

Jesus Christ, who brings the world eternal peace.

In contrast, here is Archbishop William Temple’s prayer during World War 2:

‘Lord bless our country and all who serve it. Uphold our courage through all that comes. Make us worthy of victory, and establish peace and good will: through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

The most obvious difference, other than the lengths, is that the latter prayer includes the idea of victory, country, service and courage. The archbishop doesn’t seem particularly interested in a lasting peace with the Nazi’s; I don’t think I am reading too much into this by concluding he is praying for them to be defeated.

All of this is absent from the first prayer because the ACoC is unwilling to take a side – unless the issue is climate change, of course. Perish the thought that we might pray for Hamas to be defeated.

There is more in a similar vein from William Temple here:

 

Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee tweets sympathy for Gaza inhabitants

Posted on by
3

The bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia has expressed her concern for the humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza, as well she should.

The only problem is, on October 7th, the day Hamas started raping grandmothers, beheading babies and shooting every Jewish civilian they encountered, she made no mention of the fact. Although to be fair, Hamas was inclusive: they also shot some Muslim civilians.

Instead, she lamented that the life of whales is disrupted by ships’ propellers.

I wonder if it has occurred to her that the misery in Gaza is more the fault of Hamas than Israel?

Desmond Tutu wants a global boycott of Israel

Posted on by
9

Read it all here.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, in an exclusive article for Haaretz, calls for a global boycott of Israel and urges Israelis and Palestinians to look beyond their leaders for a sustainable solution to the crisis in the Holy Land.

The past weeks have witnessed unprecedented action by members of civil society across the world against the injustice of Israel’s disproportionately brutal response to the firing of missiles from Palestine.

[…]

I asked the crowd to chant with me: “We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killing in Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.”

Earlier in the week, I called for the suspension of Israel from the International Union of Architects, which was meeting in South Africa.

The extraordinarily blinkered conclusion Tutu reaches is:

The pursuit of freedom for the people of Palestine from humiliation and persecution by the policies of Israel is a righteous cause. It is a cause that the people of Israel should support.

There is no mention of Hamas repeated violating ceasefires, using Gazans as human shields, having the destruction of Israel in its charter, the fact that, for propaganda, Hamas wants its citizens to die or the indoctrination of children to hate Jews. The article is reproduced on the Anglican Communion News Service; since it is sitting there without editorial comment, we must assume that the ACNS is untroubled by Tutu’s viewpoint.

Here is a different view from someone who has not succumbed to the miasma of leftist pollution that is afflicting Tutu’s neocortex:

The camera always lies

Posted on by
Reply

As Malcolm Muggeridge used to enjoy saying – even when he was standing in front of one.

Never more so than in Gaza. If you’ve ever wondered why photographs of injured or dead Gazans – or old photos of dead Syrians posing as Gazans – litter Western media yet there are no images of Hamas firing rockets, it’s not because they are off somewhere teaching Sunday school: it’s because they shoot journalists who try to photograph them.

From here:

“I met today with a Spanish journalist who just came back from Gaza. We talked about the situation there. He was very friendly. I asked him how come we never see on television channels reporting from Gaza any Hamas people, no gunmen, no rocket launcher, no policemen. We only see civilians on these reports, mostly women and children.”

“He answered me frankly: ‘It’s very simple, we did see Hamas people there launching rockets, they were close to our hotel, but if ever we dared pointing our camera on them they would simply shoot at us and kill us.’”

Justin Welby strides fearlessly into the Israel-Hamas conflict wielding clichés

Posted on by
9

From here:

Archbishop of Canterbury calls on leaders in Israel and Gaza to immediately end the violence, and urges Anglican churches both to pray and offer support to all victims of the conflict.

[…..]

“While humanitarian relief for those civilians most affected is a priority, especially women and children, we must also recognise that this conflict underlines the importance of renewing a commitment to political dialogue in the wider search for peace and security for both Israeli and Palestinian. The destructive cycle of violence has caused untold suffering and threatens the security of all.

There is no cycle of violence. Hamas does not fire rockets into Israel because Israel is attacking Hamas. It fires rockets into Israel not because of what Israel does or does not do, but because of what it is – a country filled with Jews, a people it hates and is determined to exterminate. The only way the violence will end is if Israel wins – decisively.

“For all sides to persist with their current strategy, be it threatening security by the indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian areas or aerial bombing which increasingly fails to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, is self-defeating.

Not at all: the self-defeating option is for Israel to quit before the job is completed.

The road to reconciliation is hard, but ultimately the only route to security.

How can you reconcile with an organisation whose sole aim in this life and the next is to eradicate your entire race?

All this highlights the need for underlying issues to be addressed, whether the ongoing terror threat to Israel or the expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The failure to find constructive paths to peace poses a threat to the future of all the peoples of the region.

Just like the constructive path to peace Neville Chamberlain found in 1938:

“We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for two countries and for Europe.
[….]
“My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.”