So you want to use the Bible on the question of Gaza?

January 3, 11:30 AMSpiritual Life ExaminerRabbi Ben Kamin

Previous Next

4 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Spiritual Life Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Hamas leaders in a recent photograph

A well-respected humanitarian, with real travel and work credentials as a peace volunteer and relief specialist, offered a well-meaning statement this week in a major California newspaper.  Decrying the bloodshed in Gaza (as if this was the first time), the writer referenced the hallmark incident in the book of Genesis:  God, reviling the abhorrent and sadistic behavior of Sodom and Gomorrah, vows to destroy the evil twin cities.  Abraham argues with God:  “If there are but 50 good people there, will you spare the cities?”  God agrees.  Our contemporary columnist asserts that there must be at least 50 good people in Gaza, so what is Israel doing destroying the entire place?

A potent question that cries for answers, using the same Bible as orientation:  The full vignette tells us that Abraham bargained with God, in fact, until the deity agreed to spare the community if there were even just ten good people therein.  Sadly, there weren’t even ten; the biblical decree stood and the contemptible community was vaporized. 

I would argue that there are way more than 50 good people in Gaza—hundreds of thousands of fine folks.  Nor does the Israeli government seek to destroy Gaza; it seeks to uncover the leaders of the terrorist organization Hamas and eliminate them, just as the United States has been vociferously trying to do with the despots of Al Qaeda and the like.  Regrettably, tragically, unforgivably, Hamas leaders, after winning an election giving them the responsibility to govern Gaza, have turned their attention to bombing Israeli towns and holding the 50+ good people in Gaza hostage.

The writer excoriates Israel for the economic and social disparities that do indeed plague the residents of poverty-stricken, undernourished, undereducated Gazans.  This is not an issue derived from Genesis, but it is biblical:  If Israel (not Hamas) had been freely elected to govern Gaza, then Israel would likely be providing the same kind of schools, recreation facilities, and infrastructure that it does in the Israeli towns and cities that have been bombed by Hamas all these years.

But let’s close by going right back to the Bible, to the same book of Genesis.  The painful matter of destroying human communities is too often the stuff of Scripture.  The first such episode occurs just prior to the Flood: God tells Noah (Genesis, 9:13): “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Attention all Biblical critics using the Scripture to make a point:  The Hebrew word for “violence,” used in this biblical sentence, is “hamas.”  You can look it up.