The headlines scream out the daily carnage from the Middle East. The cycle of violence escalates, de-escalates and then re-escalates. But it does not end. Positions harden and the political call is to "get tough." My heart is full of despair and I have little hope for the situation. I hear myself say, I hope there is still a chance for peace. But in my words I hear the voice of my students as they say they hope they pass my test even though they didn't get to study much. I hear the voice of the man at the convenience store who says he hopes to be rich tomorrow after his lottery ticket wins. That is not hope; that is wishful thinking! I suspect that many of us fail to understand "hope." I know that I do much of the time.
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Hope is not a wish; it is a conviction. And if I try, I am reminded of what people in hopeless situations have taught me about hope. They have taught me that despair and lack of hope is mostly something that people who have relatively comfortable lives develop. Those who live in hopeless situations are usually hopeful. So if we peacemakers are to contribute to peace in the Middle East, we too must be hopeful. And truly hopeful people do not sit on hope; they take their hope and get busy. So what can we do?
1. Pray. I think prayer is always the best place to start. But hopeful prayer is not "Please, God, solve this terrible mess and I will be sure to thank you when you get it taken care of." No, hopeful prayer is "Help me, God, to be an agent for peace in the Middle East. Give me hope. Give me insight. Give me courage to act in ways that will serve peace."
2. Demand justice for the Palestinians. It is here that Christians have failed terribly. Conservative Christians often see the re-emergence of Israel in apocalyptic terms as part of God's plan for the end time, and so as they give hardline support to Israel they have little concern for Palestinians. I fear that we moderate and liberal Christians are even more to blame. I suspect that guilt over our failure to prevent the holocaust and our recognition of our own anti-Semitism has made us ignore the injustice done to the Palestinians. Of course, peacemakers must condemn terrorism-it will never be the solution. But if we look at who is really getting the bad deal it is not the Israelis but the Palestinians.
While I have not been in the Palestinian areas, people (including our missionaries) that I trust, who have spent time there, report that here in America we really have no idea what is being done to the Palestinians. Without justice there will be no peace. I have yet to see a political plan that gives serious attention to what is just for the Palestinian people. Demanding justice for the Palestinians will not be popular; it will take courage.
3. Demand nonviolence. It is clear that violence is good for no one (other than perhaps the arms manufacturers). The spiral of violence must stop. Peacemakers need to converge on the Middle East being agents of peace.
I recently heard a report on NPR about European peacemakers who were standing around a Palestinian water works that had broken down. It had been broken for months, depriving the town of clean and safe water. Each time Palestinian workers tried to repair it, Israeli marksmen would shoot at them. However when the Europeans surrounded the site, the workers finally were able to repair it. It is time for large numbers of peacemakers to converge on the Middle East. The Fellowship of Reconciliation regularly is sending delegations.
4. Hope. We must be hopeful. If we say that we are followers of Jesus we must remember his story. The backwaters of the Roman Empire are the same lands that we now speak of as the Middle East. There Jesus rejected the violence of Rome and the revolutionaries called Zealots. Rome would eventually crush the Zealots when they tried out their violence, but this Jesus resisted nonviolently even until his death. Yet his death and resurrection would eventually completely transform Rome. Now, that's hope!
Dr. Joel J. Heim, Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Carroll College, Waukesha, WI, is the former moderator of the Disciples Peace Fellowship. This article appeared in DPF NewsNotes, and is reprinted with permission.
