Taking Sides

There are some on social media, and commenting on some websites, that say Christians should not “take sides” in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, because “the Palestinians are people too.” (It’s in times like these that I’m glad I don’t have comments activated on this website.)

To say that one cannot favor one side in this conflict would be to say that one should not “take Ukraine’s side against Russia because the Russians are people too”; or, even, perhaps to say that one cannot favor governmental actions against Mexican drug cartels because “Mexicans are people too.”

Hamas is made up of Palestinians (at least, to some percentage, I’m not aware of the details), but it is not “equal to” Palestinians. I’m sure not all Palestinians agree with what Hamas is doing (perhaps only a minority do?). To say that the actions of Hamas are wrong, even evil, is not to disagree with the political issues behind the actions. We can say the world’s economic systems are unjust while condemning the actions of criminals; we can say Israeli treatment of Palestinians in general is unjust in certain ways while still condemning the actions of Hamas.

To kill civilians in war is evil. To take civilians hostage in war is evil. To favor justice in this situation is the right thing to do.

This is not to say that Israel is going about that justice-seeking completely correctly, either. But that does not earn Hamas a free pass. I agree with Russell Moore on this - the world should stand with the Israelis against Hamas (not the same as against Palestine in general).

This is not to say we shouldn’t pray for Palestinians or even for terrorists in general. I do pray that “Sauls would become Pauls” and that God would bring good out of this terrible situation. I know that the evil Hamas has shown the world may in fact turn many people away from militant Islam, just as Khomeini in Iran turned many to Jesus. We can pray for that daily.