A Holy Conflict?

This will be my first post on Revolutionary Christians blog, and I was debating on the topic of this first post. While mulling this over the seemingly never-ending situation in Israel kept coming back to me and the fact that American Christians seem to flock to the side of Israel in all of their military adventures. For starters, I am not a Zionist, which will become known, yet at the same time I am by no means anti-Semitic. I will frame this blog around the latest Israeli military excursion into Gaza. The 22 day invasion into Gaza left 1330 Palestinians dead, 437 of those children. To put this in perspective, only 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict.
According to the Bible, Jews are God's chosen people and as Christians we are supposed to fully support Jews. I do see validity in that argument, yet I believe there is a fine line between supporting Judaism and supporting an oppressive Jewish state. American mainstream media only portrays one side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Gazans will forever be the aggressors and the Israelis will be enshrined as "protectors of their ancient homeland." In order to view this in a more humane perspective and I would argue, more Christ-like, one will have to put aside their own prejudices towards Muslims and inclinations to accept Israeli falsities as fact. I will ask the readers to turn off Fox News and CNN and dig deeper to find the true facts. When a news report reads "Israel was attacked by militants and therefore had to defend itself," don't always assume that is the case. Many times, Israel would start the conflict, thereby forcing Hamas to retaliate. Once Israel was hit by missiles, hell was let loose upon the Palestinians. An unequal, unjustifiable, and I would add illegal retaliation. I am sorry for being rather vague in these preceding statements, but I haven't the time to cite every confrontation nor do I wish to turn this blog into a one hundred page essay. I am just trying to give a few facts and perhaps pique the readers' interest to do their own research into the on going Middle East conflicts.
Moving on, I would now like to view these conflicts through a purely compassionate, humane view point. Quoted below is a clip from an article on Gazans by Medea Benjamin:
"Compassion, the greatest virtue in all major religions, is the basic human emotion prompted by the suffering of others, and it triggers a desire to alleviate that suffering. True compassion is not circumscribed by one's faith or the nationality of those suffering. It crosses borders; it speaks a universal language; it shares a common spirituality. Those who have suffered themselves, such as Holocaust victims, are supposed to have the deepest well of compassion."
Those few words truly sum up what I am trying to say. I know I have been brief, yet I hope to get a response from my readers' on the "Middle East question," because as Westerners, we obviously hold the answer [note sarcasm]. I just ask that you question the Israeli state in their torturous actions against Palestinians. I believe our God is a loving God, given that, I do not believe the Bible dictates to its readers who to love and who to scorn. I will quote a well-known passage regarding this found in the book of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 43-47:
"You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"
Yet, as I read this verse it doesn't completely sum up the sense of compassion I have towards the world's poor and oppressed. We are not to view Palestinians, and by extension Muslims, as our enemies. They too are children of God, beautiful and lovely in his eyes. We may say YHWH, Allah, or Jesus, but we are all his children. Do you believe God would allow "his people" [read 'Jews'] to torture and murder Palestinians [also his people—were they not created to walk this earth as well?]? It seems that Americans have an engrained notion that if we (or our allies) commit crimes, then it is forgivable, but if a "terrorist" murders it is an abomination. I am by no means forgiving the past murders of ….here it comes, Islamofascists!!!!!!, but our sense of a justifiable homicide is skewed. Do you really believe that an Israeli life is held in higher esteem in God's eyes over a Palestinian's life? I think the main topic of all of this is just that we are all humans. We were all created to live on this earth. Some of us follow the Christian faith and others put their faith in the prophet Mohammed. What it really comes down to, I believe, is do we not all ask for a prosperous life? Do we not all sweat and become tired after a hard day of work? Do we not all love our family and friends and wish only the best for them? Instead of picking apart our "enemies" and trying to find differences why not look at the similarities of God's creation and rejoice that we can stand up for what is right and say no to Israeli oppression, yes, stand up for our Palestinian brothers and sisters, cry for their dead and wounded, mourn for the lives torn apart by American-made Israeli SCUD missiles. We are all human: red, yellow, black, and white, we're all precious in his sight, da dum da dum da dum. Ah, childhood innocence.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those of hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Written by Tyler York.