764 days – that’s 25 months and 2 days.
And this is what we’re up against:
+ This week it was reported that YouTube has rolled over for the President, quietly erasing more than 700 videos from three Palestinian justice organizations documenting Israeli human rights violations;
+ The latest issue of The Nation describes how the Israel Lobby targeted our guest, Cori Bush, and her colleague, Jamaal Bowman from New York in the last election – over $8million spent against Bush, and $15million against Bowman, both of whom lost in the Democratic primary. The article detailed how historically, the Congressional Black Caucus has been in the pocket of the Lobby. Unsurprisingly, they have not condemned Israel’s genocide, since more than half of its 61 members receive funding from the Israel Lobby;
+ The State Department has sent the UN Security Council a draft for the establishment of an international Gaza “security force,” an “enforcement force,” beginning in January, to govern Gaza through 2027. It is to serve as a transitional government and work in coordination with a Gaza “Board of Peace” led by – guess who? – President Trump, the same president who wants to develop it into a Middle East Riviera devoid of Palestinians;
+ This December the Israeli Foreign Ministry is spending more than $4 million on a pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian propaganda campaign aimed at Christians in the US, with pro-Israel celebrity spokespersons and a mobile unit, called “The October 7 Experience,” where you can virtually experience what it’s like to confront Hamas terrorists. Coming this Christmas to a Christian college and church near you;
+ And during this sham of a ceasefire, Israel is still preventing food and other aid from entering Gaza, and according to UNICEF, since October 7, 2023, that is, each day for the last 25 months, Israel has murdered 30 children – each day – and injured another 40 more per day, and bombed a few hundred more … children! It makes you weep!
All this supported by an accomplice US government, Republicans and Democrats, with our tax dollars, and a mostly-silent American church. You know, sermons and speeches, resolutions and empathy and prayers – they’re all good, but they’re not yet solidarity. “Costly discipleship,” Bonhoeffer calls it. Munther Isaac, “Costly solidarity.” Solidarity should cost something or it’s not solidarity. And frankly, I have to say, it’s very frustrating when I see liberals in our country, and many liberal churches, too, rail against a racist, triumphalist Christian nationalism, all the while not saying “boo” about its sister, a racist colonial Christian and Jewish Zionism, that’s resulting in Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and throughout Palestine.
There is some good news:
+ Zohran Mamdani withstood the opposition of mainstream Democrats and racist attacks in the media funded by the billionaire class of both parties. A Muslim-American immigrant, he has been unabashed in his support for full Palestinian rights, is the mayor-elect of New York. And more Arab and Muslim candidates are running for office and winning elections.
+ We just heard from Sandra Tamari from the Adalah Justice Project in St. Louis that St. Louis City just became the largest city in the U.S. to pass a resolution to divest from corporations complicit in genocide and human rights violations.
+ A recent Pew survey found that support for Israel among both Republicans and Democrats has decreased. 59% of Democrats are more sympathetic to Palestine, only 21% to Israel. Among Millennials and Gen Z’ers, 18-49, 50% of young Republicans now have an unfavorable view of Israel, while 71% of young Democrats favor Palestinians.
Finally, with apologies to my friends from Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship in Berne who heard this in my sermon last Sunday – I was criticized recently, “Mike, why do you spend so much time in sermons and elsewhere talking about Israel’s atrocities and our enabling; after all, there are other problems in the world.” I didn’t quite know how to respond; later I thought I should have said, “That would be like asking King why he talked so much about racism, or Bonhoeffer, why he talked so much about Nazis.” Another holocaust right before our eyes – our humanity is being tested, our morality, and for people of faith, our faith being tested. 25 months, 30 children a day, murdered, not to mention 77 years. Righteous anger isn’t enough unless it’s channeled into action. The question for each of us, for all of us together, “Will we pass the test?” As Jimmy Carter put it, “We must do whatever we can … wherever we can … whenever we can … for as long as we can … to make a difference.”