To the editor:
My 5-year-old daughter, Hannah, recently asked me, “Why can’t they just stop fighting each other?” I struggled to answer her simple yet profoundly complex question.
It will soon be two years since Israel has been at war with Hamas. Almost daily, we hear disturbing news from Gaza — children starving to death or killed in attacks. We risk becoming numb, as though this is simply the way of the world. Even more troubling, the United States recently blocked — for the sixth time — a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire. Fourteen other members of the Security Council voted in favor. The draft resolution described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and called on Israel to lift aid restrictions.
History reminds us that Israel itself once lived under oppression. Under Egypt’s brutal rule, they were slaves, forced into labor, their male infants cast into the Nile. They were immigrants, outsiders, powerless. It is heartbreaking to see history repeat itself in an inverted way — today, Israel oppresses Palestinians in Gaza.
Lamma Mansour, a Palestinian Christian sister, gives voice to this pain: “For us as Palestinian Christians, what has been most wounding is the response of our many siblings in Christ. Some cheered on the violence. Some funded it. Some gave it theological cover. Some attempted to stay neutral. And some were simply silent.”
Her words pierce the conscience. We must ask: With whom would Jesus stand today? Can we use Scripture to justify war, occupation, or silence? And if it were our own children and grandchildren enduring what Palestinian children are now suffering, how would we respond?
For me, I cannot ignore these questions —because someday, I must answer them to my Hannah.
Victor Han
Houlton
