Lebanon on my Mind

I wake up listening to the NPR reports of the latest dead in this summer war between Hezbollah and Israel, or Israel and Lebanon and Syria and Gaza, or whatever you want to call it.

I listen to the sick justifications of mass destruction and dehumanization of the other that occurs in times of war, and gets broadcast to the world: 'They don't love thir children the way we do. That's why they deserve to die and we do not.' It's an often-repeated line.

I want to throw things at my radio. Or throw the radio. This may be another form of violence begetting violence.

Still that doesn't shut it out, or do really any good at all. As I go through my days in my hometown in Iowa, I hear churchmembers and synagogue members (where I go for interfaith midrash once a month) and even folks at the hospital, some of whom I'm trying to chaplain, saying the same things.

Dehumanization spreads, I realize, and it's on so many people's lips. Even in Iowa.

After a while, it almost becomes convincing.

Yet deeply this is what I still hold on to:

Violence is wrong.
And more violence is more wrong.
And violence against civilians is most wrong of all.

I don't buy the idea that there is 'no such thing as an Arab civilian;' that 'they all hide missiles in their hospitals;' that 'they don't value their lives and families the way we do;' that 'they are all out to get us.' Rather, I think we say that against anyone who becomes our enemy. Haven't we always?

Once again our media has overlooked the disproportionate use of force in this conflict; how many times more Lebanese civilians have been killed in this past month, yet we don't notice this because we are too busy villifying.

Still, that is not a complete answer, either: We need to mourn all who are lost. Mourn Israeli and Lebanese, mourn that most of the Israeli civilians killed are reportedly Palestinian, second-class citizens of Israel from Nazareth. Mourn soldiers as well as civilians. Mourn the senselessness of it all, but do not dismiss the opportunities and the ethical imperatives for peacemaking by dismissing the people themselves involved as 'senseless.'

To do so is to add dehumanizing fuel to the fire.