When I began to think about what I would write about in this week’s column, my first thought was that I hoped everyone saw the gruesome photographs of the tiny five-month-old girl in Gaza who had starved to death.
She had weighed six pounds, six ounces at birth. Five months later, at her death, she was skin and bones with legs thinner than an ordinary pencil.
My second thought, though, was that I wished nobody had had to see those photos, because I wish neither she nor anyone else had starved to death in Gaza or any place else.
On July 27, the World Health Organization said there had been 63 deaths by starvation in Gaza so far that month, and 24 of those were children under the age of five years old.
Two days earlier, ABC News said 19 people had starved to death in the past 24 hours and that most were little children. That same day, the British newspaper, The Independent, reported that in recent weeks, 113 people had starved to death, and 82 were children.
Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, who is Jewish and the newest Republican in Congress, wrote in his official account on July 22 that he hoped Palestinians would “starve away.” A few days later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there is “no starvation in Gaza.”
Yet NBC News reported on July 28 (the day after Netanyahu’s claim) that there is “mounting global outrage over rising deaths and scenes of starvation under Israel’s military offensive.”
Almost every story about Gaza, whether in print, online, or TV or radio – with the exception of FOX News – referred to the “growing global outrage” against Israel’s starvation tactics.
Of course, the most glaring exception has been in the U.S. Congress, which the Israel Lobby controls because of its ability to direct campaign contributions either for or against any member. If any country other than Israel were carrying out such a cruel war – killing and starving thousands of women and children – the Congress would have long ago condemned it and stopped sending billions to support it.
No publication has been as supportive of Israel over the years as the New York Times. Yet, on July 26 the paper carried a story headlined “No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole UN Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say.”
Then on July 18, the Times carried another story headlined “Revenge Is Not A Policy: Israelis Voice Dissent Against War In Gaza.” The story said: “Now a growing number of Israelis are speaking out against what they describe as atrocities carried out in their name in the Palestinian enclave.”
The reporter, Isabel Kershner, added: “Israeli protesters are holding aloft portraits of Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Academics and authors, politicians and retired military leaders are accusing the Israeli government of indiscriminate killing and war crimes.”
An iPhone news report said: “Palestinians are beginning to resemble ‘walking corpses,’ a United Nations official said, as (British Prime Minister) Keir Starmer called the starvation unfolding in Gaza ‘unspeakable and indefensible.’ He added, ‘While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.’”
On July 21, the United Nations put out a statement which said, “We have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food … 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys.”
Two days earlier, the Doctors Without Borders organization published a release saying, “As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza … just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organizations blocked from accessing or delivering it.”
That statement said Israel’s total siege has “created chaos, starvation, and death. An aid worker… spoke of the devastating impact on children: children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.”
Sen. Ted Cruz said on Tucker Carlson’s podcast that he supported what Israel is doing because the Bible says to bless Israel. However, he became very flustered when Carlson asked him where it says that in the Bible, and Cruz obviously did not know.
The Bible does instruct people to bless Israel, but it does not say people should bless Israel’s government no matter what it does. There is a lot more to the United States than our federal government. People can love this country while at the same time criticizing things our federal government does.
In the same way, people can love and bless Israel while criticizing its slaughter of the Palestinian people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews – maybe even a few million – are now doing just that. It is time for Christians to condemn the starving and killing of little children.
There is a very old Christian song which says:
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world;
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
It does not say He loves all the children except for the little children in Gaza.
Reprinted with author’s permission from Knoxville Focus.
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