A close friend recently shared the phrase “I Stand With Israel” on her social media. Intrigued, I inquired about the specific meaning behind this statement:
Was she expressing solidarity for the innocent victims at the Supernova music festival, tragically taken from the world as they enjoyed a brief escape from lives marked by perpetual violence?
Was she aligning herself against millions of innocent Palestinians who might face retaliation for an atrocity committed by Hamas extremists, perhaps an act they neither endorsed nor knew of?
Was she proclaiming a theological stance, favoring one faith tradition over another?
Was she sharply defining borders of a land far away, a place she may never set foot on?
Was she positioning herself against the unhinged extremists of one faction, aligning with another?
She struggled to articulate the precise statement she intended to make, but I conveyed my understanding. This is a situation beyond easy comprehension, a sprawling horror that has evolved over millennia.
In the face of unfathomable events, people yearn for simplicity, a comforting notion to convince us that we’ve addressed the complexity and darkness of humanity’s capacity for inhumanity. We desire a concise phrase to shield us from delving into the intricate, frightening abyss of human nature and to admit our profound inadequacy.
As someone guided by faith, morality, and conscience, I find myself adrift in times like these, standing with wasted, brutalized life. This means I cannot make a facile declaration and walk away with a sense of moral satisfaction.
Instead, it compels me to navigate the depths of nuance, history, and human nature. It requires reading, learning, listening, reflecting, praying, and wrestling, with fewer answers and more questions, often accompanied by a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Staring at the incomprehensible ugliness is where many of us find ourselves. I’m disheartened by the all-or-nothing declarations in response to the events in Israel and Palestine, as if this complex situation can be reduced to a two-inch square on a screen.
This is not a “both sides” equivocation but an acknowledgment that the sides don’t neatly fit into the categories we wish for. The story is too intricate, the individuals too unique to be encapsulated in a simple platitude or a presumed moral high ground.
In the midst of the current living nightmare, the best we can do is mourn the disparate suffering. Condemn terrorism wherever it arises, decry brutality from any source, oppose ignorance and intolerance, and be outraged by any act of silencing, dehumanization, or violation, regardless of where it occurs.
We must recognize and defend besieged humanity wherever it strives or simply exists. Most importantly, we must admit that our minds struggle to comprehend all we witness, and our hearts can’t contain the scale of grief.
Words, like these, ultimately fall short. Humanity is our shared tribe. Let us stand with it and fiercely advocate for it.
