Peace? In the Middle East?

A brief glance at this mornings headlines at bbc online broke my heart. How can we continue to hope in the midst of such hopelessness? How does one hold on to hope after reading just one day of the news? Today in the Middle East alone there is a decent likelihood of war on at least three different fronts: Israel vs. Gaza, Israel vs. Syria, Israel (and the US) vs. Iran. With Israel threatening to cut power and fuel to Gaza the situation there moves from critical to the great likelihood of a humanitarian disaster. Gaza residents have already suffered tremendously as a result of this summer's events and now face a even harsher threat. What are they to do? Of course the fact that they continue to fire rockets at Israel doesn't help anything, but still. Does this justify collective punishment? Does this justify punishing a whole people for the actions of the few? The BBC article made an interesting (and widely agreed to) comment regarding Israel's responsibility for Gaza: "the current position is that, under international law, Israel remains legally responsible for the coastal strip, despite withdrawing two years ago, because it still controls Gaza's borders, air space and territorial waters."

Lord God, give us the grace to suffer as you suffer with the suffering of the world. Give us the hope in the midst of hopelessness to see you at work even in this often dark world. Bring peace to the war torn middle east and to our war torn and confused hearts.