"They have given us a window when what we need is a door"

There are a number of interesting commentaries available about the situation in Gaza.

Thinking Faith, the Jesuit on-line journal, has published a briefing on the current war in Gaza and its historical background. The author of the briefing is Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and Global Security Consultant to an organisation called the Oxford Research Group (ORG). His international security monthly briefings are available from the ORG website at http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/. The briefing is interesting because of some of the key points made:

- an entrenched Israeli view that security for their own country can only be achieved through the exercise, and the threat of the exercise, of overwhelming military force
- an indication that American military aid has been crucial in the training of Israeli forces for the current war in Gaza
- ...mirrored by a view of Hamas that only strong (military) resistance to Israel is a feasible way of achieving gains for the Palestinian people
- that Arab states such as Egypt do not support Hamas, and are as concerned about the potential of organisations like Hamas to destabilise their own countries as Israel is about the threat that it poses to them
- the implications of Hamas (and Hezbollah elsewhere) as a kind of advocate for a population who are disadvantaged, when the government in countries like Egypt is run by political/social/economic elites
- Israel's look to the wider situation of the Middle East, in relation to the threat of countries like Iran to their own security.

There is an interesting missing component from the Thinking Faith article. This might be understandable considering its provenance as an adaptation of a security briefing, but it might also indicate a limitation to the work of, say, the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University. There is no effort in the article to present principles for moral judgement as to the right and wrong of the actions of the different parties to the situation in Gaza, Israel and Hamas perhaps primarily, but, in the background, governments such as those of the United States and of Egypt.

Caritas Jerusalem, a section of Caritas Internationalis, an international Catholic aid organisation, have sent an account of the situation in Gaza, that can be read at Independent Catholic News and here. Two medical centres run in Gaza by Caritas Jerusalem have been destroyed by Israeli bombs. Many families have abandoned their homes and are sheltering in schools. Children and families are suffering more than anyone else. The parish priest of Gaza has described the deepening crisis in Gaza as "inhumane and criminal". Referring to the tens of thouasands sheltering in schools, short of food and water, he also says: "The Israeli agression has made these people live like animals and our school is the zoo". Caritas Jerusalem's General Secretary summarises the situation by saying that "They have given us a window when what we need is a door".

The website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales carries the text of the comment of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem here: "violence, no matter where it comes from or whatever form it takes, must be condemned".

In his message for the World Day of Peace, written before the present war in Gaza began, Pope Benedict asked that people everywhere should feel "personally outraged" by injustice and the violation of human rights in the world, as a condition for redressing these wrongs:

8. One of the most important ways of building peace is through a form of globalization directed towards the interests of the whole human family. In order to govern globalization, however, there needs to be a strong sense of global solidarity between rich and poor countries, as well as within individual countries, including affluent ones. A “common code of ethics” is also needed, consisting of norms based not upon mere consensus, but rooted in the natural law inscribed by the Creator on the conscience of every human being (cf. Rom 2:14-15). Does not every one of us sense deep within his or her conscience a call to make a personal contribution to the common good and to peace in society? Globalization eliminates certain barriers, but is still able to build new ones; it brings peoples together, but spatial and temporal proximity does not of itself create the conditions for true communion and authentic peace. Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world's poor through globalization will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights. The Church, which is the “sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race” will continue to offer her contribution so that injustices and misunderstandings may be resolved, leading to a world of greater peace and solidarity.

Have we been sufficiently "personally outraged" by the events in Gaza?