Many of us have probably never read the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible. A bloody tale of slaughter and conquest, we shudder at the thought of God commanding a people to totally destroy another people, men, women, and children – and their cattle, too, but we are seeing in Gaza a replay of this bloody taking of the land.
Not being satisfied with only holding Gaza as it did before 2005, now under Netanyahu, the Israeli government is simply razing northern Gaza. This is more than military occupation. This is revisiting a Joshua style campaign to eradicate a people. Read the words of the right-wing in the Israeli government; they are clear about their intentions.
No foreign journalists are allowed in Gaza, and there is minimal reporting from the West Bank. We read the stories but are so caught up in our own Gaza-type disaster in the proposed budget which proposes to eradicate so many programs we will not have any poor with us. They’ll all be dead.
Prayer for the Day
Indeed, O God, Congress works in not so mysterious ways,
Removing from our Nation concern for the plight of the poor;
Overcome by the silence of Congress in response to our cry,
We turn inward feeling there is little, if any, recourse.
Searching for more than judgment which we know will come,
We scramble about in attempts to still show care.
In the name of the One who gives us strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We are "engaged in intense, large-scale combat in Gaza… We intend to take control of the entire territory. But we must proceed in a way that prevents anyone from stopping us."
Benjamin Netanyahu on social media Monday May 19
The professed concern with slackers sitting at home and enjoying their free Medicaid is a canard. The actual plan is to finance a tax cut that mainly benefits the affluent by taking away health insurance from people who have no other way to get it.
Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic, Monday May 19
Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delacies;
For like a hair in the throat are they. “Eat, drink!” they say to you but do not mean it.
You will vomit up the little you have eaten, and you will waste your pleasant words.
Proverbs 23: 6-8