Starving mothers in Gaza

Today is mother's day and I have a heavy heart for more reasons than one. When we think of mothers we tend to think of kindness and compassion. There's a scripture that says when a child asks for bread will you give him a stone? 

It implies that since a parent has compassion on their child so does God have compassion on all of his children. Especially when they are starving. It concludes with do unto others as you would they do unto you for this is the law and the prophets. 

Again the parable of the good Samaritan comes to mind. We could easily retell it today as the good Palestinian or the good Jew. Samaritans were hated at the time so Christ picked someone the locals hated to shatter a stereotype. 

When we see a pregnant woman on the bus we instinctively rise to give her our seat because it's the right thing to do. It doesn't matter what race or religion she is. She's a mother and childbirth is a monumentous task. If it was up to men to give birth we'd hit zero population instantly. 

Up until recently I subscribed to a Palestinian news outlet on YouTube so I could get the other side of the story. The things the mainstream media wasn't telling us. Recently they posted a video of a Muslim extremist calling for a Jihad against all of Israel. That's exactly how we got into this mess. 

Was it an agent provocateur paid by Mosaad or was it just a small minded extremist shooting himself in the foot? It could have been either. I find myself having to unsubscribe to extremism on both sides of this and many other debates. 

Then I see John Rustad reposting a video on X of a Islamic extremist cursing the Jews glorifying martyrs and my heart breaks. After all the atrocities in Gaza this is all you can come up with? It reminded me of Marc Emery scouring the Internet for examples of extremism to justify his racism.

Obviously that Muslim was a whack job. Yet that doesn't change the facts. Yasir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin came to a landmark agreement called the Oslo accord. It was an inspired compromise that established peace. A Jewish extremist murdered Yitzhak Rabin and Mossad created an extremist group called Hamas to push Fatah and the PLO out of Gaza so they could sabotage that agreement and the peace it created.

The extended map of Israel was drawn long before the October 7th attack. Targeting aid workers, starving civilians, shooting children and civilians with drones is not acceptable. 

Sexually assaulting Palestinian prisoners is not acceptable. Raising a golden statue of Donald Trump on the graves of dead Palestinian children is not acceptable. It is all very unChristian. It is all an abomination just like censoring all the Jewish protests against Netanyahu in Israel is.

Don't scour the Internet for examples of extremism to justify your extremism. Scour the internet for examples of good and  godliness which includes compassion and justice.