Make no mistake about it: I believe in the sanctity and inherent equality of human life. Accordingly, I am a pacifist. I oppose war, capital punishment, and policies of all government entities that cause unnecessary human deaths. Accordingly, I oppose what appears to me to be the genocidal warfare of the State of Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
As a pacifist, I condemned the 7 October 2023 attack of Hamas on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel. I also vehemently condemn the retaliatory warfare of Israel that to date has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, a large percentage of whom are women and children. Thus, I agree with Britain, France, and Canada who have recently called the Israeli plans for the escalation of the war against Hamas “disproportionate” and “egregious” at a time when the U.N. is warning that Palestinians in Gaza are at great risk of famine. (See this NY Times article.)
As a pacifist, I also vehemently condemn the murder of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., on May 21. Sarah Milgrim, the young woman killed, was from Johnson County, Kansas, in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Kansas City Star appropriately noted the outpouring of sympathy for her family and friends for their great loss.
Concurrently, I also censure Israel’s ongoing warfare in Gaza. PBS News reported that on May 20, Israel launched airstrikes that killed at least 85 Palestinians, many of whom most likely were women and children.
As an egalitarian, I firmly believe that the lives of each Palestinian killed this week were as sacred as the lives of the two Embassy staff members. The outrage against the murder of the young couple in D.C. is completely warranted. But indignation against the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is often muted by charges of antisemitism.
On May 16, New York University said it is withholding the diploma of a student who used his commencement speech to condemn Israel’s war in Gaza and what he referred to as the U.S.’ “complicity in this genocide.” The same thing has happened more recently at George Washington University. (See the Washington Post articles here and here.)
Is the murder of two prominent people in D.C. more reprehensible than the wanton killing of tens of thousands in Gaza? I think not since I abhor the willful taking of human life anywhere for any reason.
The cold-blooded killing of the Israeli staff has widely been called another example of antisemitism in the U.S. For example, the day following the D.C. shootings, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), said, “Last night, just a few blocks from here at the Capital Jewish Museum, the scourge of antisemitism reared its ugly head yet again in America. The sickening, cold-blooded murder of two Jewish staffers from the Israeli embassy seems to be another horrific incident of antisemitism, which we all know is too rampant in our society.”
But was the shooting really because of antisemitism? I doubt it. The shooter reportedly shouted, “Free, free Palestine!” while in custody. He didn’t shout, “Kill, kill Jews!” He is also reported to have declared, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” At this point, there is no indication whatever that he harbored hostility toward Jews in the U.S.
I certainly don’t doubt that there has long been antisemitism (=prejudice against or hatred of Jews) in the U.S. and in the broader world, and I deplore all prejudice against and mistreatment of Jews, past or present—as well as all prejudice against and mistreatment of any other religious, ethnic, or cultural demographic.
However, I also think the treatment of Palestinian people since the Nakba began on May 15, 1948, is equally deplorable. (For detailed information about the Nakba, click here.)
So, whether you agree with me or not, I hope you will carefully consider my main assertion: it is not antisemitic to oppose Israel’s warfare against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. And please join me in prayer that the hostilities there will soon come to an end.
The View from This Seat (supplementary blog) 
Debra Sapp-Yarwood, my good friend and fellow church member, sent me the following comments with permission to post them here.
“Leroy, your words are well measured and present a valid opinion. I also happen to agree with you.
“It makes me sad to have to say you are also courageous. In this country opinions have been protected, until recently. Under the reign of 47, If you or your blog are on the “wrong” radar, someone may try to have your blog taken down or otherwise silenced.
“As you know, I haven’t always agreed with you, but I have always treasured your right to express your opinions.”
Thanks, Debra, for reading my rather hastily written post and for your words of affirmation–and warning. But I am not worried about repercussions. For example, Mark Wingfield is the executive director of the Baptist News Global website, and two days ago he posted the following article that I wanted to introduce in my blog post today. I do encourage you to read it:
Huckabee: Israel bears no blame for 50,000 dead Palestinians
This afternoon I received the following comments from Dr. Vern Barnet, a long-time leader of interfaith dialogue in Kansas City:
“Thanks, Leroy. Hatred of Jews has for decades been conflated with any criticism, whatsoever, of the Israeli government. It is hard to think clearly with such purposeful confusion from some American Jewish leaders forced on the rest of us. It’s a political, not religious, impulse. The refusal to seek to understand why the situation looks like genocide and apartheid to many of us betrays the long and distinguished history of American Jews working for justice, equality, and peace.”
Thanks, Vern, for clearly pointing out the egregious error of so many people who conflate antisemitism (=”hatred of Jews”) with criticism of the current Israeli government. And I also appreciate you mentioning another important aspect that I did not note, namely, “the long and distinguished history of American Jews working for justice, equality, and peace.”
This morning, Dr. Jerry Summers, who was long a college professor in Texas and is now retired in eastern Tennessee, shares these comments:
“Thank you for your pointed and revelatory comments on Gaza and Israel. More and more I see that mutual murder through the lens of insights inhering with the spear-minded Cain and his futile brother Abel; there, murder was urgent, evidently felt to be necessary. Other brothers found a way past retaliation. I refer to Isaac and Esau; grace, maybe, but the better part of brotherhood even if they did not walk the same paths. There’s some of it in Joseph of Egypt’s ultimate responses to his vile brothers.
“I am taking part in a study at church that examines Dan Snyder’s explanations of the ‘Domination System’ (Praying in the Dark), its ungracious and bloody nature, its sense of the urgent necessity to deliver death as if there were no other option (National Israel and Palestinians, among others.) There is nothing of the ‘participation system’ that avoids ‘all or nothing’ and is more likely to provide security—that is to say actual peace, not just the loss of active conflict, among brothers. Caring enough to compromise requires an immensity of spirit that must flow through us, or anyone, if destruction is to be foiled.
“Incarnational Christianity teaches this too—is all about this, I trust.
“I see nothing of caring and immensity of spirit in the totalism of present national Israel or of the Palestinians. I see little or none of it in the American application of the domination system, whether politically or religiously of the far right or the far left, and whether in support of either side in that dismal and sad, and old, system of fratricide. There is no perfect ‘right’ here.
“Scripture really finds no good death apart from dying for one’s brother; the alternative is heinous.”
This morning, I accessed my local library’s website in order to put Snyder’s book on hold, and i discovered that the title is Praying in the Night.
I also received the following comments his morning from Dr. Virginia Hurt Belk in New Mexico:
“I agree that it is not antisemitic to oppose Israel’s warfare against the Palestinians in Gaza. I was interested to note in something I recently read that the nation of Israel was formed by taking land from Palestine. In 1947, that was true. As Abba Eben points out (Heritage: Civilization and the Jews; Summit Books, New York, 1984) everywhere the Jewish people tried to settle, they eventually were pushed into tiny, confined spaces or forced to relocate to spaces no local people wanted. As is common in that part of the world, fighting to the death for revenge against an atrocity, has perpetuated. Perhaps if Abraham and Sarah had remained where they were instead of relocating in the land of Ur, the situation would be different today.
“I had hope for peace, respect for the other, and living side by side when Sadat and Arafat shook hands at a meeting hosted by Jimmy Carter. However, that hope shattered years ago when Israel did not honor the PLO and allow for election of a president, nor for completing the formation of Palestine as a country, as had been agreed.
“I oppose the lop-sided assistance our nation is giving Israel in the current war. I oppose war. I think Palestine has a right to exist in peace, just as Israel does. The Palestinian people are being punished by Israel for mistakes a Palestinian political group made, which is just as horrible. My mother often said, ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’.”
And then here are brief comments from Rev. Jeanie McGowan in central Missouri:
“I totally agree with you, my friend. We are so topsy turvy and upside down in our thinking as a nation these days. When will it ever end?”
I had an unsettling experience Thursday. I was walking with my wife to an appointment, when we came to a little library. We stopped so she could check for any book she wanted to read. Later she told me she was surprised at a number of religion and philosophy books in the library, so we stopped again on the way back so I could look. Well, there was a whole row of books on Kabbalah, and, by itself, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work by Jimmy Carter. So much pain in a little library. I took an introduction book on Kabbala and Jimmy Carter.Someone, I assume Jewish, seemed to have lost faith over Gaza. I thought of AIPAC, largely funded by the military-industrial complex, which even attacks progressive Jews when they call for peace in Gaza and the West Bank. Those books were too much for someone to hold. I will try to hold them for them.
If only Israel were to look back to Ezra and Nehemiah when Jews returned to Israel after only 70 years in Babylon, rather than to the Amalekites to guide them after being gone for two millennia. The Palestinians may well be the closest living relatives of the Jews. Among their ancestors are the Jewish peasants left behind on the land when all the prominent people were banished by the Romans. I suspect I found the books I did in the little library because someone looked at Israel and saw nothing but a future of death and destruction for all concerned.
Well, I (Craig) am back with an epilogue. My Kabbalah book turned out to have a return address label in it, and when I did a search I found an obituary from last year for Rev. Diane S. Nagorka, Ph.D. “In her work and teaching, Rev. Diane wove together concepts in Theosophy, Spiritualism, and the mystical teachings of world religions.” She had an address in Bethany Beach, Delaware, and was active in Washington, DC, so I suppose her book ended up in Oregon when some child or grandchild decided it was time to pass it on. She moved to Bethany Beach in 1996 where she remained active until she died at age 99 in 2024.
What is interesting is that Becky played a similar character years ago in the play Eleemosynary. There were three characters, the spiritualist, Dorothea, whom Becky played, her somewhat cynical scientist daughter, and the spelling champ granddaughter who won her title by spelling “eleemosynary.” I have no idea whether the play was based on Rev. Diane, but it sure feels like I have gone some kind of full circle. It was written by Lee Blessing, and came out in 1985, during Rev. Diane’s time as a major force in the “New Age” movement. So perhaps no Jews lost faith in my finding of the books!
Thanks, Craig, for sharing these comments about what you found in the little library. I was especially interested in your finding Jimmy Carter’s 2009 book there. I have not read it, but June and I read and were very favorably impressed with his prior book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which (according to Wikipedia) “provoked significant debate in the United States. In 2008, he was disinvited from speaking at the Democratic National Convention, reportedly due to his outspoken criticism of Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Locally, when I spoke appreciatively of that book in the book discussion group you and I were a part of at 2BC, one of the members of that group vehemently disagreed with my praise of Carter and his book.
Saturday evening, I was pleased to receive the following comments from Carole Zahnd, a progressive Baptist friend in Kansas City whom I had not heard from for quite some time.
“I agree with you entirely. I have read extensively about this issue. I had a friend, now deceased, who was a Methodist pastor. The Methodists have been opponents of the way the Palestinians have been treated by the govt of Israel. The way they have been treated in the West Bank is horrible. Also, within Israel itself, Arab citizenship is in jeopardy or nonexistent. Amb. Huckabee believes the Bible literally and thinks all land is Israel’s. I make a big distinction between the govt and ‘Jews’.”
Thanks, Carole, for your comments. I appreciate your mentioning Ambassador Huckabee, with whom I strongly disagree as you apparently do. (You probably saw Mark Wingfield’s powerful post about that on May 21. It can, which can be accessed here: Huckabee: Israel bears no blame for 50,000 dead Palestinians.
The distinction you make between the current Israeli government and Jews in general is also an important point.
Here is the link to a long, significant article published on the May 29 Washington Post website regarding the genocide Israel is waging against the Palestinians in Gaza:
https://wapo.st/3HtFLck