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Finding Unity
Connecting the pieces on the path to peace
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when faced with the headline, “Israel cuts off electricity in Gaza.” Your response may be influenced by many factors: alliances (religious, cultural, national), your knowledge of the history of Palestine and Israel, your awareness of the difference between Judaism and Zionism, your own lifestyle (i.e. what happens in your life when you lose electricity), what source you depend on for news, and your ability to think critically.
I ask this question not to judge people by their responses, but to remind myself (and to gently suggest that you ask yourself) why we mentally arrive at our opinions, and whether we have put any real thought into what we accept as the “truth” of the situation.
So, back to the cutting off the electricity in Gaza. For most of us living in the US, the lack of electricity is mostly an annoyance, and it is in most cases short-lived. Food in the freezer is lost, we can’t charge our tablets and smart phones (unless we have a charger that works through the car’s battery), we are temporarily too hot (no A/C) or too cold (no heat), we have to run to the store for ice to keep medication such as insulin safe . . . Basically, though, most of us will live through an electrical outage — it’s not a situation of life and death.
