Will anyone listen to the UN?

We have seen the terrible scenes in Israel and Gaza as people from two differing lands attack each other with civilians in the main suffering the consequences.

The news is full of reports showing images from inside Israel and Gaza. It leaves the audience who rely on these images for their factual knowledge with a dilemma. Do they support one side or another? Do they label one side as terrorists or the other? Is one more entitled than the other to defend itself? Which side will the might of the West lend their support to? Well that one is quite an obvious answer. Then we have the Middle Eastern countries. It has always been a boiling point but today it has erupted into a situation, which could drag other nations along and have devastating consequences across the World.

Here in the West we have grown used to taking sides. We did not wait a moment before pledging our loyalty to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people depute the fact that many thousands of young Russians were being killed. We have been involved in Wars on foreign soil for centuries. The Royal Navy is preparing to send ships to the area as we speak.

The people of Gaza have been told to leave. Leave to where? They cannot even cross the borders surrounding Gaza or leave by the sea without some miracle of nature or of God’s choosing.

Two million people are trapped and about to be obliterated by Israel, the same nation, which has vehemently reminded us of the atrocities of the Holocaust.

The water and electricity supply has been turned off contravening the Geneva Convention leaving hospitals to watch women and children die. Revenge? Atonement? Just deserts?

The media and specifically the BBC have come in for criticism for not branding Hammas as terrorists. John Simpson squashes that argument when he points out that without the images from the BBC in Israel and in Gaza we would be none the wiser of the acts by both sides and it is for us not the BBC and for governments to attribute what they believe these people are.

The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. Now more than ever those involved in war and yes terrorism need to turn to the peacekeepers for some form of negotiated ceasefire to allow women and children, medical staff to exit Gaza.

An eye for an eye An eye for an eye” is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. That may be the preferred biblical response but there should also be attention paid to the 6th commandment where any nation or people have the slightest regard for the future of humanity.

Perhaps those with the power to stop the fighting on both sides will heed the words of the UN.