The policy of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth“ threatens to kill us all.
Jews and Muslim extremists are locked in an interminable war. Hamas viciously attacks Israel, and Israel exacts terrible vengeance. Tens of thousands of innocent Gazans are slaughtered by Israeli bombs. Hezbollah murders innocent children in the Golan territories, and Israel attacks Lebanon. Israel even violates Iranian sovereignty to kill the leader of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, who had just attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president. These are dangerous times.
Peace eludes the Middle East because the only one who can bring peace is rejected. 2,000 years ago, the Jewish Prince of Peace Jesus Christ was rejected and crucified by the Jewish hierarchy. The present leadership in Israel still considers the GREATEST JEW to be a fraud and impostor. Muslims accept Jesus as a prophet but cannot accept that he died for our sins on the cross. So two great peoples, Jews and Arabs, struggle to coexist while seeking an advantage over the other. Hate like a plague of death continues to spread. Antisemitism, a sin that can never be justified, parades on the streets and college campuses of America. A hatred of the Palestinians, an oppressed people, is justified on the grounds that Muslim terrorists continue to attack Jews.
Will the hate and vengeance never end? How can it? Jesus is the only one who can bring peace to hurting and hating hearts. After all, HE taught that “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” belonged to a past era of spiritual immaturity. He came with a new message. Not only did the Jewish Jesus tell us to love our neighbors, he told us to love our enemies. That takes an enormous amount of grace, and the warring Middle East will remain a violent place while he is rejected by both Jews and Gentiles. The good news is that you and I can break free from the vicious circle of hate and vengeance. Forgiveness to our enemies is the gift of Jesus and works wonderfully when practiced.
— John Carter
