Matthew 24 6-8

⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: ⁸ all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs.

According to Wisevoter.com there are currently 32 countries presently at war, most of them at war with themselves in civil: terrorist, political, and drug wars and this does not include the recent conflict in Israel. The passage in Matthew is most commonly thought of as a prophesy of an apocolyptic end time, but my feeling is more of disappointment in ourselves as people. We are all forgetting the progress we have made together. We are drifting backwards into scarcity patterns of thought, when we are ready to do violence to all people we identify as ‘them’ to protect the people we identify with as ‘us’.

The conflict in Israel (Gaza) is particularly damning, and unique in war as the general population has been oppressed by both an occupying power and their own political leadership for decades. Now this low level conflict has escalated, and there is nowhere to go. In all other conflicts, there has been somewhere to flee, to escape, but not in this war.

For several years, I have advocated among my small circle of friends, that the United States should allow anyone in territories controlled by the state of Israel asylum with a roadmap to full naturalized citizenship in the United States. This offer of asylum should be understood as part of the security guarantees made to support the State of Israel.

Everyone living in Israel is a veteran. The members of the military organizations on all sides. The civilian populations in all the countries of the region. I wish that all veterans could put down our weapons, so that we all may use our brief time on this good earth to work with and support each other.