Faith misused in Gaza's destruction

Dear Editor,

Whose God do you look to when you seek to justify starvation and mass slaughter?

Watching Gaza’s devastation, many have appealed to religion or history to rationalize what cannot be defended.  Some cite ancient suffering to excuse new atrocities, as if pain sanctifies more pain. 

In Peter Beinart’s powerful 2025 book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, he observes that sacred texts and memories of persecution have been weaponized to legitimize the destruction of another people.

It is not only some Jewish voices doing this.  Many American politicians have invoked faith and moral duty while supporting policies that have starved children and flattened homes.

If your faith demands silence before injustice or obedience to cruelty, perhaps it is not God you are following, but power cloaked in holiness.  If your God blesses hunger and rubble, then your prayers rise only to human authority, not to heaven.  

Terry Hansen

Milwaukee, WI