How exactly does one own a strip of land? What grants this people, diverse in both genes and thought, rights over this land? How has it “always been your strip of land” when it used to belong to the Romans? Who owns America? Or Britain? Or Germany? Nobody owns land. Certainly not by virtue of birth or faith.

And as for Israel being a defensible safe space, as I said, Jews live all over the world. And the place they're in the most danger, by far, is Israel.

As I'm sure you know, Gaza has a population of around 2.3 million people. Around 30,000 of those are Hamas. So just over 1%. Yet water and electricity and supplies have been cut off to all of Gaza. All of Gaza is under blockade and has been for decades. Almost all of Gaza, far more than 1.3%, is being bombed into oblivion. Collective punishment is a term of international law. You don't get to dismiss it as disingenuous because it doesn't paint Israel in a positive light.

And killing innocent civilians in Gaza doesn't "protect your people." It puts them in danger as surely and predictably as Hamas' atrocities put Palestinians in Gaza in danger. You can't bomb your way out of this problem.

So I join you in praying for peace. It doesn't require a miracle, just common sense, honesty, and a willingness to look at this situation from a perspective other than your own. I'm still just about optimistic enough to believe that doesn't qualify as a miracle.