Bias

November 14, 2018

Recently, I’ve been having an email conversation with the chairperson of our Annual Conference’s Task Force on Peace with Justice in Palestine/Israel. This body of our denomination regularly speaks out on matters and events taking place in the Levant, inevitably siding with the Palestinians, never to my knowledge so much as acknowledging the legitimate right to self-defense Israel has, nor the common Palestinian chant of “Death to Israel!” Every pastor in our Conference received an email from this person encouraging us among other things, to once more condemn Israel for aggression against Palestinian children. 

When I mentioned the rockets and fire kites Hamas has sent into Israel, the response was that to her knowledge, no one had been injured by these attacks, and that my information obviously came from Israeli controlled media. Since most of the media reports of the events in that part of the world are clearly supportive of the Palestinians and critical of Israel, I wondered why, if Israel is indeed as she said, kidnapping and torturing Palestinian children, we haven’t heard about it. Given the biases of most media, they would be salivating like Pavlock’s dogs over such a story.

We have gone back and forth over this a couple times now, and although I strongly disagree with her, I am grateful tonight that we can discuss this in a civil manner. Too bad the same cannot be said of the players in that conflict. It’s hard to be civil when it’s your own rights and freedoms at stake.

The problem with these conversations is that one’s position depends entirely upon whose story one believes. The woman with whom I’ve been having this conversation cited Israeli offenses dating back to the birth of the nation in 1948 and the Six Day War of 1967. The former was met with immediate violence initiated by the surrounding Arab nations, and the latter was again incited by Israel’s neighbors’ determination to wipe Israel off the map. Unfortunately for the aggressors, neither time were they even remotely successful. I remember the Six Day War. Then as now, Israel’s right to exist is what was challenged. My partner in this conversation is apparently reading a different history than I remember.

I doubt if either of us will change our minds. I am willing to listen to what she says, and to research alternative accounts of events current and historical. But I do so with a certain amount of reserve. Bias is everywhere; our opinions are determined as much by our loyalties as by our learnings. I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue learning. I hope my friend on the other end of the emails is, too.