Articles

by David Blewett
originally published as an NCLCI Backgrounder
August 1997

I have always recognized terrorism as a heinous criminal act against innocent people. Each attack has been like a kick in the chest that takes my breath away and steals any kind of happiness that I might have been feeling. But my reaction to last weeks’ terrorist bombs in the busy Mehane Yehuda market in central Jerusalem was different . . . my friend Petra was in the market when two bombs went off.

On Wednesday night, July 30, as I watched the news coverage of a bombing in Jerusalem, I heard the news reporter say that one victim “with burns over her entire body is a German woman who lived in Israel for twenty years.” When the report cut to someone speaking from a hospital bed I immediately recognized the voice but I could not recognize the picture. Her right hand and forearm looked like they were in a cast, her left arm was wrapped with the bandages used to dress serious burns and she seemed to be covered with a greasy ointment for her burns, her voice was muffled by an oxygen mask and she said that her left foot had been hurt. She looked like she had been through hell. Eventually, after seeing the pictures repeated on other news programs, it began to register that yes, underneath all the medication and bandages maybe I could recognize my friend.

It still seems beyond belief that Petra, a German Lutheran pastor, could be a victim of terrorist bombs. This remarkable person has worked in Israel for nearly twenty years to promote better understanding between Jews, Christians and Muslims as well as between Christians all over the world and Israel. The victimization of my friend, a true Christian peacemaker, made the horror of terrorism brutally real to me.

Several news stories about the day’s bombing closed with Petra saying that the “only thing people in Israel want is peace, the search for peace must proceed.” How she could maintain her composure after what she had been through I could not imagine, but even in that situation she delivered a clear message to the world.

Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, have the basic human right to live in a peaceful and secure environment, the same right as anyone else on the planet. Israel’s leaders, regardless of party affiliation, agree that no suicide bomber will take away the right of Jews, Christians or Muslims to live in a peaceful environment anywhere in the state of their choice, Israel. But this is precisely what Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others seek to deny. Their attitude has remained unchanged since the 1967 Conference of Arab leaders in Khartoum: No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel, No peace with Israel. It is normal peaceful life in Israel that is the target of terrorists. Human victims are the means to amplify the terrorists’ voice to a horrified world.

For Israel and the United States to now give up on the negotiations toward peace would grant victory to the terrorists who blew up the Mehane Yehuda market. It would mean that the innocent people who died in that attack as well as the other 218 Israelis who have been killed since the Declaration of Principles were signed in 1993 all died for nothing. It would mean that the innumerable victims who have survived suffer for no purpose. Such thinking is grotesque; there must be peace.

On the other hand, it is the unspeakable suffering of innocent people that makes the decision to persevere with the peace process so terribly difficult and heroic for the leaders who are responsible for the decision. It also explains why Israel has no choice but to proceed cautiously towards peace while prodding the Palestinian Authority to be more involved in security measures. To hurry into an agreement runs the risk of ending up with a peace treaty without a real peace. Those critics demanding that Israel move more quickly towards accommodating Palestinian demands are minimizing or completely disregarding the threat that fanatics pose to Israel and all Israelis, including the substantial numbers of Palestinians in Israel and under PA control, who truly want peace.

The goal of the negotiations is to end the war declared on Israel by the Arab nations in 1948. Negotiations toward peace must continue; there is no other logical alternative. That was the message that, so badly burned by the latest terrorist bombs, Petra delivered to the world from her hospital bed.