The Harsh Images from Gaza

The harsh images from Gaza — crying children, stunned women, broken elders, dust, hunger, stone houses turned to ruins — recall a very ancient image, engraved in cold metal: a series of commemorative coins minted by the Romans after their victory over the Jews in the Great Revolt.

On those coins, Judea appears as a seated woman, bent, mourning, humiliated, captive under a palm tree. Beside her stands the Roman soldier, upright, victorious, armed, in power. The coin is not only a record of military victory; it is a record of a mental state. It tells the world: behold Judea. Behold the people who rebelled. See how we bent them. See how we turned their pain into a symbol of our greatness.

And perhaps the most terrible thing about those coins is not the victory itself, but the commemoration. Not only the war, but the pride in the war. Not only the blood, but its transformation into propaganda.

And today, when we look at Gaza, it is hard not to see the horrifying reversal: the people who were once humiliated on Roman coins, the people who remembered Captive Judea, the people who wept over the destruction of Jerusalem and exile for two thousand years — today stand on the side of power, on the side of the coin, on the side of the victor seeking to show the world his strength, his arm, his control, his wrath.

Indeed, one should not simply compare that Roman cruelty with today’s reality. Rome was an idolatrous empire, cruel, thirsty for control, which trampled nations mercilessly and made humiliation a political tool. But precisely because of this, we must be alarmed by the spiritual similarity: the hardness of heart, the absolute confidence in power, the ability to look at a person’s misery and call it a “feat,” “deterrence,” “a picture of victory,” “operational control.”

Is this why we returned to the land? After two thousand years of exile, after prayers, Holocaust, blood, wanderings, yearning, and supplication — did we return here to be a little Rome? To mint new coins, not in silver and copper but in images, videos, IDF spokesperson announcements, victory headlines, photos of destruction, mocking a broken enemy?

We are roughly at the same chapter in the revival of a second Jewish kingdom in the Land of Israel. Then too, Judea was confident in its righteousness. Then too, there were leaders, priests, factions, zealots, people of power, people of speech, people with a false political vision. Then too, it seemed possible to bend reality by force. Then too, the voices of wisdom were not heard enough. Then too, pride devoured the house from within before the enemy conquered it from outside.

And here stands the great disgrace: Israel does not stand alone. It leans on a foreign kingdom. On the very same imperial pattern from which we were supposed to learn caution. We lean on America as if it were the Rock of Israel and its Redeemer; as if the money, the planes, the bombs, the Security Council veto, and the embrace in the White House are an eternal guarantee of our existence.

But America is not God. And it is not here to remain forever by our side. America is a broken reed support, and until then it acts and will continue to act primarily for itself.

The alliance between Israel and the United States is not only a security alliance. It is a consciousness, economic, religious, and strategic alliance. On one hand — American interests in controlling the region, the Middle East, energy, trade routes, the balance of power against Iran, Russia, and China. On the other hand — deep evangelical streams that see Israel as a tool within a Christian messianic vision that does not necessarily understand the sanctity of Jewish life, and does not necessarily seek the good of Israel as a living people, but Israel as a symbol within a redemption story that is not ours.

And so the people sitting in Zion find themselves paying in money, blood, their children, and their souls for an unclean alliance. An alliance that strengthens false security. An alliance that habituates us not to see the limits of our power. An alliance that teaches us to believe that as long as America is behind us — we may go to the extreme.

But not forever.

The hour of the United States as the sole global leader is weakening. The world is changing. Old orders are crumbling. New powers are rising. New alliances are being woven. Even Western research institutes have described in recent years a world becoming multipolar, in which the United States is no longer able to shape the global order alone as it did after the Cold War.

And what will remain then for Israel? What will remain for a people accustomed to relying on American fighter jets instead of righteousness and justice? What will remain for a state that learned to measure security by missile numbers, arms stockpiles, defense budgets, and firepower — and not by the trust of the land’s inhabitants, clean hands, justice, compassion, humility, and fear of One God?

The people think the global bully will save them. But the bully grows tired. The bully ages. The bully is entangled in its wars, debts, internal divisions, and the world’s hatred of it. And whoever hung their security on the bully will find themselves on the day of reckoning alone, exposed, naked, and defenseless.

And on this it is said:

"And I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood; and I said to you, ‘In your blood is your life.’"

Then all the accumulated rage in the Middle East, all the spilled blood, all the humiliation, all the images, all the children, all the mothers, all the ruins, all the open graves — all these may return as a flood without limit.

This is not a call to hate Israel.

This is a warning against its destruction!

This is not schadenfreude — this is a cry!

Whoever loves the land must tell it the truth. Whoever loves Israel must rend their garments before its pride. Whoever believes in the God of Israel must know that He does not tolerate innocent blood, and is not appeased by temples, flags, anthems, and speeches when the land is full of violence.

The prophets did not warn only the nations. They warned us. They did not shout only at Babylon, only at Assyria, only at Egypt, only at Rome. They shouted first and foremost at Jerusalem. At the princes. At the priests. At the judges. At the people who say “The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD” while their hands are full of blood.

And this is the warning for our days: Do not turn Gaza into the new Judea coin. Do not turn the misery of human beings into a symbol of victory. Do not rejoice in bent knees. Do not see a hungry child as proof of strength. Do not call destruction “policy.” Do not call pride “security.”

For the people who were captive under Rome are not permitted to turn another’s captives into the glory of their power.

The people who knew exile are not permitted to forget the face of the exile.

The people who wept “How lonely sits the city” are not permitted to look upon another ruined city and not hear the same word rising from the dust: How.

But the blood is not abandoned. The blood is not permission. The blood is not a national decoration. The blood is a call. The blood is testimony. The blood is a gateway to repentance — or a gateway to destruction.

Therefore seek repentance before it is too late.

Not a repentance of words. Not a repentance of spokespersons. Not a repentance of empty investigative committees. Not a repentance that blames only the current government and clears the entire people. But a repentance of truth: to stop the war, to return the captives, to stop the cult of power, to recognize responsibility, to dismantle the messianic-military dependence on America, and to build in this land a new order of ONE LAW, ONE LAND, and ONE GOD.

For not Rome will save us.
Not America will save us.
Not the planes will save us.
Not pride will save us.

Only righteousness and justice.
Only truth.
Only repentance.
Only God.