The Vicar’s Corner

Statement on Israeli Aggression Against Lebanon

The AGCA Central Vicariate released the following statement on 16 July 2006

The AGCA deeply mourns the situation developing into a regional war in the Middle East, remembering that the God whom we all (whether Gnostic, Muslim, Christian, or Jewish) seek to worship is “life giving life” and “peace giving peace,” and war and destruction serve only their own twisted ends, wherever they rear their heads in the world today. We call on all sides of this developing conflict to pull back from the brink of annihilation and seek mutual peace.

However, we feel we must in a special way strongly condemn the unjustifiable aggression against the entire nation and people of Lebanon by the state of Israel, which is leaving this beautiful and historic country, which has suffered so much, in smoking ruins once again. Israeli military might has put its heavy boot on the neck of Lebanon many times in the past, and seems to be doing so again, but perhaps with the intention of spreading the conflict even beyond the borders of this beautiful country.

We are concerned in a particular way for the Druze communities of Lebanon, and for the Eastern Christians in Lebanon including the Maronite and Orthodox communities, and we are particularly remembering them in our prayers and thoughts, along with all the people of Lebanon and Israel.

We sympathize greatly with the Israeli people, and we strongly condemn the terrorist actions of groups including Hezbollah and Hamas, which are outrageous and disgusting. However, this does not give Israel a carte blanche to go around doing whatever it wants, battering small countries and weak nations simply because they are weak and small, and murdering vast numbers of innocent civilians who have nothing whatsoever to do with the bands of criminal terrorists that have been attacking northern Israel. Life is of infinite but also equal value: one Israeli life, one Israeli soldier is not worth the deaths of 100 Lebanese civilians; such a twisted mathematics of genocide leads only to destruction, hatred, and in a bizarre way (given the circumstances) a sort of fascistic ideology that seems to be driving this military aggression out of control.

Once again, we feel the need to strongly condemn both Hezbollah terrorism and the unjustifiable Israeli aggression against the innocent people of Lebanon. If you are in the United States, we encourage you to write to your Congressional representatives to call for the US to put direct pressure on Israel to accept the Lebanese offer of a complete and total ceasefire and lifting of the naval blockade on humanitarian grounds, so medical relief and humanitarian assistance can be provided to the innocent people of Lebanon as they bury the casualties inflicted by the Israeli war machine during the past week.

We close with the reminder from the sacred text of Melchizedek, that “the archons [servants of the demiurge], who are your enemies, made war.”