The conscience of humanity is haunted by the Israeli army's massive killing of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. U.S. President Donald Trump and the Israeli government look as if they were deliberately striving to cause humanity profound suffering. During the U.S. embassy's opening ceremony in Jerusalem, which was indisputably a provocation, Gaza turned into a bloodbath as part of their mission to turn the Middle East into an inferno. It is not possible for the common sense of humanity to accept what has happened. We have witnessed two different pictures that were taken at the same time. Compared to each other, it is not possible to believe that the two scenes are located only 50 kilometers away from each other. On one hand, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Benjamin Netanyahu were jubilantly celebrating the embassy's opening with smiles on their faces – like no innocent people were being killed just a few miles away from them. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israeli forces were killing civilian protesters. Even Israeli media outlets could not remain silent to this atrocity. Haaretz, for instance, condemned the mass killings harshly.
Dear friends from the East and West, we need to get rid of overgeneralizing views to save the world from its current condition. We cannot put the entire U.S., Israel and the Muslim world in the same equation. Trump is currently under the influence of marginal evangelist ambitions to secure his power and vote share. To illustrate, two radical evangelists led the prayers in the opening ceremony in Jerusalem: Robert Jeffress, an evangelical pastor from Dallas, and Pastor John C. Hagee, who founded the pro-Israel organization "Christians United for Israel."
In an interview he gave in 2010, Jeffress remarked the following words, "Islam is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of hell" and "you can't be saved by being a Jew." He is a radical figure contending that all faiths other than Christianity lead people away from God and builds an impassable wall between God and people in hell.
Hagee, on the other hand, said that the hurricane that struck New Orleans and killed more than 1,000 people in 2005 was God's judgment against the city to punish the sinners. What he said about Muslims is even more scandalous. In an interview, he argued that all Muslims dream of killing Christians and Jews and occupying the U.S. and Israel. Also, his remarks about Hitler led to a public outcry. Hagee said that Hitler fulfilled God's will for Israel with the Holocaust. Despite all his odious remarks, Israel is currently embracing Hagee due to their shared interests. It is hard to tell the difference between this mindset and that of Daesh. Unfortunately, these two extreme stances harbor each other whereas the hawkish Israeli government is inviting conflicts. Meanwhile, the severe responses against Israel are growing.
So far, the only resolute voice has been raised by Turkey while the rest of the Muslim world has remained silent and passive. For example, Egypt did not allow the landing of the aircraft Ankara wanted to send to treat the wounded. Despite all of this, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is determined. After meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
These meetings are of vital importance since the world needs to act in unison regarding the latest killings. If Turkey mobilizes such a common position and the United Nations takes action to make a change, a trajectory of positive change might be achieved. To that end, all the consciences haunted by the current atrocities must unite by putting political disagreements aside.
