Women react outside St Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza October 20, after an explosion went off the night before. Several hundred people had been sheltering at the church complex, many of them sleeping, at the time of the explosion. The Hamas Ministry of Interior in Gaza blamed the explosion on an Israeli airstrike but responsibility for it had not yet been independently verified. Photo: OSV News/Mohammed Al-Masri, Reuters Wars, especially in the 21st Century, are fought on multiple levels. Beyond what happens on the battlefield, there’s also the ‘soft power’ contest to claim the high moral ground, and in that sense, one of the emerging fronts in the bloody conflict in Gaza now pits Israel against the Christian leadership of the Holy Land.…
John L. Allen Jr.