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# 📧 to CFOIC
- URL: https://gijustice.com/20070102-sondra-cfoic/
- Published: 2007-01-02T08:01:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-20T00:13:01.000Z
- Author: Logan M Isaac
- Tags: CFOIC, Sondra Oster Baras, Palestine

Yesterday I returned from a Christian missions conference in St. Louis. While I was there, I learned a lot more about the evolving conflict in the Middle East. In one of the general sessions, I heard something that stuck out to me, though I don't remember the context within which it was used. Speaking about visiting despairing peoples around the world, they said;

*"We often adopt the biases and attitudes of these people toward their oppressors."*  
  
I think I understand more fully now what you meant when you told me that you felt I came to the discussion with an opinion already formed, and why you may have thought that that opinion would not change.

It is true that I came to our discussion with an idea about what I thought the conflict was about and who was responsible for what. However, as I told Becca, I want my biases to be destroyed. In our meeting, I was hurt because I found many of the negative biases regrettably confirmed. This is not to say that you are like every other settler, or that you fulfilled every misconception that I had been taught about Israeli settlers. It is simply to say that I wanted to believe you were something you may not be, and that I had no right to shape you into a stereotypically cookie cutter shape in my mind. I do, though, wish more of my questions were answered directly, which would have done much in destroying the misconceptions I held about the settlement movement.

I realize my biases, but I try to seek truth objectively. The only way to move forward in knowing that is to acknowledge those biases and to try to remain true to the actual facts despite my own feelings about the issue. Yes, Hamas must change their ways. Yes, suicide bombings and continued rocket attacks are horrific and violate international laws of warfare. Yes, the PLO had a history of corruption. However, one cannot excuse Israel's own responsibility in the matter; the wall does not follow recognized borders and is a suspiciously poor route for security purposes, home demolition irrefutably discriminates against Palestinian property above Israeli property, and Israel is breaking international law in administering their domestic law to an occupied territory.

However hard people around me try, I willfully refuse to allow imposed stereotypes to keep me from seeing the tzelem elohim in every human being. Should I allow myself to be shaped by what others think of people they do not understand, I would not be living very honestly with myself or before God. For example, should I accept what many white Americans said about Martin Luther King or some British loyalists said about Ghandi, I might very well be inclined to kill them as well. Should I accept everything that I had heard and saw of Israeli settlers, I would be justifiably repulsed by the idea of meeting with you. But I wasn't. I wanted to understand you, not to hold you guilty for everything others might claim you are responsible for, being a settler.

My efforts are usually spent breaking stereotypes; trying to figure out how to see people as God sees them, which isn't always how Man sees them. Man might see a terrorist, but God might see a culturally humiliated and spiritually frustrated child who simply wants his family to live in comfort and peace. Man might see a religiously ideological settler bent on killing or humiliating the people who are on land that doesn't "belong" to them, but God might see a child who sees their people victimized by indiscriminate violence and does not see how else to keep violence from occurring than to return it with more violence. Man might see a coward who will do anything to avoid deploying to Iraq, but God might see a child willing to do anything and go anywhere to follow His commands and love His children as He loves Israel, even people Man teaches him to fear.

I stand by a vast majority of the arguments I stated in my last email, though I am less than proud of the way I presented them. It was inappropriate to use such harsh language in my conclusion, and for that I apologize. If you do not feel comfortable responding to me, I understand and support your decision. However, I am reminded that I have actually learned the most from people I do not agree with, and I think that you and I have much to learn from one another. Truth be told, I was nervous going into our meeting because of encounters I had with settlers in Hebron. Nevertheless, it would be in poor character if I held you guilty for their actions. In the same way, I would fail in my objective search for truth had I held every Palestinian guilty for what only a few had desperately resorted to.

I am compelled to act against my fears and judgmentalism because I do not want to feel like I am hiding behind a curtain of lies or propaganda. I am thankful that I have been able to overcome my fears; I have learned so much as a result of confronting issues and people I am taught to fear or to keep at a distance. In this way, I refuse to pass that fear on to others, including what the Moshiach called 'the least of these.' He said "anyone who causes one of these to sin (Luke 17:1&2, Mark 9:42, Matthew 18:5&6)" is deserving of the worst punishment imaginable. I do not want to be a party to passing such fear and animosity onto my children, Palestinian children, or Israeli children.

Please accept my apology for the language I used and my inability to speak the truth in a considerate manner. As I have said, I do not blame you for not wishing to keep in touch, though I would welcome any correspondence we might share, as I know I would be a better person for learning from what you have to offer. I hope that you will consider what I have said and may approach anything we do not agree on against the truth of God's word. If you should find anything that I must reflect on, I would like to hear from you.

Sincerely,  
Logan Laituri