Pray for the Palestinians

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I found myself reading an incendiary, deceitful opinion piece on Al-Jazeera. And then instead of escaping the garbage they spew out, I started debating one of the commentors, an ardent pro-Palestinian who calls himself Anatole Pushkin. He wrote back to me as follows:

Tell that to the massacred Palestinian women and their infants.
I see with my own eyes what the Zionists have been doing...if you want peace, protect life. Pray for the Palestinians.

The thing is, I do pray for the Palestinians.

I pray that they be spared from the Hamas, who knew with absolutely certainty that if they continue firing rockets, eventually there would be a massive retaliation to put a stop to Hamas terror. Instead of building civilian bomb shelters, they took 800,000 tons of concrete and went about building terror tunnels, burrowing themselves out of reach and leaving Gaza's civilians exposed.

I  pray that Gazans who are not bent on killing Israelis are able to speak out against Hamas, without fearing for their lives.

I pray that the Palestinians in Gaza make a decision to start making Gaza flourish, rather than blaming Israel for all their woes.

I pray that the IDF is successful in its extraordinary efforts to minimize civilian casualties, without compromising its offensive against Hamas terrorists.

And I'm not the only one praying for the Palestinians. Binyamin Netanyahu closed the last cabinet meeting with the following remarks:

"Please pray this will all end quickly. Please pray for calm to be restored. And please pray for mercy for Israelis and Palestinians. It is so painful to see the suffering and trauma on both sides. The Bible commands us to pray for peace — let us be faithful."