THE Gregorian calendar of the Western Churches and the Julian calendar of the Russian Orthodox do not usually align. But, this year, Palm Sunday was the same date in both traditions, although in Moscow it is called the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. They bless willow branches, not palms, but it has the same mystical mix of joy and foreboding.
It was all the more heinous — sacrilegious, even — for President Putin to choose that day to rain down cluster bombs on a civilian Ukrainian city where people were at prayer. A hundred people were injured, and 34 died, among them the heart-wrenchingly talented organist Olena Kohut, whose friends posted a poignant video of her playing Josef Rheinberger’s meditative Visione.
On the same day, Israel bombed the Anglican-run Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, destroying the intensive-care unit, and damaging the Church of St Philip near by. Videos showed hospital orderlies pushing patients in beds through the midnight streets, panicking wheelchair-users, and a man on crutches hobbling desperately from the doomed building. A child being treated for head injuries died in the rushed evacuation.
Moscow attempted no justification for its action. The Israeli army, which issued a 20-minute warning before bombing, claimed that the hospital contained a “command and control centre used by Hamas” to “plan and execute terrorist plots”. But it offered zero evidence. Israel’s unsubstantiated justifications for its actions are becoming harder to take at face value. Its good faith has been called into question again by the discrediting of its account of its assault on Red Crescent ambulances. Video and forensic evidence suggests that paramedics were murdered one by one.
There is a difference, of course. Russia is an unprovoked aggressor, whereas Israel was initially defending itself against a brutal and callous attack on innocent civilians by Hamas. But Israel and Russia have both been reckless and ruthless in the way in which they have conducted their wars.
The other common factor is the influence of President Trump. It is now hard to escape the conclusion that Benjamin Netanyahu’s scorched-earth policy in Gaza may actually be aimed at clearing the Palestinians out to make way for President Trump to build his threatened beachfront paradise on top of mass graves and shattered lives. The US President’s blundering attempts to bring peace to Ukraine seem to be prolonging the war, instead of ending it. President Putin is only emboldened as he makes a mockery of Mr Trump’s campaign-trail boast that he can force a swift peace.
This is the fifth time, the diocese in Jerusalem says, that their hospital in Gaza has been bombed. Médecins Sans Frontières lists 49 other assaults on hospitals and medics by the Israeli military since the start of the war.
This week, at the eighth Station of the Cross, we will be reminded how Jesus tells the women of Jerusalem to weep not for him, but for themselves and their children. In peacetime, his words seem a gesture of solidarity with those who suffer, spoken selflessly as God incarnate is about to undergo the greatest suffering himself. This year, Christ’s words sound less like succour and more like an admonition. They, sadly, go unheard in both Moscow and Jerusalem.
