Stop. Listen. Read.

When it comes to the bloodletting in Gaza between Jews and Palestinians, you’ll hear an opinion everywhere you turn.

“It’s the Palestinians’ fault. The terrorists who live among them slaughtered more than 1,000 innocent Israeli men, women and children.”

“No, it’s the Israelis’ fault. They have long oppressed and abused the Palestinians in Gaza, who only want to reclaim their homeland.”

“Homeland? It’s the Jews’ homeland, and has been since the days of Moses.”

Keep listening, and you will also hear: that America should do more to help Israel win this war that it did not start; that America should be sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians; that Hamas murdered Israeli families in their beds, butchering young and old alike; that Israel’s counterattack has killed thousands more people than the number who died at the hands of the terrorists; that Israel is committing war crimes as it bombs neighborhoods and refugee camps in the name of tracking down and eradicating Hamas; and that Hamas is also committing war crimes as it uses civilian hostages as human shields.

In the United States, we condemn the violence, choose sides, demand action from our government and bicker among ourselves over who’s right and who’s wrong.

And we ask ourselves: Will there — can there — ever be peace in that region? If the answer is no, then what happens next? If it cannot broker a diplomatic solution, then can the United States somehow keep the conflict from evolving into a broader regional war that undermines global stability and rattles the global economy while perpetuating the suffering?

Perhaps you strongly support one side or the other. Maybe you have kinfolk in Israel or Gaza, and you’ve donated money to or demonstrated on behalf of the side you favor. Or perhaps like me, you are an American Christian who feels an affinity with the Jewish people and hopes Congress will support Israel with money and weapons.

But while we debate among ourselves over which side is right, which side has behaved egregiously, which side should make concessions and which side “deserves” to live and prosper in — and, especially, control — the area, the killing continues.

Every day, more mothers learn that their sons were killed in battle. More children huddle in the dark with their parents, with little food and water, as bombs fall from the sky. More hospitals are faced with dwindling supplies of pain killers, anesthesia and fuel for generators.

“The battle has inflamed already tense emotions,” a New York Times columnist wrote the other day. “And it captures one of the most fervently debated questions of the war: Whose suffering should command public attention and sympathy?”

On that same day, I rocked our little grandson to sleep. He had fallen on the hard tile floor in our den. We snuggled in my recliner as his sobs turned into soft, rhythmic breathing. I stroked his hair and kissed his still wet cheeks and contemplated the writer’s question.

A world away from the horror in the Middle East, holding an innocent child who is his family’s delight, I had my answer. All of the suffering matters, whether those who are suffering are young or old, Israeli or Palestinian, soldiers or civilians.

And yet it goes on, day after miserable day, with no end in sight.

Until something changes, may God have mercy on all those who suffer, as well as on those of us who can only watch and pray for peace.

Frances Coleman is a former editorial page editor of the Mobile Press-Register. Email her at [email protected] and “like” her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/prfrances.