Is this War really only against Hamas?
66) The Palestinian death count has already more than tripled the number of Israelis that were slaughtered on October 7th
If Israel was really only at war with Hamas, why is the Israeli government demanding that all Palestinians residing in Gaza evacuate immediately to Egypt, a place they aren’t even welcome? The very problem the Jewish people faced throughout the history of our very existence (being unwelcome) is burdening Palestinian people at a level the world has not seen since 1949.
Even if all two million plus Palestinians were to comply, would they ever be able to come back? Israeli forces have some of the finest intelligence in the world. Why are they not asking Palestinians to partner with them to root out Hamas?
*At least 4,137 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since Oct.7 - health ministry: Reuters-October 20, 2023
And how is it possible that in America, a country that is defined by its ever increasing polarization, that we have all the most influential politicians across different ideological spectrums, all in lock-step in their talking points and sentiments when it comes to their allegiance to Israel?
“Both parties of this deeply polarized country are rabidly pro-Israel; the Democratic Senate Majority Leader is currently working to ensure that we support Israel’s government no matter what it does, certainly including the effort to ethnically cleanse Gaza that’s currently gaining steam. There is no branch or department or unit of American government that does not support Israel to the detriment of Palestinians”. Freddie deBoer - Goliath who aspires to be David
If you love a nation and a people so much, you would want the best for them, and point out their faults, and hope they could improve and do better. You wouldn’t just blindly accept what they say and do without checking in on what they are really up to.
In the seventy five plus years of its existence as the officially recognized home to the Jewish people, Israel has grown to be one of the mightiest nations the world has ever seen. The infrastructure they built, the military defense they created (Iron Dome Missile Defense System) and their military intelligence, is among the best in the history of humankind.
“Israel has become a global technological and entrepreneurial powerhouse. The recent Bloomberg Innovation Index, an annual ranking of countries that measures performance in research and development, technology education, patents and other marks of technological prowess, listed Israel at #5* in the world”. Israel: Small Country, Innovative Giant
*For the record as cited in the article (from Winter 2016), the United States ranks #6.
The amount of money invested in pro Israeli messaging, form AIPAC’s tremendous lobbying efforts, to the Israeli Birthright trip for young Jewish adults, has created a level of loyalty to Israel that is so nationalistic and prideful that young Jewish American men who have often shown to sour on America, feel such a sense of patriotism that they volunteer to fight in the Israeli Army.
Yet, there is a sea change happening. Young Jewish Americans no longer are saying “I stand with Israel no matter what”. They are questioning why the ideals of Israel are incongruent with the practices of the nation. The number of young people eager to go on the free Israel birthright trip has sharply decreased over the years.
The Israeli lives lost (1400) has already seen triple the blood-shed in Gaza against Palestinians. How is it possible that Israel is only at war with Hamas if so many innocent Palestinians are being slaughtered too?
What happened to Israel on October 7th, 2023, has so many parallels to what happened to America on September 11th, 2001. And yet, Israel and its allies (namely America) is in grave danger of making the same mistakes America made when they took the drastic step of invading not one (Afghanistan in 2001) but two nations (Iraq in 2003), where half a million people were killed, and both wars cost over two trillion dollars in one, and over three trillion dollars in the other.
We have seen this slow-motion car wreck before. And yet the world, without a serious course correction (and quick) is bound to repeat another decades-long fiasco in the middle-east.
For all the faults older generations see in young people today; it’s the young people that appear to be heeding all the warning signs about this fractious region of the world. They also seem to better understand not only the futility, but the dystopia of “forever wars”.
I write about what I write about, because as a Jewish American, I feel as though I have a responsibility to make a contribution to the dialogue that's happening around this conflict. As I also wrote in my last post (Israel and Palestine (I'm praying for both)), I’m addressing the fear, the horror and the atrocities that are swallowing up this region.
I have family and friends that have divergent opinions on my last Israel/Palestine post:
Some friends expressed to me, how Palestine is waging war with Israel, as Jews have never had a place they could call home.
Other friends have expressed to me, “How can anyone put the blame squarely on Hamas, when they are merely an outgrowth of the rage Palestinians have felt after decades of murder and oppression living in an apartheid State?”
Another friend of mine privately shared with me his thoughts saying, “If you just gave Israel to a nation hostile to both Israelis and Palestinians, how quickly do you think they would be able to work out their differences?”
And this last one really got to me; A Palestinian woman I know living and working in NYC as a teacher shared, “We are not at war, we are witnessing a genocide, against my people.”
The prolific blogger Freddie deBoer wrote a prescient post called Goliath who aspires to be David. At the time of reading his post, I was impressed with how willing Freddie was to take this issue head on. I naively thought that his post was an indication of an evolution of people being more open journalistic integrity and honesty, where we could have more open dialogue around this ever increasing conflict.
“Every time the Israel-Palestine conflict heats up again, certain elements within the pro-Israel coalition use creepy rhetoric to insist that everyone must be fully committed to Israel, that siding against Israel should not be within the sphere of legitimate debate. This takes place against a backdrop where principled supporters of the Palestinians argue that there’s a chilling effect created by pro-Israel hardliners which squelches legitimate debate, and where anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists claim that Jews pull the strings behind the scenes. All this loose talk about what we must do and must say does nothing to rebut the former and just plays into the propaganda of the latter. I wish people would stop doing it”. Freddie deBoer - Goliath who aspires to be David
When Freddie deBoer wrote a follow-up post, qualifying what he initially said, I better understood how brave he truly was for what he wrote.
“A position on this issue was much requested, and at some point not saying something amounts to saying something, so I wrote a piece. And I said the same thing I’ve always said: basic liberal democratic principles require that the land historically referred to as Palestine has to be the site of peace and prosperity for every kind of person who lives there, an egalitarian and multi-ethnic state with equal political and legal rights for all. I also pointed out that Israel enjoys hegemonic military power over the region and that every meaningful institutional actor in the United States is aligned with the Israeli government.” Freddie deBoer - No One Wants Independence
My response to his follow-up post was in support for his sense of fairness, along with his willingness to engage in an honest and robust conversation on this conflict.
I believe that the exchange of ideas among people is necessary for societies and countries to flourish. Speech around Israel and Palestine has been stifled for far too long.
While events in Israel and Gaza are happening at a breakneck pace, now is not the time to suppress differing opinions. If anything, differing opinions should be more embraced now, than ever.
These differences need to be highlighted in a constructive way. And if the powers that be actually listened, we could put a hold on all this bloodletting. Of course, at this juncture in time, this feels more like wishful thinking, than anything.
But, if we were to have a real real conversation (instead of the constant picking up of arms) that truly permits a healing process that has never been fully embraced by either the Jewish State or the Palestinian people, we might see a better outcome than the predictable future that is staring us in the face right now!
-JPJ
For more information on how America is trying to maneuver away from all out war, even as they declare their unwavering support for Israel’s pending ground invasion in Gaza, read;
All from https://politicalwire.com/
Political Wire was also highlighted as one of my main go to sources for political news in of my most recent posts.
SOURCES CITED (in order of appearance 1-32)
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