I can’t be at the march in D.C. today because I’m still infectious from Covid, but I wish I was there because I wanted to show up for the Jews, Israel, and the Peace Bloc. I wanted to literally stand for the things that serious people can agree on:
Right of Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state
Right of Palestinians to have a democratic state west of Jordan
Condemnation of Hamas’ slaughter, rape and desecration of civilians, especially on October 7
Need for the immediate return of all the hostages: young, elderly, infirm: all kidnapped in a war crime
Rights of all people to worship and love as they choose
Condemnation of the antisemitic violence, rhetoric, and vandalism seen at rallies and in attacks across the world
Condemnation of any Islamophobia from whatever community on whatever platform
Some people say they want to overthrow the capitalist neo-liberal world order and this moment is an opportunity. It is pretty clear that capitalism has extreme and pernicious effects on people and environments, so I have sympathies with that perspective. But at no point in the process of overthrowing can we capitulate to intolerant, repressive governments and I have not seen anyone make a case — compelling or otherwise — of how to get to a post-capitalist world order that values human dignity through a particular course of action in Gaza.
I have strong opinions on the makeup and beliefs of the current Israeli government. I have personally protested against Bibi and his cronies, as did a massive proportion of the Israeli public every week over the last year. Indeed those protests continued until the country was thrown into war on October 7. I wish the Palestinians could protest their governments without being killed for it. I wish Americans had come out against Trump in similar numbers for similar lengths of time.
I think there are reasonable differences on how to safely disengage from the Occupation on the West Bank. And we can differ on exactly how Israel can rescue the hostages and dismantle the jihadist terror group sworn to its destruction less than 50 miles from most of Israel’s population. Certainly the civilian deaths caused by Israel’s attempts to root out Hamas behind their human shields are tragic. We can debate whose hands that blood stains, we agree that it needs to stop.
I’m still not sure how to deal with the elected government of an autonomous territory that brutally assassinated its opposition and has refused to hold elections for 16 years — a terrorist gang that has parasitically sucked all the humanitarian aid to leave Palestinians in refugee camps while it builds military installations under hospitals and otherwise uses the people as human shields.
What is clear, though, is that the forces of hate and intolerance profit by ongoing death and conflict. They profit not only in the Middle East — and, as I’ve discussed, this is not simply a Palestine-Israel problem — but across the world. In repressive countries this is a distraction, in democratic countries it’s a division. Only by dwelling on our common ground and resolving our problems can we actually improve this world. And, on that, I hope we can agree.
Shalom, Salaam, Peace