Israel and Palestine (#1358)

Topics/tags: Miscellaneous, rambly

Both sides are right
But both sides murder
I give up
Why can’t they?

I must not think bad thoughts
I must not think bad thoughts
I must not think bad thoughts

I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts by Exene Cervenka and John Doe; performed by X

Yesterday morning, I awoke with crippling depression, depression significant enough that I couldn’t make myself get out of bed. As you can guess from the title of the musing or the lyrics from the X song, Israel and Palestine occupied my thoughts. It’s pointless; I can’t do much about the situation: Even someone with the power of Emmanuel Macron can do little more than recognize Palestine, and that doesn’t achieve real progress. Nonetheless, the hatred, the death, and the cruelty are crushing my soul.

Back when I saw a therapist about my anger and such, he worked hard to ingrain the idea that I should focus on things about which I can make a difference. I’ve always viewed that in terms of the Serenity Prayer, even though I’m not in Alcoholics Anonymous or other addiction group.

G-d grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

As I said, I can’t do anything about the conflict or even about people’s reactions to the conflict. But it’s hard not to think about it. I hope that musing about it will help me, even if it doesn’t change anything.

I should warn my readers that this musing will likely be even more rambly than usual. I’m probably less informed on some of these issues than I might be. I should also warn you that I’m Jewish and a Zionist. Since the latter term has lots of interpretations, I’ll clarify by saying that I believe there should be a Jewish state somewhere and that, at this point, it should probably remain in Israel. I don’t necessarily support the actions of the Israeli government; in fact, I oppose many of them. But history tells us that the Jewish people need a place of relative safety. And the powers that be (not necessarily The Power, but I suppose that depends on who you ask) have dictated that it’s Israel.

That view alone is probably enough to disqualify me from making a difference or even participating in making a difference. Most of the people who hope to stop the destruction of Gaza and the Palestinians in Gaza and to hold Israel accountable don’t generally accept Zionists as allies. And many of them don’t seem to believe that Israel deserves statehood.

Speaking of that, one of the things that set me off was reading an article in the higher-ed press about a faculty member who created the site https://antizionist.net. That site makes the meaning of From the River to the Sea quite clear.

Antizionist legal scholars share […] opposition to any right of self-determination for Jewish people as such in Palestine, with Palestine understood to mean the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

As I said, I’m enough of a Zionist to believe that Jews need a homeland. The let’s evict all the Jews philosophy frightens me.

At the same time, I found parts of this week’s parsha equally terrifying. Let’s see if I can find them. They come from Numbers 33:50–56.

(50) In the steppes of Moab, at the Jordan near Jericho, Adonay spoke to Moses, saying: (51) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, (52) you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land; you shall destroy all their figured objects; you shall destroy all their molten images, and you hall demolish all their cult place. (53) And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have assigned the land to you to possess. […] (55) But if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be sting in your eyes and thorns in your side, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live; (56) so that I will do to you what I planned to do to them.

Those instructions are pretty clear, aren’t they? Also terrifying. I can’t help but believe that some (most?) of Israel’s current leaders believe they apply to them just as much as they did to the Jews returning from Egypt. The let’s evict all the Palestinians philosophy frightens me, too.

How can two sides so far apart ever come together?

Back when it was closer to the original events of October 7, I felt like I understood Israel’s reaction to those events a bit better. Israel seemed to over-react. At the same time, the threat from Hamas was clear: Eliminate us or we’ll do it again. And again. In many ways, I could understand an overly harsh reaction to that threat, especially when it’s accompanied by what I understand to be Hamas’s propensity to hide behind the Palestinian people. Nearly twenty-two months later, that’s much harder to understand.

I also understand the Palestinian desire for freedom and the return to homelands that were taken from them. Europe faced difficult choices after WWII. There was strong evidence that Jews needed a place of safety, a place to call their own. While it might have been possible to carve out a part of, say, Poland and Germany, it was much easier to take someone else’s land and give it up, especially since the Jewish people had been anticipating a return to Israel for centuries. And Jews were not comfortable returning to Europe. But the theft? I think we need to blame England and Europe, not the Israelis (Zionists, Jews).

After these twenty-two months, I can’t imagine a Palestinian having anything but hatred for Israel. And Israel’s leadership seems hellbent on destruction. I don’t know how anyone resolves all or even any of this. All I know is that Hamas seems to have won: Israel is now a pariah state.

Have I added anything to the conversation? Probably not, almost certainly nothing useful. Still, writing things down helped me process. I’ve left out a lot, including the weaponization of antisemitism, the terrifying anti-Zionism in parts of academe, my frustration that so many people seem to know or feel so little about these issues, and more. Nonetheless, I’ve processed some central issues. I hope that I’ll be okay for a bit. Unfortunately, others won’t be. And, unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do.

Version 1.0 of 2025-07-29.