Only Peace is Possible

(I know this newsletter has strayed from being about writing family histories, and I apologize to those who are here only for that. I hope the world rights itself soon so I can get back to that.)

This is for my friends who are neither Jewish or Muslim; my Jewish and Muslim friends don’t need it. They already think deeply and seriously about these issues.

Image by Ted Eytan via Flickr, CC

To my friends who think the only path forward is the dissolution of Israel:

I get it. I was once where you are; the rhetoric that calls Israel a colonizer is both powerful and alluring. It presents, on its surface, a way for those of us who are white and American to play at being decolonizers while continuing to live on colonized land. But this requires a very shallow understanding of the history of the region (one that I shared for a long time). But I’m not going to lecture you on history. Rather, I’m just going to ask you: how would this, in the real world, be possible?

When people—the sorts who wear hoods or give Nazi salutes to one another—talk about “the Jewish agenda,” what they are talking about is the call by Jews to create safe, humane policies that allow genuine refugees to flee violence and find sanctuary in all parts of the globe. Those policies, where they exist, are being greatly curtailed in this moment as much of the world lurches right. Mostly, though, these policies do not exist. So tell me, where would the seven million Israelis go if Israel were dissolved?

If you cannot answer this question, then calling for the dissolution of Israel is also calling for Israeli genocide.

To my friends who think the only path forward is to stand with Hamas:

Hamas is not a liberation movement; it targets its own population with violence to further its aim to destroy Israel. Its charter is itself a genocidal document. But suppose, for a moment (though I don’t suggest that you actually believe this), you are okay with that if it meant all Palestinians would lead good and prosperous lives under their rule.

Hamas uses it’s own people as human shields. I beg you to read this UN report if you somehow think this is untrue. Its leaders operate safely from Qatar and Turkey, far from the danger they place their own people in. Gaza receives significant amount aid from the global community, much of which Hamas misappropriates to shore up its military actions and also to enrich its leadership.

Hamas kills LGBTQ+ Palestinians. It supports the barbaric practice of “honor killings.” It tortures and murders its own political dissenters. It was elected into power before the majority of people living in Gaza were born. It does not represent them, protect them, or serve them.

Standing with Hamas is standing for the violent rule of Gazans by a regime that is as murderous to its own citizens as it is to Israelis.

Standing with Hamas is impossible.

To my friends who think the only path forward is the destruction of Gaza:

First, I wouldn’t call anyone who supports the destruction of Gaza and the murder to millions of civilians “friend.” But I’m sure such people exist. I also don’t imagine anything I say will reach the heart or mind of someone who has fallen into such inhumanity. Forty percent of Gaza’s residents are children.

To you, I can only say: you are not on anyone’s side. Nobody benefits from such evil; and certainly not the Israelis, who would never recover from such a moral wound and who would ensure that there would only be war until, indeed, Israel was undone. The end result would be, it seems obvious, a shifting of power in the Middle East heavily toward Iran, a thing nobody but Iran wants.

This is not only impossible as a path forward, it should be unthinkable.

The only real path forward:

Almost every Israeli, Jew, Palestinian, and Muslim I know not only supports, but actively works toward, a path to peaceful coexistence. Here is a long list of organizations seeking just that. You can join this work by supporting them.

The only way to support Palestinians is to support the work being done to find and make real solutions to their plight. I am not, would not, pretend that they don’t suffer greatly under Israeli rule. They do. It is a moral weight I feel heavily every day. Part of the solution is, indeed, unseating the current government and righting the wrongs Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians. This is more possible at this moment than it has been for a long time; Netanyahu will not recover from his failure to protect 1300 Israelis from the Simchat Torah Massacre.

Now is the time not to join with one or the other side that thrives on war. Now is the time to side with the Israelis and Palestinians working together toward peace.

I leave you with the words of Nir Avishai Cohen, a major in the reserves of the IDF, as he returns to Israel from the US to join the fight:

At the end, after all of the dead Israelis and Palestinians are buried, after we have finished washing away the rivers of blood, the people who share a home in this land will have to understand that there is no other choice but to follow the path of peace. That is where true victory lies.

Shalom, friends. May the better days come soon.