Not that long ago the Jews were in need of protection from genocide at the hands of the Nazis who were determined to construct a racially pure state by extinguishing all the Jews and the other non-Aryans. But today the state of Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in its own pursuit to create an ethnically pure Jewish-supremacist state that requires the subjugation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza and of the Palestinian territories.
In stating this fact I intend no endorsement or sympathy for the horrific Hamas attack on Israel—taking over 200 hostages, murdering 1400 Israelis and injuring hundreds more, most of whom were civilians, and hunting them down in their homes and at a dance festival that was reminiscent of the massacres that happened throughout Jewish history. The savagery of the Hamas attack has awakened primal fears of annihilation that many Jews carry in their psyche and it must be condemned as a war crime. All that said, I understand the deep sense of rage, humiliation, and desperation from which it springs.
The 75-year-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians did not just start that day with this singular event and it is disingenuous to overlook this crucial reality. There is a context and a complex history, much of which has been systematically excluded from the biased Western media that must be understood and confronted.
That crucial history includes among other things the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in the first days of the Jewish state known as the Nakba; the horrific massacre of Palestinians at Deir Yassin; the brutal 56-year-long occupation of Palestinian land in violation of international law and numerous UN General Assembly resolutions; and the 16-year siege of Gaza with its relentless carpet bombing of a captive civilian population with no place to hide—a siege that is a death-grip on Gaza because Israel controls the amount of food, water, fuel, medicine, electricity etc that the 2.3 millions Palestinians living there are allowed.
It is sheer delusion and magical thinking to believe Israelis can ever be safe and secure as long as Palestinians are living under the Israeli boot. Any oppressed people will naturally seek to obtain their freedom and will resort to violence in their pursuit of that freedom especially if their aspirations are thwarted and denied as they often have been even when pursued non-violently through appeals to conscience and international law. We Jews should understand this given the fact that our desperate plight fell on deaf ears despite the horrendous history of discrimination, expulsions, pogroms and ultimately the genocide of the Holocaust that we endured. As Jews we must rise above our understandable fears and impulse toward vengeance and never sink so low as to exploit our own suffering in order to impose suffering on another. Never Again must mean Never Again for Everyone.
This madness must stop before this conflict becomes a flash point that drags the larger region into a state of war. Because Israel is the vastly stronger party to the conflict due to its overwhelming military power and the iron-clad support of the U.S. government, it
is incumbent on it to reach out and pursue genuine negotiations with the Palestinians who wish to find some common ground before we all perish in the barbarism descending upon us. The most urgent task for the moment is to bring an immediate halt to Israel’s savage bombing of Gaza and get life-saving food, water, fuel, medicine, electricity etc to its beleaguered people.
This tragic conflict can never ultimately be resolved through military might. I think it is impossible at this point to envision the exact contours of any agreement that might bring an end to this bloody conflict. But one thing is for certain—there is no perfect agreement whereby each side gets all of what it wants. The best agreement must affirm the fundamental humanity of both peoples, set aside selective moral outrage, and strive to obtain the fullest possible measure of freedom justice, dignity, security, and self-determination that meets the legitimate concerns and aspirations of both peoples.
David Glick; October 29, 2023 Fairfax, CA 94930