The activism around me reminds me of reading about Americans and terrorism in Ireland: that the peace movements there were undermined by Americans who had strong ideas of what justice looked like, and were willing to stand behind (and fund) violence and terrorism of the ugliest sort while most human beings actually in the region, whateve…
The activism around me reminds me of reading about Americans and terrorism in Ireland: that the peace movements there were undermined by Americans who had strong ideas of what justice looked like, and were willing to stand behind (and fund) violence and terrorism of the ugliest sort while most human beings actually in the region, whatever they thought "justice" looked like, mostly wanted to find a way out of violence.
To me Netanyahu and Hamas clearly had the same step #1 in their policies: they both want to control the whole region, and so step #1 is to fight it out. As outsiders, none of us really plan to go to the front lines. Hamas and Netanyahu don't diverge until after the shooting starts. I witness a lot of people around me, safe on lands stolen in a genocide, lands which we certainly won't return, on the same team with Netanyahu and Hamas, on team "fight it out." Maybe the activists don't like how 1948 turned out and want a re-do, and are willing to have Palestinians as well as Israelis continue to suffer until they find time machines.
Meanwhile we have been undermining the peace advocates in the region. When people in the region want to get the hostages back without a war — the West undermined them, the Westerners flying Palestinian flags made it clear that a return of hostages or trials/ even mere repudiation and a promise not to repeat/ of rape was going to require a war, flew the colors of terrorists and rapists instead of peace-builders. Around me it shocks me how many people have such strong opinions but can't tell Hebron from Deir Yassin, or tell the grandkids of refugees from Yemin to go back to Europe and have no idea which demographics voted for Netanyahu.
In the region, parents who lost their kids work together across divides, groups like "Standing Together" work together across divides, they talk to each other — out here we seem to want the refugees from antisemitism to have been slaughtered in 1948 since they were from Europe, to be racists who can't see Jews of color from the region even if they are Netanyahu's base and the group you have to influence more than others if you want to change Israel's current right-wing tack, and Westerners around me don't really care what happens to Palestinians enough to think through and look for ways for people to stop killing each other. We're not really, yet, on the side of peace, we are in the gladiator stands cheering on one side in the continued fighting but the real effect of that is that we cheer the fighting — Hamas gains fame and fortune with rape and terrorism, fifteen year old boys there saw videos of Westerners waving the Hamas flag on October 7 and did not see Westerners saying that rape degrades their cause; people whose friends were raped on October 7 trying to decide if there is a path that besides war saw a West that is silent when their people are raped — how do you think that influences their decision to join the military or protest? Our cheers from the gladiator stands don't really *help* the people we cheer for, we're not going to the front lines ourselves, and the people we claim to cheer for most wish the fighting would stop. There needs to be a side for peace; for truth and reconciliation not unending war — and the left in the West is not yet on that side.
Really hard not to just nod along while reading this. Of course, there's more complexity at work so I'll just say, "Yes, and..."
But blatant cheering of Hamas, while ugly, is different to me than well-meaning but (to your point) ill-informed Western rhetoric. To those voices I've taken to saying, "Welcome to the conversation, it's great that you're taking an interest. Some of us have been here a long time so please have some humility while we discuss."
The activism around me reminds me of reading about Americans and terrorism in Ireland: that the peace movements there were undermined by Americans who had strong ideas of what justice looked like, and were willing to stand behind (and fund) violence and terrorism of the ugliest sort while most human beings actually in the region, whatever they thought "justice" looked like, mostly wanted to find a way out of violence.
To me Netanyahu and Hamas clearly had the same step #1 in their policies: they both want to control the whole region, and so step #1 is to fight it out. As outsiders, none of us really plan to go to the front lines. Hamas and Netanyahu don't diverge until after the shooting starts. I witness a lot of people around me, safe on lands stolen in a genocide, lands which we certainly won't return, on the same team with Netanyahu and Hamas, on team "fight it out." Maybe the activists don't like how 1948 turned out and want a re-do, and are willing to have Palestinians as well as Israelis continue to suffer until they find time machines.
Meanwhile we have been undermining the peace advocates in the region. When people in the region want to get the hostages back without a war — the West undermined them, the Westerners flying Palestinian flags made it clear that a return of hostages or trials/ even mere repudiation and a promise not to repeat/ of rape was going to require a war, flew the colors of terrorists and rapists instead of peace-builders. Around me it shocks me how many people have such strong opinions but can't tell Hebron from Deir Yassin, or tell the grandkids of refugees from Yemin to go back to Europe and have no idea which demographics voted for Netanyahu.
In the region, parents who lost their kids work together across divides, groups like "Standing Together" work together across divides, they talk to each other — out here we seem to want the refugees from antisemitism to have been slaughtered in 1948 since they were from Europe, to be racists who can't see Jews of color from the region even if they are Netanyahu's base and the group you have to influence more than others if you want to change Israel's current right-wing tack, and Westerners around me don't really care what happens to Palestinians enough to think through and look for ways for people to stop killing each other. We're not really, yet, on the side of peace, we are in the gladiator stands cheering on one side in the continued fighting but the real effect of that is that we cheer the fighting — Hamas gains fame and fortune with rape and terrorism, fifteen year old boys there saw videos of Westerners waving the Hamas flag on October 7 and did not see Westerners saying that rape degrades their cause; people whose friends were raped on October 7 trying to decide if there is a path that besides war saw a West that is silent when their people are raped — how do you think that influences their decision to join the military or protest? Our cheers from the gladiator stands don't really *help* the people we cheer for, we're not going to the front lines ourselves, and the people we claim to cheer for most wish the fighting would stop. There needs to be a side for peace; for truth and reconciliation not unending war — and the left in the West is not yet on that side.
Really hard not to just nod along while reading this. Of course, there's more complexity at work so I'll just say, "Yes, and..."
But blatant cheering of Hamas, while ugly, is different to me than well-meaning but (to your point) ill-informed Western rhetoric. To those voices I've taken to saying, "Welcome to the conversation, it's great that you're taking an interest. Some of us have been here a long time so please have some humility while we discuss."