Thank you for this. I have been feeling this as well since 10/7 and I haven’t really known how to process it. I felt so much anger that day. And admittedly, it hasn't subsided. That doesn't mean I don't feel sadness at the horrific death toll of innocent Palestinians as well. The bottom line is that the media wants to divide us when it is possible to have empathy for both, while also understanding the histories of both parties.
I think something that so many people that are hardliners on this issue (on both sides) don’t understand is that many things can be true at the same time. You can support both groups of people without supporting their leadership.
But nuance seems to be lost on most. Its easy to pick a side without even trying to understand the plight of your 'enemy'.
Diaspora Jews who feel the urge to be token Jews for anti-Jewish racists can figure out in their own head what they personally gain from their virtue signaling of throwing Israeli Jews under the bus. It’s not done for any moral reasons, so spare me. It’s not just October 7 these faux Jews ignore, it’s history in it’s entirety - the 138 suicide bombings of the second intifada, the lack of real interest the Palestinians have had to sign any peace deal, it’s Palestinian terrorism long before “the occupation”, it’s the fact that Palestinians have always had the goal of a genocide and ethnic cleansing for Jews since before the state of Israel, it’s the fact that when Arabs were the majority they behaved worse than racist Whites did in the south to the black minority - endless pogroms and lynchings of Jewish refugees by Arabs.
The problem progressive Jews have is with reality, and being gullible fools for the far left and Islamists.
This is where I think that supporters of Palestinians totally miss what they are doing. Standing outside the opera house in Sydney and chanting, Fuck the Jews, Gas the Jews. Not the best strategy. I absolutely get their anger. But it is counterproductive. I'm Jewish, but don't know how to feel. I loath Netanyahu almost as much as I loath his brother from another mother (Herr Pumpkinfuhrer). He needs to be gone. But I also recognize that the war crimes Netanyahu is committing in Gaza are not isolated (if that is the right word). I believe that the Biden Administration is working hard to find a solution. However, ending aid to Israel (while my first gut feeling is to do that) may actually make the situation in the region worse. If the US is seen as abandoning Israel, what would that mean? Would Iran or Yemen feel more empowered to take action and stage more and more attacks? Would that make the situation better or worse for Palestinians? My gut feeling is that it would be worse for them. While many in the region "support" Palestinians, I think that support is limited to funding terror groups to act on their behalf. I've seen little evidence that the actually care about what happens to these people. In my opinion, it is a mistake to try and unravel the Hamas attack and Netanyahus insane revenge from the other problems in the region. I just keep hoping that Biden and European allies can keep working at and succeed at cooling down the situation and finding a way to end this war. It's not good. I cannot even imagine what would be happening if the orange monster won in 2020. Diplomacy is not his (or anyone who works for him) strong suit.
Can you please look at your numbers they’ve been reduced. 30k down to 22k, 13k are Hamas and remaining 9k Palestinians. A good article however , the 10/7 attack and the hostages still not being returned is a pretty big freaking deal to me. Israel must stay strong. No acquiescing.
Very good article, Ben; I totally understand your conflicting feelings, even as an outsider to the Jewish community. Yeah, I remember seeing all the outright *hatred* against Jews after the October 7th attacks, and I was absolutely repulsed. Seeing college kids attacking not Israel, but *The Jews* made me sick to my stomach. I just now rewatched a video of some American college students "protesting"... something soon after the Hamas terrorist attack (protesting the Jewish students' existence on campus, basically.) Or to be more accurate, a video of a student mob screaming "Shame On You!" and "Dirty Jews!" at a group of other students, as if they should be ashamed of themselves for being Jewish. The parallels with Charlottesville is terrifying, and probably never even occurred to any of the fine, upstanding "protestors" involved.
And I'll bet you a million fucking dollars that every single Goddamn member of that ranting, Anti-Jewish MOB believed that they were being morally upright, socially conscious Leftys standing firmly "On the Right Side of History" by terrorizing a group of fellow students for their "incorrect" ancestry. It apparently didn't bother any of them that they were part of a violent mob that caused the event to be cancelled and necessitated the attending students to be emergency evacuated through underground tunnels for their own safety, away from a mob of "protestors" screaming "Dirty Jews!" at them. They only needed some tiki torches to complete the picture. (I really wish I had the video editing skills to combine the footage of the Unite the Right rally with the footage from Berkeley... maybe Photoshop a few lit tiki torches into the college mob.)
(Seriously, have you ever seen some of the rhetoric used in central Asian parts of the Internet? The way that Jewish people are talked about just as a matter of course? A year or two ago I stumbled across an Indian messageboard in English, and the way the people were talking about Jews was straight up Nazi... but then, Indian culture's actual idolization of Hitler is a WHOLE other disgusting topic.)
I can *absolutely* understand the very real need of Jews for Israel to exist, if just to feel like there is SOMEWHERE on Earth that is safe for them seeing as how anywhere you go on the planet there will be *someone* who hates you just for being Jewish. The way that Netanyahu and the Israeli Far Right exploits this very real need is grotesque, but there is no way I could ever dispute the physical and psychological need. Or even simply just *dismiss* it with seemingly no thought whatsoever, the way that is so fashionable with so much of the global Left (or with so many younger people today who *believe* that they're on the Left, while actually adhering to an extremely rigid orthodoxy that ostracizes anyone for straying from the approved message.) Every time I see another supposed liberal or other leftist attacking Israel as an "apartheid regime" or comparing it to Nazi Germany it seriously makes me sick and ashamed, because it is extremely clear that they've *never* given even a second's thought to how they are talking about the Universal Minority, the only people in the world who are despised across the entire planet. A small island of people who are universally despised across the entire planet, surrounded on all sides by nations of people who hate them on an almost *genetic level.* It apparently doesn't even occur to them that their Anti-Jewish rhetoric is an exact echo of the Far Right... or if it does occur to them, it doesn't seem to bother them one whit. But we all already knew that once you go far enough Left or Right it all becomes identical, anyway.
I can only imagine what it would be like to always have the fear lurking in the back of your mind whether there's going to be one of "them" around the next corner just waiting to attack you... and whether or not the attack will be with words, with fists, or with *lethal force.*
Arab Palestinians left their homes for a variety of reasons during the 1948 war. Some left on their own initiative. Some left because the Arab military forces suggested they leave. And some the Israelis moved forcibly for defensive reasons in wartime. There is no proof that Israel drove Palestinian Arabs from their homes simply because they were Arabs, and a fair amount of Arabs remained in Israel. Why would Israel not have forced all Arabs out of their country if they were so anti-Arab? And now about 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab, mostly Muslim I believe.
As a socialist Jewish American living in a red rural area, I think the silver lining about all of this is that this war made some things crystal clear for me - both in terms of how this current war could/should end, how Israel could win the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis, and what it means for me personally:
==THE CURRENT WAR==
1. In terms of the current war, Israel should do to Gaza what it should have done in Southern Lebanon in 2006: Israel should just TAKE the Northern 50% of Gaza, and (temporarily) expel the Palestinian population to Southern Gaza. (It already did this a few months ago - just do it again.) Then, tell Hamas that they'll get half of that have (25%) of Gaza back once all the hostages are returned, and the rest back once Hamas steps down and/or is overthrown. Blunt as this sounds, sometimes, the best way to respond to a hostage crisis is to take 20x as many of their people (or their land) hostage, and see how they like it. Similarly, if Biden had let Israel cut off Gaza's entire water supply (as was proposed when the war started), the Gaza War would have been over within a month. It's one of the saddest things I've ever had to learn (both as a Soldier myself and from the current war): Sometimes, trying to reduce suffering backfires. It just prolongs the conflict, bad guys don't get defeated, and the suffering just gets worse.
2. Ideally, Israel would a. invade Rafah to topple what's left of Hamas, then build a new democratic government in the strip from scratch to rebuild the place. But Biden doesn't look like he'll let Israel go into Rafah or take the Philadelphi Corridor (on the border of Egypt and Gaza). And Gaza does not deserve to be rebuilt as long as Hamas is running it. Hopefully, the lack of reconstruction coupled with loosing a quarter of half the strip will finally convince the Gazans to overthrow Hamas. But if not, at least they'll be punished for it.
==THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT==
3. Caroline Glick is right. And her solution for an Israeli victory to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis remains the most logical and valid solution out there: Israel should annex the West Bank, end the occupation, create a path to equal citizenship and voting rights for the peace-loving Palestinians who live there, and deport those who support terrorism. Gaza can be spun off as an independent country (which it de facto has been since 2007). If Hamas is overthrown, it could become a Middle Eastern Singapore. But if the Gazan population continues to support islamofascism, then Gaza will turn into a Middle Eastern Haiti.
4. Glick's solution works because it takes the best parts of the 1 and 2 state solutions and combines the two. It also helps that a. the 1997 Palestinian census was an empirically verifiable lie, whereby the Palestinian Authority claimed a Palestinian population about 25% higher than it actually was. With this in mind, Israel could maintain both its Jewish super-majority and democratic character by annexing the West Bank but not Gaza. It would also have the side benefit of b. eliminating the Palestinian Authority government, which for 25 years has created an incompetent, authoritarian, anti-Semitic kleptocracy that openly funds terrorism and is run by a Holocaust Denier (see Mahmoud Abbas's doctoral dissertation).
5. For those who still think Israel must turn over the West Bank to create a Palestinian state, riddle me this: The percentage of Israeli's who live in the West Bank (which has has a Jewish presence since the Bronze Age) is roughly equivalent to the percentage of Americans who live in Texas plus New Jersey. Would the United States EVER depopulate Texas in order to recreate the Comancheria? The Comancheria was the exceptionally violent Comanche empire that existed the 18th and early 19th centuries, which Americans then viewed pretty much the same way we would see ISIS today. That so many Israelis would have even considered doing the equivalent of this so seriously for the last quarter century shows just how seriously Israelis wanted peace. They really did try.
==POLITICAL & PERSONAL IMPLICATIONS==
6. The Democratic Party should no longer take the Jewish vote for granted. From 1992-2008, American Jews reliably gave the Dems 76-80% of the vote. But it's been declining since - down to 68% in 2020. And I think it'll probably sink even further as the Democratic Party adopts an anti-Israel narrative. However....
7. If Jews like me become Republican, you can bet that I'll take all my left-wing socialist and liberalism on economic and social issues with me. And it very well might be that, in the flaming wreckage of the GOP in what will be a likely Trump loss in 2024, ex-Democrat Jews might have to single-handedly rebuild a liberal or even socialist wing within the Republican Party, or maybe even become Independents. Whether such a thing is even possible isn't clear. But it's worth nothing that Bernie got elected to Congress as a socialist (and as mayor before that) back when Vermont was still a red state.
8. On a national level, I really like America's two-party system; each party keeps the other in check, and prevents an idiot like Trump from become a dictator. But on a state and local level, two-party competition breaks down into one party dominance, namely because we lack any mechanism of proportional representation (amongst the top two parties). One party dominance leads to corrupt and incompetent government. Having lived in Menino's Boston, Marion Barry's DC, and a GOP-dominated rural area, what's clear to me is that Democratic and Republican Party establishments are both terrible when not kept in check. And much as I'd die to keep American Democracy alive, I will not sacrifice myself for either the Democratic or Republican Party.
9. I say #8 with a great deal of pain in my heart, because I've put YEARS of my life into trying to rebuild the Democratic Party in my rural red state. Only to find out a. the massive gap between what needs to happen organizationally and what the state party is willing to do, and b. that for most local Democrats, being a Democrat is more about being part of a contrarian social club, and not actually winning or holding power. And that's not even throwing in the growing influence of anti-Semites amongst progressives or the anti-working class/anti-poor condescension amongst certain middle class interest groups I've had to spend my time dealing with.
10. So I'll say again: For those of us (like me) who are serious about fixing our broken system/economy, I'll fight to the death for what America stands for. But I won't die for the current Republican or Democratic Parties. Good news though: The flexibility this provides (i.e., running as a Republican in a Republican area to get elected, then becoming an Independent once elected) might broaden the path to power considerably. My illusions are gone. And that's my silver lining to this damn war!
Israel didn’t expel 700000 Arabs. They fled the war launched by the surrounding Arab nations in the instructions of their leaders. The idea was that after the brave Arabs slaughtered all the Jews, they would come back. Didn’t work out that way. Israel won’t let them come back. That much is true. Too bad, so sad.
There was a ceasefire with Hamas before they attacked on October 7th. Hamas broke the ceasefire by massacring Jews. Hamas deserves everything they are getting now. And the people who elected Hamas and support them by a wide margin, who were happy when the massacred Jews, and who went in after Hamas to loot and take their own hostages, are getting what they asked for. Don’t want war? Don’t start a war.
You’re conflicted because you can’t accept that reality is never black and white. People suffer in war. That’s a given. You’re a Jew agonizing over the people who have made it their life’s mission to wipe Jews out. Not smart.
The more compelling argument is that even if the events of 1948 were considered wrong (which they weren't), history demonstrates that such wrongs are often resolved over time through reconciliation and progress. Israel serves as a prime example; Ashkenazi Jews, including my own family, no longer feel the need to reclaim lost land in eastern Europe. Moroccan Jews in Israel have moved forward without longing for their former businesses. They have embraced progress and moved on. The persistent refusal of Palestinians to move past grievances perpetuates an unresolved conflict. Should Mexico resort to endless violence until they reclaim Los Angeles? Should the British retaliate until they recover their tea from Boston Harbor? History is filled with such examples of resilience and progress. Many who have suffered, such as Japan and Germany, have reconciled with former adversaries to become close partners. It's about acknowledging reality, self-reflection, and turning over a new leaf. Just as in our personal lives, nations must confront past wrongs to move forward. Why should nation-states be any different?
As a philosemitic Arab-American, I have long believed that even if one's sole moral concern were the security of Israel, it would be in the long-term interest of Israel to work much harder to de-escalate the overall situation. Work for the creation of a viable two-state solution, so the Palestinians have fewer causes for daily grievance. Remove the West Bank settlers. Get foreign aid to help improve the economic situation for the Palestinians — all of this would benefit *Israel* by calming the atmosphere and giving Palestinians a real hope of a decent life.
The Israeli right wing will never concede the value of an approach like this, of course. They're far too committed to territorial expansion and subjugation of the Arabs.
Finally, if one did consider Palestinian human rights and dignity in one's moral approach, and not just the security of Israel, then the path would be even clearer. As an Arab-American, I would gently encourage this. We're human beings too.
I will never forget the weekend after October 7, HAMAS had attacked, hundreds of hostages were being held and self-made videos of the atrocities were visible all over the internet while Israel other than a few targeted missile strikes and the mobilisation of some specialist army units had done nothing in response.
That next weekend saw the town squares, plazas and streets of western capital cities fill with protesters………. against Israel!!
I mean no wonder they decided they were on their own and nothing they would do could impact global opinion anyway
Personally I’ve given up on going out of my way to defend Israel the last 2 months, after years of being a staunch and loud defender of Israel even in groups of leftwing friends where it causes me grief, the behaviour of Bibi and particularly the Settlers in the West Bank the last few months is so self-defeating, so dangerous and so indefensible that this is the first thing in months I’ve said or written expressly on Israel’s side but even with all that terrible behaviour from Israeli settlers and their leader the fact still remains that Hamas launched the attack with the goal of killing as many Israelis as possible and (and this is very important to understand) with the plan to try and provoke Israel into killing as many Palestinian civilians as possible
Every step of their post October 7 strategy has been based around getting as many civilians killed as they can provoke and force the Israelis into, from tunnels to rocket launch sights, from putting military vehicles in aid truck convoys and using first aid symbols on military vehicles and buildings their goal has been to get Israeli soldiers to kill Palestinian civilians (why do you think we have so many perfectly shot gruesome videos of these deaths, they take camera crews sitting protected while they see their countrymen killed in actions they deliberately provoked the time and place of
So no, I have no time for ‘leftists’ attacking Israel BUT until Bibi is gone this will probably be my last comment In Israel’s defence, there are other problems in the world and Bibi has forfeited the right to get me to spend time or effort defending them
Sorry for such a long comment but at least it means I’ll be able to tell, if there are any replies, which ones came from ppl who read the whole thing and which from those who read one small part and replied with outrage and the ppl who can’t even be bothered reading it all before replying will get the response that kind of narcissism deserves
Thank you for this. I have been feeling this as well since 10/7 and I haven’t really known how to process it. I felt so much anger that day. And admittedly, it hasn't subsided. That doesn't mean I don't feel sadness at the horrific death toll of innocent Palestinians as well. The bottom line is that the media wants to divide us when it is possible to have empathy for both, while also understanding the histories of both parties.
I think something that so many people that are hardliners on this issue (on both sides) don’t understand is that many things can be true at the same time. You can support both groups of people without supporting their leadership.
But nuance seems to be lost on most. Its easy to pick a side without even trying to understand the plight of your 'enemy'.
Therein lies the problem.
Diaspora Jews who feel the urge to be token Jews for anti-Jewish racists can figure out in their own head what they personally gain from their virtue signaling of throwing Israeli Jews under the bus. It’s not done for any moral reasons, so spare me. It’s not just October 7 these faux Jews ignore, it’s history in it’s entirety - the 138 suicide bombings of the second intifada, the lack of real interest the Palestinians have had to sign any peace deal, it’s Palestinian terrorism long before “the occupation”, it’s the fact that Palestinians have always had the goal of a genocide and ethnic cleansing for Jews since before the state of Israel, it’s the fact that when Arabs were the majority they behaved worse than racist Whites did in the south to the black minority - endless pogroms and lynchings of Jewish refugees by Arabs.
The problem progressive Jews have is with reality, and being gullible fools for the far left and Islamists.
This is where I think that supporters of Palestinians totally miss what they are doing. Standing outside the opera house in Sydney and chanting, Fuck the Jews, Gas the Jews. Not the best strategy. I absolutely get their anger. But it is counterproductive. I'm Jewish, but don't know how to feel. I loath Netanyahu almost as much as I loath his brother from another mother (Herr Pumpkinfuhrer). He needs to be gone. But I also recognize that the war crimes Netanyahu is committing in Gaza are not isolated (if that is the right word). I believe that the Biden Administration is working hard to find a solution. However, ending aid to Israel (while my first gut feeling is to do that) may actually make the situation in the region worse. If the US is seen as abandoning Israel, what would that mean? Would Iran or Yemen feel more empowered to take action and stage more and more attacks? Would that make the situation better or worse for Palestinians? My gut feeling is that it would be worse for them. While many in the region "support" Palestinians, I think that support is limited to funding terror groups to act on their behalf. I've seen little evidence that the actually care about what happens to these people. In my opinion, it is a mistake to try and unravel the Hamas attack and Netanyahus insane revenge from the other problems in the region. I just keep hoping that Biden and European allies can keep working at and succeed at cooling down the situation and finding a way to end this war. It's not good. I cannot even imagine what would be happening if the orange monster won in 2020. Diplomacy is not his (or anyone who works for him) strong suit.
Can you please look at your numbers they’ve been reduced. 30k down to 22k, 13k are Hamas and remaining 9k Palestinians. A good article however , the 10/7 attack and the hostages still not being returned is a pretty big freaking deal to me. Israel must stay strong. No acquiescing.
Very good article, Ben; I totally understand your conflicting feelings, even as an outsider to the Jewish community. Yeah, I remember seeing all the outright *hatred* against Jews after the October 7th attacks, and I was absolutely repulsed. Seeing college kids attacking not Israel, but *The Jews* made me sick to my stomach. I just now rewatched a video of some American college students "protesting"... something soon after the Hamas terrorist attack (protesting the Jewish students' existence on campus, basically.) Or to be more accurate, a video of a student mob screaming "Shame On You!" and "Dirty Jews!" at a group of other students, as if they should be ashamed of themselves for being Jewish. The parallels with Charlottesville is terrifying, and probably never even occurred to any of the fine, upstanding "protestors" involved.
And I'll bet you a million fucking dollars that every single Goddamn member of that ranting, Anti-Jewish MOB believed that they were being morally upright, socially conscious Leftys standing firmly "On the Right Side of History" by terrorizing a group of fellow students for their "incorrect" ancestry. It apparently didn't bother any of them that they were part of a violent mob that caused the event to be cancelled and necessitated the attending students to be emergency evacuated through underground tunnels for their own safety, away from a mob of "protestors" screaming "Dirty Jews!" at them. They only needed some tiki torches to complete the picture. (I really wish I had the video editing skills to combine the footage of the Unite the Right rally with the footage from Berkeley... maybe Photoshop a few lit tiki torches into the college mob.)
(Seriously, have you ever seen some of the rhetoric used in central Asian parts of the Internet? The way that Jewish people are talked about just as a matter of course? A year or two ago I stumbled across an Indian messageboard in English, and the way the people were talking about Jews was straight up Nazi... but then, Indian culture's actual idolization of Hitler is a WHOLE other disgusting topic.)
I can *absolutely* understand the very real need of Jews for Israel to exist, if just to feel like there is SOMEWHERE on Earth that is safe for them seeing as how anywhere you go on the planet there will be *someone* who hates you just for being Jewish. The way that Netanyahu and the Israeli Far Right exploits this very real need is grotesque, but there is no way I could ever dispute the physical and psychological need. Or even simply just *dismiss* it with seemingly no thought whatsoever, the way that is so fashionable with so much of the global Left (or with so many younger people today who *believe* that they're on the Left, while actually adhering to an extremely rigid orthodoxy that ostracizes anyone for straying from the approved message.) Every time I see another supposed liberal or other leftist attacking Israel as an "apartheid regime" or comparing it to Nazi Germany it seriously makes me sick and ashamed, because it is extremely clear that they've *never* given even a second's thought to how they are talking about the Universal Minority, the only people in the world who are despised across the entire planet. A small island of people who are universally despised across the entire planet, surrounded on all sides by nations of people who hate them on an almost *genetic level.* It apparently doesn't even occur to them that their Anti-Jewish rhetoric is an exact echo of the Far Right... or if it does occur to them, it doesn't seem to bother them one whit. But we all already knew that once you go far enough Left or Right it all becomes identical, anyway.
I can only imagine what it would be like to always have the fear lurking in the back of your mind whether there's going to be one of "them" around the next corner just waiting to attack you... and whether or not the attack will be with words, with fists, or with *lethal force.*
Thank you for this. This column speaks to me and the constant angst I have felt since October 7th.
The only path to ending this horrific tragedy begins with Hamas return all the hostages.
Arab Palestinians left their homes for a variety of reasons during the 1948 war. Some left on their own initiative. Some left because the Arab military forces suggested they leave. And some the Israelis moved forcibly for defensive reasons in wartime. There is no proof that Israel drove Palestinian Arabs from their homes simply because they were Arabs, and a fair amount of Arabs remained in Israel. Why would Israel not have forced all Arabs out of their country if they were so anti-Arab? And now about 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab, mostly Muslim I believe.
One would think Ben would know the 30K death toll is as false as claiming Hamas is a humanitarian org.
Fake Hamas death toll
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2024/03/10/how_the_gaza_ministry_of_health_fakes_casualty_numbers_619572.html#!
As a socialist Jewish American living in a red rural area, I think the silver lining about all of this is that this war made some things crystal clear for me - both in terms of how this current war could/should end, how Israel could win the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis, and what it means for me personally:
==THE CURRENT WAR==
1. In terms of the current war, Israel should do to Gaza what it should have done in Southern Lebanon in 2006: Israel should just TAKE the Northern 50% of Gaza, and (temporarily) expel the Palestinian population to Southern Gaza. (It already did this a few months ago - just do it again.) Then, tell Hamas that they'll get half of that have (25%) of Gaza back once all the hostages are returned, and the rest back once Hamas steps down and/or is overthrown. Blunt as this sounds, sometimes, the best way to respond to a hostage crisis is to take 20x as many of their people (or their land) hostage, and see how they like it. Similarly, if Biden had let Israel cut off Gaza's entire water supply (as was proposed when the war started), the Gaza War would have been over within a month. It's one of the saddest things I've ever had to learn (both as a Soldier myself and from the current war): Sometimes, trying to reduce suffering backfires. It just prolongs the conflict, bad guys don't get defeated, and the suffering just gets worse.
2. Ideally, Israel would a. invade Rafah to topple what's left of Hamas, then build a new democratic government in the strip from scratch to rebuild the place. But Biden doesn't look like he'll let Israel go into Rafah or take the Philadelphi Corridor (on the border of Egypt and Gaza). And Gaza does not deserve to be rebuilt as long as Hamas is running it. Hopefully, the lack of reconstruction coupled with loosing a quarter of half the strip will finally convince the Gazans to overthrow Hamas. But if not, at least they'll be punished for it.
==THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT==
3. Caroline Glick is right. And her solution for an Israeli victory to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis remains the most logical and valid solution out there: Israel should annex the West Bank, end the occupation, create a path to equal citizenship and voting rights for the peace-loving Palestinians who live there, and deport those who support terrorism. Gaza can be spun off as an independent country (which it de facto has been since 2007). If Hamas is overthrown, it could become a Middle Eastern Singapore. But if the Gazan population continues to support islamofascism, then Gaza will turn into a Middle Eastern Haiti.
4. Glick's solution works because it takes the best parts of the 1 and 2 state solutions and combines the two. It also helps that a. the 1997 Palestinian census was an empirically verifiable lie, whereby the Palestinian Authority claimed a Palestinian population about 25% higher than it actually was. With this in mind, Israel could maintain both its Jewish super-majority and democratic character by annexing the West Bank but not Gaza. It would also have the side benefit of b. eliminating the Palestinian Authority government, which for 25 years has created an incompetent, authoritarian, anti-Semitic kleptocracy that openly funds terrorism and is run by a Holocaust Denier (see Mahmoud Abbas's doctoral dissertation).
5. For those who still think Israel must turn over the West Bank to create a Palestinian state, riddle me this: The percentage of Israeli's who live in the West Bank (which has has a Jewish presence since the Bronze Age) is roughly equivalent to the percentage of Americans who live in Texas plus New Jersey. Would the United States EVER depopulate Texas in order to recreate the Comancheria? The Comancheria was the exceptionally violent Comanche empire that existed the 18th and early 19th centuries, which Americans then viewed pretty much the same way we would see ISIS today. That so many Israelis would have even considered doing the equivalent of this so seriously for the last quarter century shows just how seriously Israelis wanted peace. They really did try.
==POLITICAL & PERSONAL IMPLICATIONS==
6. The Democratic Party should no longer take the Jewish vote for granted. From 1992-2008, American Jews reliably gave the Dems 76-80% of the vote. But it's been declining since - down to 68% in 2020. And I think it'll probably sink even further as the Democratic Party adopts an anti-Israel narrative. However....
7. If Jews like me become Republican, you can bet that I'll take all my left-wing socialist and liberalism on economic and social issues with me. And it very well might be that, in the flaming wreckage of the GOP in what will be a likely Trump loss in 2024, ex-Democrat Jews might have to single-handedly rebuild a liberal or even socialist wing within the Republican Party, or maybe even become Independents. Whether such a thing is even possible isn't clear. But it's worth nothing that Bernie got elected to Congress as a socialist (and as mayor before that) back when Vermont was still a red state.
8. On a national level, I really like America's two-party system; each party keeps the other in check, and prevents an idiot like Trump from become a dictator. But on a state and local level, two-party competition breaks down into one party dominance, namely because we lack any mechanism of proportional representation (amongst the top two parties). One party dominance leads to corrupt and incompetent government. Having lived in Menino's Boston, Marion Barry's DC, and a GOP-dominated rural area, what's clear to me is that Democratic and Republican Party establishments are both terrible when not kept in check. And much as I'd die to keep American Democracy alive, I will not sacrifice myself for either the Democratic or Republican Party.
9. I say #8 with a great deal of pain in my heart, because I've put YEARS of my life into trying to rebuild the Democratic Party in my rural red state. Only to find out a. the massive gap between what needs to happen organizationally and what the state party is willing to do, and b. that for most local Democrats, being a Democrat is more about being part of a contrarian social club, and not actually winning or holding power. And that's not even throwing in the growing influence of anti-Semites amongst progressives or the anti-working class/anti-poor condescension amongst certain middle class interest groups I've had to spend my time dealing with.
10. So I'll say again: For those of us (like me) who are serious about fixing our broken system/economy, I'll fight to the death for what America stands for. But I won't die for the current Republican or Democratic Parties. Good news though: The flexibility this provides (i.e., running as a Republican in a Republican area to get elected, then becoming an Independent once elected) might broaden the path to power considerably. My illusions are gone. And that's my silver lining to this damn war!
Israel didn’t expel 700000 Arabs. They fled the war launched by the surrounding Arab nations in the instructions of their leaders. The idea was that after the brave Arabs slaughtered all the Jews, they would come back. Didn’t work out that way. Israel won’t let them come back. That much is true. Too bad, so sad.
There was a ceasefire with Hamas before they attacked on October 7th. Hamas broke the ceasefire by massacring Jews. Hamas deserves everything they are getting now. And the people who elected Hamas and support them by a wide margin, who were happy when the massacred Jews, and who went in after Hamas to loot and take their own hostages, are getting what they asked for. Don’t want war? Don’t start a war.
You’re conflicted because you can’t accept that reality is never black and white. People suffer in war. That’s a given. You’re a Jew agonizing over the people who have made it their life’s mission to wipe Jews out. Not smart.
“The only thing standing between the Gazan people and a ceasefire is Hamas.” - Anthony Blinken. U.S. Secy. of State, this morning https://jewdicious.substack.com/p/passover-poland-april-19-1943
The more compelling argument is that even if the events of 1948 were considered wrong (which they weren't), history demonstrates that such wrongs are often resolved over time through reconciliation and progress. Israel serves as a prime example; Ashkenazi Jews, including my own family, no longer feel the need to reclaim lost land in eastern Europe. Moroccan Jews in Israel have moved forward without longing for their former businesses. They have embraced progress and moved on. The persistent refusal of Palestinians to move past grievances perpetuates an unresolved conflict. Should Mexico resort to endless violence until they reclaim Los Angeles? Should the British retaliate until they recover their tea from Boston Harbor? History is filled with such examples of resilience and progress. Many who have suffered, such as Japan and Germany, have reconciled with former adversaries to become close partners. It's about acknowledging reality, self-reflection, and turning over a new leaf. Just as in our personal lives, nations must confront past wrongs to move forward. Why should nation-states be any different?
As a philosemitic Arab-American, I have long believed that even if one's sole moral concern were the security of Israel, it would be in the long-term interest of Israel to work much harder to de-escalate the overall situation. Work for the creation of a viable two-state solution, so the Palestinians have fewer causes for daily grievance. Remove the West Bank settlers. Get foreign aid to help improve the economic situation for the Palestinians — all of this would benefit *Israel* by calming the atmosphere and giving Palestinians a real hope of a decent life.
The Israeli right wing will never concede the value of an approach like this, of course. They're far too committed to territorial expansion and subjugation of the Arabs.
Finally, if one did consider Palestinian human rights and dignity in one's moral approach, and not just the security of Israel, then the path would be even clearer. As an Arab-American, I would gently encourage this. We're human beings too.
I will never forget the weekend after October 7, HAMAS had attacked, hundreds of hostages were being held and self-made videos of the atrocities were visible all over the internet while Israel other than a few targeted missile strikes and the mobilisation of some specialist army units had done nothing in response.
That next weekend saw the town squares, plazas and streets of western capital cities fill with protesters………. against Israel!!
I mean no wonder they decided they were on their own and nothing they would do could impact global opinion anyway
Personally I’ve given up on going out of my way to defend Israel the last 2 months, after years of being a staunch and loud defender of Israel even in groups of leftwing friends where it causes me grief, the behaviour of Bibi and particularly the Settlers in the West Bank the last few months is so self-defeating, so dangerous and so indefensible that this is the first thing in months I’ve said or written expressly on Israel’s side but even with all that terrible behaviour from Israeli settlers and their leader the fact still remains that Hamas launched the attack with the goal of killing as many Israelis as possible and (and this is very important to understand) with the plan to try and provoke Israel into killing as many Palestinian civilians as possible
Every step of their post October 7 strategy has been based around getting as many civilians killed as they can provoke and force the Israelis into, from tunnels to rocket launch sights, from putting military vehicles in aid truck convoys and using first aid symbols on military vehicles and buildings their goal has been to get Israeli soldiers to kill Palestinian civilians (why do you think we have so many perfectly shot gruesome videos of these deaths, they take camera crews sitting protected while they see their countrymen killed in actions they deliberately provoked the time and place of
So no, I have no time for ‘leftists’ attacking Israel BUT until Bibi is gone this will probably be my last comment In Israel’s defence, there are other problems in the world and Bibi has forfeited the right to get me to spend time or effort defending them
Sorry for such a long comment but at least it means I’ll be able to tell, if there are any replies, which ones came from ppl who read the whole thing and which from those who read one small part and replied with outrage and the ppl who can’t even be bothered reading it all before replying will get the response that kind of narcissism deserves
A great piece on how Bibi is completely fucking shit up. And ignoring his advisors.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tcinla757/p/israel-is-going-from-bad-to-worse?r=1rfdru&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web