It's amazing watching what people reveal about themselves
when tensions in the Middle East explode. Some otherwise liberal, compassionate souls
with big hearts suddenly morph into raging self-appointed authorities. Others who've suffered deeply and have reason
not to be kind toward oppressors become surprisingly gentle. Some spew invectives
while others weep for dying children.
But nothing rivals what has taken place on social media since the horrific conflict between Israel and the Palestinians began. Having responded to a friend's pro-Israel Facebook post in which she equated my sympathy for the plight of ordinary Palestinians with being "pro-Hamas," a slew of opinions started flying and haven't stopped.
"It's one thing to be so-called 'pro-Hamas' but quite another to simply be against the slaughter of innocents," I wrote. "No one denies Israel's right to exist (least of all me, a Jew) or to defend itself, but their slaughter approaches genocide. I cannot sanction the disproportionate response to the aggression perpetrated by some Palestinians. Most people in Gaza are ordinary, impoverished folks trying to survive in terrible ghetto conditions with absolutely nowhere to go or hide. Given the Jewish experience with ghettos and extermination who should feel compassion for them more than Jews?
"When I learned that 25 people perished while eating a meal together during Ramadan (suppose it had been 25 Jews breaking the Yom Kippur fast?), or that hospitals and UN safe-haven schools were being bombed with children killed, maimed, traumatized, there is no way I could sanction Israel's aggression. While both sides need to regain their sanity and end hostilities in a sensibly negotiated settlement, Gaza has become a killing field. It makes me sad, and I feel an unwelcome shame (where once I felt pride) that 'my people' could behave like this. I ask this simple question: How does killing more children after the tragedy of lost youth that started this conflagration solve the problem or redeem the tragedy?"
Some readers support my position, some argue against it, and some spew spurious vitriol. The people who agree with me frame their arguments as I have, with a social justice, human rights lens, while those with opposing points of view respond from a (frequently erroneous) historical and political perspective. The passion that both sides feel is stunning, and sometimes alarming.
Because of copious dichotomized debates, I want to offer some further thoughts, beginning with a quote from Holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskovitz. His words are credited to IAcknowledgeApartheidExists.org. "It is a sacred duty for me to protest against persecution, the oppression and imprisonment of so many people in Gaza. As a Holocaust survivor I cannot live with the fact that the State of Israel is imprisoning an entire people behind fences. It's just immoral."
Leaving a synagogue because of "our overwhelming silence as Jews" over what was happening in Gaza, writer Naomi Wolf said, "I mourn genocide in Gaza"I mourn all victims" Where is God? God is only where we stand with our neighbor in trouble and against injustice."
Someone in Gaza wrote this email to my friend, "Israel has targeted houses and residential areas. When people flee their homes the warplanes target them in the streets. They didn't even allow the Red Cross to pull dead bodies and injured people out. Medical teams and journalists are among the victims. More than 70 percent are children and women. We have no power and no water. It's horrible."
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