Difficult Weeks as An Elderly Jew 10 20 23 5784

Complexity vs Free Palestine Binary Thinking

So, life is complicated for me these days. With required wheelchair living in an upstairs apartment, I don’t get out much, and rarely have a visitor save the caregiver who comes to visit 2 hours each week. My wife is not big on conversation while nothing I love more than the art of said conversation. I rely on social media for connection to the outside world.

But then October 7, a time culminating the High Holy Days with Simchat Torah, Hamas, an organization devoted to the death of Jews, invaded Israel, slaughtering innocent men, women, children, killing innocent babies, raping and murdering and taking hostages back into Gaza. 1400 Jews, most of them non-combatants were murdered on that fateful day.

The response by so many here in America has been… “Free Palestine.” Folks, Hamas does not represent the interests of the Palestinian people. They are akin to Isis. Most Americans have no concept of the complexity of the situation there, nor do they have any understanding of why a Jewish state was necessary, nor the history of efforts for a two-state solution that was turned down time and again by the Palestinians despite the best efforts of the world. They do not understand that with this Israeli government led by the right-wing Likud party has not been a friend of the Palestinians, but yet a significant portion of Jews and Israelis have worked for years to find common ground. Radical leaders on both sides have worked to the detriment of their own people. Not unlike here in the US I might add.

So when I try to go online, I’m met with accusations and massive simplistic responses to a complex issue. Yesterday, a woman chastised me for being brainwashed for supporting Israel after a terror attack against them. Let me explain a bit about me. My degree in college was Asian Studies, which included the Middle East with additional studies in International Politics. I’ve been engaged most of my life in a study of the region and the history of the Jewish people. Most people for instance do not know that when Jews were kicked out by the Romans, for most of the 1900 + years we mostly were not citizens in the lands where we lived, and in the cases where we were, it was a citizenship with conditions. Our people were attacked and slaughtered over and over throughout the years leading up to the Shoah. Here in America, antisemitism has been rising at alarming rates once again. I have family that was in Israel during the Yom Kippur War, 50 years exactly prior to the attack this year. Gaza was not under Israeli control. It was ruled by Hamas, and many of the folks slaughtered in the kibbutzim were ardent peace activists who would bring Gazans into Israel for medical care they could not get otherwise.

Lots of other facts come to mind. Like the land that was called Palestine by the Romans after they kicked us out never had self-rule. Some Jews remained in the land after many were kicked out. It has always been a mixed population. But consider this. The US was attacked in 2001 when radical Islamists with roots in Saudi Arabia crashed planes into the Twin Towers. We went to war with both Afghanistan which had connections with Isis and Iraq which did not. We took out the leadership of Isis over time, and innocent people as in all war were killed. Just over 2000 were killed. Israel lost 1400 innocents by a group who during the slaughter left behind Isis’ literature and gleefully filmed the slaughter of innocents. Any nation, and that includes Israel, have the right to protect their borders.

If you want to talk about statehood for Palestinians, I am all ears. At least when this all dies down. I support the rights of Palestinians and a two-state solution. One can be pro-Israel AND pro-Palestinian. Bibi’s government is one thing, but the people are another. Just like we are not all in the image of Trump, Baruch Hashem. But American obsession with their guy with a white hat/ guy with a black hat view of this part of the world are not serving us as well. I did not see this sort of uproar following the violation of basic human rights and the killing of innocents by Iran. Or by Saudi Arabia. Or countless other places around the world. Only Israel, and always in opposition to Jews. Being opposed to actions by the Israeli government is not antisemitic. But attacking not only Israel, but Jews around the world is.

Okay, I’ve spent years studying the region, and yet give no claim to being an expert. But people, why do you in a world filled with propaganda on all sides and without becoming an expert either in the region or Jewish history and the history of the land feel it is okay to attack Jews and people with connections to the land. Or do you say, well, I’m a liberal and liberals support free Palestine, so I don’t dare do anything but follow the status quo? And who said this was required anyway?

Anyway, in my lonely world atop an apartment in NE Mpls, a source of connection is endangered by the either/or folks of this world. It is impossible to fully discuss the intricacies of these issues via social media, or even in this little blog I do. I’m no stranger to hate, either as a Jew or as a Trans person, or as a Gay person. But it all pains the soul more than folks understand. Especially since some of it has come from the people I consider friends. Just do remember, typing words seems harmless enough, but can cause pain regardless.

Shalom b’ Ahava (Peace and Love)!