Five Takes on Israel/Palestine that I Think Are Pretty Uncontroversial
Welp, here we go...
Like everyone, I’m still actively processing the developing war in Israel/Palestine, and at time of writing, it’s unclear what the ultimate result of these events will be. With these caveats in mind, here are some opinions I think are pretty uncontroversial and feel I’m unlikely to change my mind on:
Anyone who won't straightforwardly state that killing civilians is bad (let alone celebrates it) probably isn't worth engaging with.
The Hamas attacks came out of a political context—specifically the ongoing occupation of one group of people (Palestinians) by another (Israelis). You can argue about how we got here and whose fault it is, but you can't explain the violence without that political context.
It’s possible to be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic. That said, Hamas clearly is antisemitic, not merely anti-Zionist. In their own words (per their covenant): “[Muhammed] has said: ‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’”
It's worth remembering that even though the deaths of Israelis are particularly salient in this moment, the absolute historic numbers remain dramatically tilted against Palestinians. These lost lives are a great tragedy whether or not they are well-documented or occurred all at one time.
In times of hardship, art helps. Here are two poems that speak to this moment: