They killed some of our children, and so we killed some of theirs. They taught the survivors to hate us, and so we taught our survivors to hate them.

Their children grew up and killed some of our grandchildren, and so our children grew up and killed some of their grandchildren. They taught their survivors to hate us, and so we taught our survivors to hate them.

They say this is their land, and they won’t stop until they kill us all, and so we say this is our land, and we won’t stop until we kill them all.

And so on and so on…

It would seem counterintuitive that a land celebrated as the homeland of a savior has been rent asunder by more killing in the name of a god than almost anywhere else on earth.

The wise men, if there ever were any, left long ago, never to return.

There is nothing in the world to justify what Hamas did, but we can explain it. History is rife with unjustifiable horrors yet we can learn something from their cause. And with Israel’s response, one has to stretch credulity to see a rational justification for the wholesale destruction of Gaza. “What else can we do?” is not a policy, it is a surrender to more of the same insanity.

Yet again, we can explain why it is happening.

If the thought is we will kill so many they will never rise again, history teaches us otherwise. Of all the people in the world, Jews should know this better than any other after enduring centuries of antisemitism culminating with the Final Solution and continuing to this day.

Here’s a quote from David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister.

And the brilliant scientist, Albert Einstein, came to fear what the State of Israel would become. He said,

Einstein and others recognized that denying the Palestinians an equal place in society would inevitably lead to the situation in which Israel finds itself today.

Unless attitudes toward a negotiated resolution recognizing both the Israelis’ and the Palestinians’ right to live there come to fruition, nothing will change. Stir in the vested interest of outside actors, Iran, Syria, Russia, and the USA, and I don’t have much hope for a peaceful conclusion.

I can’t help but point out the dangerous mix of the myths of religions that fuel the conflict, as they have done throughout the centuries. And one of the most troubling arguments—Ben-Gurion stated it clearly in the quote I cited— is that god gave the land to Israel. Such a belief is an antithesis to a rational resolution of the issue. Gods—at least in man’s experience with them—seem to revel in conflict and war.

If the argument is a god gave the land to the Jews and they were here first, then we have some explaining to do to the Indigenous people of this country. And to indigenous peoples all over the world. Or is it only the “gift” of a Christian god that counts?

How can we live with ourselves when the destruction wrought upon Gaza is amplified by the use of American weapons? Those who arm Hamas and Hezbollah bear their own shame.

But shame bears little chance against profit in arms sales. I am certain cheering for every Israeli strike in Gaza is not something the savior so renowned of the land would approve.

And so let’s hope 2024 will bring a new generation to power in government, in Israel and the Palestinian Authority as well as here at home, that will pursue a course of humane negotiation. Continuing the status quo at the point of a terrorist’s weapon or under the barrage of rockets and artillery will lead to nothing but more of the same…thousands of dead and damaged innocent people. Suffer the children, indeed.

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