Israel, Palestinians and Hamas

I have been thinking of this post for a few days now, both in terms of whether to compose one, and, if so, what to write. At this point, I would be negligent to not comment, as this story is the most compelling situation in the world today, and may remain so for the foreseeable future.

First, as most people have done, it is clear that the actions by Hamas need to be condemned in the strongest terms. Regardless of any perceived justification, purposefully slaughtering families in their homes, and revelers at a music festival is horrific. It not only confirms the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization, but it does severe harm to the Palestinian people themselves, who may be lumped together with Hamas by those who do not understand the complexity of their situation, and/or prefer the knee jerk reaction of revenge.

It is extremely difficult to understand how this kind if atrocity can be be perceived by the leaders of Hamas as anything other than a huge step backwards, a PR blunder of the highest order. Perhaps in the bubble of Arab hatred towards the Jewish people, there may be some rejoicing, but, as so many people who prefer to only listen to those who echo their own sentiments eventually discover, to attain sympathy and non-partial support for one's perspective, you must first listen to and acknowledge that not everyone thinks alike.

As is usual in this type of disastrous action, thousands of innocent people will suffer. First, of course, all the Israeli (and other nationalities) people who lived in proximity to Gaza, those on the front lines of the brutality which played out last weekend. Followed by the thousands, probably tens of thousands, of Palestinians who will die during the upcoming ground war.

Will Hamas be eliminated from the Earth as is the stated goal of the IDF? It has been tried before, although not with the expected ferocity of the impending onslaught. But, while it is certain that the Hamas leadership will suffer great losses, the hatred which fuels their group will not be extinguished. If anything, should the Israelis kill as many Palestinians as I believe they will, hatred will only increase, on both sides, as the bodies of dead Jewish soldiers are returned to Israel, and as the bodies of Palestinian women and children pile up in Gaza.

There will be no winners, only losers. And, sadly, the cycle of hate will go on.

In the meantime, in America, I have read many reactions that demand that we side with Israel. Now, clearly, siding with Hamas is not going to result in much agreement, but it is important to separate Hamas from the Palestinians. In other words, to hold two thoughts in one's head, outrage at Hamas, support for the effort to recover hostages, and root out Hamas leadership, while also expressing support for the 2.2 million people who are now taking the brunt of the Israeli response.

There are those who might say that the Palestinians elected Hamas to represent their interests, and so they should have known better than to associate with such a hate filled group. That they should bear the brunt of what their ill advised electoral choice has spawned. Perhaps. 

But for those who think this, I doubt if they are willing to assign blame to the Israeli citizens who knowingly chose to live so close to Gaza, who made their electoral choice clear last year and when they chose the hard right Likud government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Some have theorized that Hamas chose this moment to invade due to the instability present in Israel this past year, due to Netanyahu's attempt to weaken the judiciary (giving himself more power), in addition to his support of continued oppression of the Palestinians while advocating for further expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. 

If it is true that the Palestinians should have known the Hamas was a poor leadership choice, then is it as true that the Israelis should have thought the same of Netanyahu? 

I certainly can not claim to be anymore knowledgeable of the decades long animosity between those living in Israel and Palestine as the average American. Their mutual hatred seems to be part religion, part territorial, part cultural. An endless cycle of fear, killing and revenge. But I certainly do know that if violence is the only acceptable reaction to violence, then this conflict will never end. Especially when the hatred that is so evident in this situation translates so easily into the dehumanization of those on the other side of the fence.

Is there some kind of resolution, or a path to mutual tolerance, if not acceptance?

When my son was in elementary school, he was fortunate enough to participate in the People to People Student Ambassador Program, an organization founded during the Eisenhower Administration in 1956. The goal of this, and other similar exchange programs, is to provide young people with immersive, educational travel experiences so as to broaden their world view and, hopefully, learn tolerance of other people and their cultures.

History is replete with examples of individuals who, sometimes by choice, sometimes by unforeseen circumstance, find themselves living with people with completely different lifestyles and traditions. Most often, those people not only learn about others, they learn about themselves as well.

There is a New Testament quote that questions why so many people can see the splinter in the eye of others but not the wooden beam in one's own eye. In other words, why can we not see our own faults when we seem so sure of others?

The point of seeing life through the experience of someone else, especially someone whose beliefs are different from your own, is not just to understand that our creator has given us the chance for a life experience full of diversity. It is also to realize what restrictions we place on our own lives when we do not reflect on the beliefs which we cling to, and often use as an excuse to mistreat those who are not like us. 

I have commented in more than one previous post, that it can be very difficult, very uncomfortable to go outside one's own realm. That fear of others may in fact, have been part of the human condition that allowed us to survive in those first thousands of years. But it seems clear now, that this preexisting condition, if you will, is waning. Some humans seek out new experiences with people of different backgrounds, seemingly from birth. Others learn by doing, or getting the chance to do so as we provided to my son.

Are there such active programs between Israel and Gaza? I tried to find some examples and did see a few mentions, so at least there are some people trying, but clearly not enough. 

I stopped writing at this point as we had old friends to dinner. Before returning to my computer to finish, I read an article from the current edition of the Smithsonian, an article which I did not know was in the magazine until this morning when I opened to it.

It is called "Songs of Survival" and it recounts a small part of the history of the Terezin concentration camp in Poland. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this camp, I would suggest you do some research on your own, or at least read the article. 

In a nutshell, Terezin was a stopping off point for thousands of Jews, a place where they were sent before being transported to the death camps. In other words, the Nazis used places like Terezin to store Jews who were forced from their homes, before sending them off to die. The concept is almost as evil as the end result.

It also happened to be that most of Europe's Jewish artists, musicians and intellectuals were sent to Terezin. The point of the article is that while there, these prisoners tried to maintain the slimmest of connections to their humanity by engaging in painting, writing and composing. And, fortunately for us, some of those efforts, specifically some of the music which was composed, were salvaged. And, are being performed today. 

It is an inspiring story, one which reminds us that the human spirit is capable of surviving unspeakable horrors.

But incredibly sad as well when thought of in the context of what is lost when humans choose to dehumanize "others". It is easy to imagine the wondrous music and art that was not completed due to the slaughter of Jewish artists, writers and composers during the Holocaust. 

But is it any less horrible, when we consider the possible accomplishments that will not be achieved due to the indiscriminate murders which occurred at the hands of Hamas terrorists, and the loss and destruction that is about to occur as the IDF begins its ground war in Gaza?

Is it always necessary to enact revenge when we are wronged? Clearly there are examples of individuals who have chosen forgiveness to break the cycle of violence begetting violence.

Here is a link to an article about 10 everyday people who experienced horrible loss yet chose to forgive those who committed the acts.

https://listverse.com/2013/10/31/10-extraordinary-examples-of-forgiveness/

And of course, a very famous quote by someone who died an excruciating death on a cross:

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".

I am posting this entry under the heading War and Forgiveness. I previously posted something under that title about 9 years ago. In that post I mention an event which was going on in the Middle East although I am not specific about it, although the point of the article was about Jackie Robinson, how he was treated, and how he responded. Still, it would not be hard to conjecture that the Middle East reference was related to the current crisis, as this situation has been with us for decades. Here is that link.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2014/08/42-and-hopefully-counting.html

Revenge stories are as old as written history. When I googled greatest stories of revenge in history, there was no lack of response. It seems as if multiple people and organizations had compiled their own lists of horrific examples of revenge. Perhaps some day, it will just be as easy to find a plethora of examples of the greatest acts of forgiveness in history. Wouldn't it be inspiring if in 20 years, Israeli forgiveness of Hamas brutality, were on the list? 

The Irish and the Choctaw

As I stated in my last post, there are many facts that we have been taught that, while true, are not truly presented. One of those is the famine that occurred in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. I remember learning about the Irish Famine in school. A potato blight was generally blamed, potatoes being the food staple of the rural Irish of the time. 

I don't recall ever asking the obvious question "why couldn't they eat something else", although I wonder if the answer might have been that while the potato was the food mostly effected, other crops also failed, an answer I probably would have accepted. After all, why would a poor harvest of one crop cause over 1.5 million people to die?

Anyone who has spent any time researching this disaster knows a significantly different truth, unfortunately. It was that truth which was referred to in an article I just read in the September/October edition of the Smithsonian Magazine.

The Irish famine was not caused by just a potato blight. As I stated above, how could a poor harvest of one crop cause so many people to starve? You see, the Irish farmers of the time grew many other crops, mostly to sell to pay rent, buy clothes, etc. The potato was the staple of their diet because it was easy to grow and so could provide the basis for their meals. 

Remember, at the time, Ireland was a British possession. To that extent, most Irish farmers did not own the land they farmed, they rented that land from their (mostly) English landlords, who then sold the foodstuffs produced by these tenants. 

So, the real truth is that the Irish famine was not caused by a lack of potatoes, but a lack of food. Food that was readily being produced by those same farmers but was turned over (sometimes at gun point) to be sold by the landowners from whom they rented.

How awful, you might say. I guess it is no surprise that this inconvenient fact was left out of the history lesson taught to elementary and middle school students. 

How could so many people be left to die when there was actually food available? Well, when you do not consider certain people human, when you have been indoctrinated all your life, your parents life, your grandparents life, etc, to consider the Irish farmer as not worth considering, then their death, even of their children, does not register. 

When empathy for other is lost, all sorts of disasters and travesties follow. One might even say that a lack of empathy, whether from an overt refusal or merely a lack of reflection, is the cause of all of the genocides that humans have perpetrated upon each other.

It always begins with code words like "them", or "others", or perhaps we label them as barbaric or illegals or lacking in adoration of a certain deity, but in the end, once we dehumanize a person or group of people, horrific treatment follows.

Sadly, we are are not immune to our own versions of this behavior. The story of a certain Florida governor who tricked immigrants from Texas into boarding planes so he could make some sick kind of political point, is one such example. And, the fact that more than one TV personality on that "news" channel that rhymes with Pox, laughed about it and thought it was a great ploy to own the libs, or whatever crazy justification they posited, makes it even sadder, because whether the pundits agreed with treating other humans so shabbily or not, they knew that their audience would applaud such an action, never even considering how they would feel if someone treated them with such callousness.

Or those who stand behind the American flag and decry providing arms and money to the Ukrainians in their fight against an invading army. So what if civilians, children, the elderly, pregnant women, are being killed, we should take care of our own first. As if working against bullies who try to take whatever they want is not a shared belief that makes us human, makes us "great". 

For all those who revere the greatest generation for defeating Hitler, sounds like they are ignorant to what makes a generation or country great.

Which brings me back to the Smithsonian article. You see, its focus wasn't about the real causes of the Irish Famine. It was about a little known story about how the Choctaw nation, upon hearing about the starvation in Ireland, sent money to the impoverished people to assist. 

Talk about self sacrifice! The Choctaw themselves lived in poverty, having been forced to leave their land via the Trail of Tears. They barely had enough for themselves, yet donated precious money to help another people, people they had absolutely no connection to. 

So, add this little tidbit to the history that most people don't know about.

Perhaps it is better that we not know how horribly we have treated the indigenous people who were here before the arrival of the Europeans, or how we enslaved generations of Black people to work our plantations. That way it is easier for us to consider suggestions about rounding up immigrants who have come here for a better life, and expelling them, violently, if need be. Or even better, arm American citizens and line the border, shooting anyone who tries to cross.

After all, once we cross the line of dehumanization, there is nothing we can't due to "those" people. Once we have jettisoned all aspects of empathy, no inhumane treatment is off the board.

The truly incredible thing about our current immigration morass, is that so many of those who are the loudest about the dangers of these "others", are very recent descendants of those who were the others in the late 19th and early 20th century. 

Unlike the Choctaw and the Irish people who still celebrate the incredible gift that was sent to Ireland when they were in such terrible need, far too many Americans have forgotten their own personal history, as well as our national history so well stated on the Statue of Liberty.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

As emblematic of the meaning of empathy as anything I could conceive of or write.

Here are four other posts discussing Empathy.   

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2023/02/bo-knowsempathy.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/empathy-and-evolution.html

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7395038039066334365/4086742329331846297?hl=en

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2012/01/farewell-peewee.html

Life Changing Events

First, some house keeping. I had my best month ever in September, in terms of "hits" to my blog. Over 8100, which exceeded my previous best by 1500. The vast, vast majority were from Singapore, as I have previously mentioned. So, again, please feel free anyone from that country to leave me a comment telling me why the interest.

As this will be a philosophical post, I checked some that I have written before. Here are links to four that I thought might generate some interest.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2020/09/idealism-vs-realism.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2018/11/intellectual-leprosy.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2018/04/opinions.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2012/01/atlas-shrugged.html

Most people, when asked to retell events which they recall as life changing, can come up with a few. Perhaps the day they met their spouse, or their wedding day. The birth of a child or their children. Maybe graduation from high school or college, the purchase of their first home, a special trip. For some, world events such as D-Day, 9/11, the assassination of a world leader, or world influener. Perhaps even the day of a particularly exciting sporting event.

I commented once, many years ago, that discovering Laphams Quarterly was one such day. Not that I can recall the actual day, but the fact that this wonderful magazine existed without me having the least inkling. It was life changing, in that in the intervening years I have read and been exposed to ideas, concepts, opinions, and facts (this is especially important) that have altered my perception of the world and its workings.

I recently began reading a book that is replicating this feeling. A book whose title I found in that wonderful 2021 Christmas gift from my daughter who filled a glass jar with 100 titles in order to provide me with new reading material. 

"The Dawn of Everything; A New History of Humanity" by David Graeber and David Wengrow is the title.

At this point, I am about two thirds of the way through it. I find I can only read so much at a time so as to absorb its mind blowing words, but I also don't read it everyday because I don't want to finish it. As if, by putting it down, and away, I will lose the importance of its meaning over time, as I read other works, and as I am bombarded with the endless nonsense that we must wade through, nonsense that so easily passes for news, so easily is thrust upon us as if the world of data and information is experiencing a massive bout of diarrhea, with no end in sight.

It is hard to summarize what I have read so far. The 2 Davids, as I like to refer to them, are relentless in demolishing virtually everything I have been taught throughout my life. 

For instance, there is a lot of interest in aliens right now. Not just as to whether they are with us in secret today, but how many times they have visited in the past and which of the unexplained man made wonders of ancient times must they have built. Since we can't seem to build a house or a road to last more than a few decades, how could pre-industrial man have built the pyramids, etc, which have lasted thousands of years? Must have been aliens!

Now, the 2 Davids don't necessarily address this phenomenon, at least not yet, as again, I still have many pages to go. But what they do address is the idea that men who lived thousands of years ago couldn't have accomplished these tasks alone. That they weren't smart enough, or didn't have the right tools, or the right math. 

And it isn't just the building of great architectural structures that they address, but philosophical concepts of equality, social structures, gender relations, government, justice and fairness. 

In other words, this book takes on the entire sphere of propaganda that we have been taught via all our current institutions, religious, political, national, social, cultural, etc, and turns them all on their proverbial heads. 

But don't get me wrong. I don't view the author's purpose in a negative light. They are not anarchists trying to upend our very existence, or back to nature freaks who think we should go back to living in caves. I view them more as educators trying to explain that its the conclusions that we have been taught about history, especially humanity's progression from hunter gatherers to farmers and city dwellers, that is off base. And, that this progression should be considered with less of a value judgement (ancient men were less smart, more barbaric and violent, not capable of complex thoughts about life, for instance) and certainly not as a function of inevitable evolution where today's version of man is "better" than previous ones. 

Or not worse for that matter. Just different.

We have been indoctrinated (a loaded word in today's 24 hour news cycle) to believe all sorts of "facts" about how men lived before the miracle of modern technologies, how men interacted with each other, how the genders valued each other. But regardless of the teacher (religious, political, cultural, national), we are always taught that we are evolving towards a more egalitarian existence. That we are becoming more enlightened in terms of recognizing the value of diversity in man, as well as the environment.

Well perhaps that is too strong, but that certainly, we are more kind to each other than our ancestors of 10,000 years ago were to each other. That concepts like democracy and freedom and equality didn't exist before the Europeans crossed the oceans to "civilize" the barbarians they "discovered".

Graeber and Wengrow address these kind of conclusions, and attempt (successfully, so far, for me) to provide some different conclusions that fit the facts just as well, even better in some instances.

Pick up the book, if you can. I will share more thoughts about it when I have finished.