I'm not really saying there's symmetry. I'm saying that the people who currently live in Tel Aviv, by and large, don't see Palestinians as animals and squatters. They're afraid of them, yes, because if you're a 25-year-old Israeli who wasn't even born during the Nakba or any of the rest of it, you just know that there are people out there who hate you. Some of whom are willing to blow themselves up to kill you. And you've been raised within a system that aggressively teaches you, at best, that their reasons for hating you are baseless. Not to mention, uses the holocaust to justify any and all wrongs Israel is guilt of.
I'm the kind of guy who loves neat (and above all, fair) solutions to problems. But I truly think that's impossible here. I don't think that 25-year-old kid should have to leave his or her home. As I say in the article, I think Israel does exist and will continue to exist. I understand the asymmetry and unfairness of what has happened to the Palestinians. But I think the only way forward is to put that aside and deal with what is
Human beings, stuck in the millionth round of humanity's oldest game: "Let's you and me unite...and go smash them!" Have we really evolved from the days of bashing each other with rocks? Or have things just gotten more complex?
“Because these aren’t Israeli or Palestinian problems. they're not Jewish problems or Muslim problems. These are human problems.”
One human side views the other, correctly, as oppressors who must be overcome to allow them to live their lives.
The other human side views the other as subhuman squatters and filthy animals, illegitimately occupying land that’s rightfully theirs because god.
I don’t see the symmetry.
Yes, Hamas is savage and needs to be eliminated. But the settlers are no better than them.
And whatever moral high ground Israel once held is washed away by bombing hospitals and schools.
"I don’t see the symmetry."
I'm not really saying there's symmetry. I'm saying that the people who currently live in Tel Aviv, by and large, don't see Palestinians as animals and squatters. They're afraid of them, yes, because if you're a 25-year-old Israeli who wasn't even born during the Nakba or any of the rest of it, you just know that there are people out there who hate you. Some of whom are willing to blow themselves up to kill you. And you've been raised within a system that aggressively teaches you, at best, that their reasons for hating you are baseless. Not to mention, uses the holocaust to justify any and all wrongs Israel is guilt of.
I'm the kind of guy who loves neat (and above all, fair) solutions to problems. But I truly think that's impossible here. I don't think that 25-year-old kid should have to leave his or her home. As I say in the article, I think Israel does exist and will continue to exist. I understand the asymmetry and unfairness of what has happened to the Palestinians. But I think the only way forward is to put that aside and deal with what is
Human beings, stuck in the millionth round of humanity's oldest game: "Let's you and me unite...and go smash them!" Have we really evolved from the days of bashing each other with rocks? Or have things just gotten more complex?