Gaza

Violence does not justify violence. But it often eliminates passivity as an option. This is the position that Israel is in now. I think the military response is incorrect, though. Hamas started this war, but Israel is to blame for putting Hamas in power. People turn to radicals when their current government’ can’t get done what they want to get done. So it was with Palestine. Fatah was ineffective at securing the Palestinians desired (and deserved) rights, so the people elected Hamas, who has certainly got Israel’s attention, to say the least.

This situation is beginning to make me question my core view of Israel’s existence. Do we, as modern human beings in the twenty-first century, have any right to create or sustain a religious state? I often feel as though most people who call themselves Zionists actually want to pretend that the last two thousand years didn’t ever happen. Yes, Jews were wronged. As were many people. Yes, Jews deserve a homeland. So does everyone. Everyone deserves the right to have a place where they can feel safe, a place to come home to.

But wake up and smell the coffee, guys. Times have changed. It’s no longer applicable for Jews to leave a secluded life, ruled by their own, and over their own. We shouldn’t have kings or judges like in biblical times. Like it or not, this is the post-diaspora world, and Jews don’t deserve special treatment. Period.

Jews do deserve the land of Israel. In both the sense of the concept (Zion), and the physical area. There is absolutely no reason at all that Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and atheists, can’t all share the same land, all have access to its holy sites, and all feel safe and respected there. Jews don’t have the right to take other people’s land because it once belonged to their ancestors. We might as well waltz back into Poland and demand all of the houses and silverware back. Sure, it was “ours” once. But it’s not anymore. Other people have built their lives around where ours used to be. We must respect their work and progress.

So in an intrinsic sense I disagree with Israel. On another level, it symbolizes Jews’ desire to have a homeland. Ultimately, to me, it signifies the potential for coexistence. This war makes that potential harder and harder to achieve. It is not gone, but we must keep our eyes on it. Politics and military objectives must take a back seat to deliberately progressing towards reconciliation. In purely practical terms, it is impossible for Israel to sustain itself like this forever. No one can survive in the midst of such animosity.