The other day I was talking with my student (yeah, the same student who remembers the American tanks from WWII) and somehow the topic of Israel and Gaza came up - she asked about Obama and then my opinion.
I didn't quite know what to say - I don't fully understand the dynamic between the US and Israel but from how I see it, it's like we back them 100% no matter what... which I don't quite agree with. My memories, attribute it to my youth :) , are of the Israeli army bulldozing houses and displacing Palestinians whose families had inhabited the land for centuries - I can understand the basis for the tension between the parties... and I also see that there are militants on both (all?) sides... and peace is hard to find between extremists.
So I guess that I don't think the Israel actions are proportionate to the Hamas attacks... in my view it's another situation where the civilians are being punished not for the government or nation's actions but because of extremists inhabiting their borders -and the ongoing difficulties the UN and ICRC have in reaching the injured, dying, and starving are unacceptable... bombing UN safehouses is insanity...
I didn't state any of that. Not even close. I hedged, but apparently not enough.
As she tried to communicate her views I realized I am living in a nation were Jews have suffered - where it is part of the identity of the people. Where there has been great interplay in the recent cultural identity between these people and the people of Russia - which as a very strong Jewish Orthodox history... and that I had somehow ended up in a conversation with someone who believed that because of their history of persecution any action taken by the Jewish people will be the right action. That we are living surrounded by concentration camps and there is a heightened awareness of the suffering and persecution endured.
I have no concept - I don't have the structural system to comprehend the horrors inflicted upon and observed by people I know here. It is truly beyond my grasp, and god-willing, it will forever remain so.
And yet I don't think that the past gives you an eternal 'get out of jail' card. I still have a hard time seeing it like that. I still don't quite accept the reasoning or logic, and it has made me pause for a moment.
My reality and existence to this date has helped me to form the views I hold, but that is so very different from the person who engaged me in conversation that I could not continue the conversation - her emotion and strength of her conviction showed me deep rooted passion, which, with her personal history is totally justified.
I believe I have a lot more to learn. And could benefit from closing my mouth more often and opening my ears a bit more... and my eyes.
1 comment:
Jen yo are exactly right about your assessment of the situation in Gaza. The Israelis have done nothing but persecute the Palistinians, who's land it is! In 1940 somthin', Isenhower (I'll look it up) or one of those guys gave the Jewish people a part of the Palistinians land. Hamas is a militant group of people trying to defend their own land, The land of a people displaced from their country because America wants to have a strong hold in the region. Israel has been doing to the Palistinians what the German did to them, I say shame on them, shame on America for letting this murderous and unfounded war to persist. the UN needs to call a cease fire and prosecute the Israelies for war crimes.
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