Albert Schweitzer had a quote that I used to think I could handle, maybe not these days. “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”
Albert Schweitzer had a quote that I used to think I could handle, maybe not these days. “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”
That is a quote from a time when the photographs were not ubiquitous. Now, horrific images of what is happening in Gaza are very hard to completely avoid if you are looking at newspaper websites or other news feeds, at all. They accompany headlines, and they are every day. I consider the argument whether this is genocide or not sets the suffering in some black-white fallacy, where that distinction has any meaning at all as applied to the current daily experience of the Palestinians. It may have political ramifications or impact whether there will be serious repercussions for individual Israeli representatives who are making the decisions they are, but the horror of this, which is clearly intentional, at scale, and the fact that there is no apparent red line for the Israeli government in terms of the number of deaths, or the literal starvation of tens of thousands, is beyond reckoning. The argument that Israel "has a right to defend itself" has become not just a lack of a defense, it has become a damning condemnation, because what is happening in Gaza has gone so far past any rational definition of "defense." And keep in mind that people like me are fully aware that the events of 10/7 have no defense, either, and were horrific (and I am excluding those dramatized claims that were made, which have been subsequently debunked). Sadly, the actions of the Israeli government has burned through much of the sympathy and support that Jews the world over experienced, just as U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq destroyed the sympathy and support of the world that emerged in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
No argument here, my sentiments too. Just who is the biggest bully with the most firepower. “We’ll show those lone wolf terrorists a thing or two.” Except that wolves run in packs. Somebody forgot that. We screwed the pooch after 9/11 and Netanyahu is doing more damage to the Jewish people than Hitler did. Still like the Schweitzer quote.
Albert Schweitzer had a quote that I used to think I could handle, maybe not these days. “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”
That is a quote from a time when the photographs were not ubiquitous. Now, horrific images of what is happening in Gaza are very hard to completely avoid if you are looking at newspaper websites or other news feeds, at all. They accompany headlines, and they are every day. I consider the argument whether this is genocide or not sets the suffering in some black-white fallacy, where that distinction has any meaning at all as applied to the current daily experience of the Palestinians. It may have political ramifications or impact whether there will be serious repercussions for individual Israeli representatives who are making the decisions they are, but the horror of this, which is clearly intentional, at scale, and the fact that there is no apparent red line for the Israeli government in terms of the number of deaths, or the literal starvation of tens of thousands, is beyond reckoning. The argument that Israel "has a right to defend itself" has become not just a lack of a defense, it has become a damning condemnation, because what is happening in Gaza has gone so far past any rational definition of "defense." And keep in mind that people like me are fully aware that the events of 10/7 have no defense, either, and were horrific (and I am excluding those dramatized claims that were made, which have been subsequently debunked). Sadly, the actions of the Israeli government has burned through much of the sympathy and support that Jews the world over experienced, just as U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq destroyed the sympathy and support of the world that emerged in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
No argument here, my sentiments too. Just who is the biggest bully with the most firepower. “We’ll show those lone wolf terrorists a thing or two.” Except that wolves run in packs. Somebody forgot that. We screwed the pooch after 9/11 and Netanyahu is doing more damage to the Jewish people than Hitler did. Still like the Schweitzer quote.