I got a really nice email yesterday.
(Surprising, as it doesn’t happen that often.)
A photographer reached out to check in; one whom I’d met at a festival five years ago.
Not unlike when Stan wrote to me recently, prompting a column, this time, I also decided to respond via blog post, so I could share the thoughts with everyone.
Why?
Because the photographer admitted to double-checking her email inbox, wondering whether I’d written my take on the Israel-Hamas clusterfuck yet.
(I hadn’t.)
This photographer, though, correctly surmised I’d been thinking constantly about how, and whether to address the subject, but had not yet found the words.
Now I have, so here they are.
Israel and Hamas are both very, very wrong, and they’re bringing all of humanity to the brink of cataclysm.
It is beyond fucked up.
Two historically-disenfranchised-cultures are pitted against each other, mainly because both societies have been overtaken by extreme elements from within.
(It’s a classic example of how much damage right-wingers can do, when they seize the levers of political power.)
But I should probably dive a bit deeper than just saying both sides are wrong.
First off, as a Jewish-American, I felt horrified when I opened Twitter up on Saturday morning, October 7th.
Reality being what it is, I didn’t trust Twitter anymore, so I went directly to the NYT homepage, which confirmed the ongoing terrorist attack.
Such an awful situation, knowing Jews were being actively raped and slaughtered, but it was only the beginning.
Fight theory tells us it was a classic bait.
Hamas wanted to create a War, and so they have.
They’re an extremist Islamist political organization, masquerading as anti-Colonialist Don Quixotes, but as with all things in the 21st Century, it’s so complicated that even Hamas is not entirely wrong.
Because what Israel has done in the West Bank, (actively colonizing land for settlements that obviously will be a part of Palestine in any 2-state solution,) is just as extreme.
The most traditional of Jews believe the land is theirs by religious right.
Just as the most traditional of Evangelical Christians in America believe the same land will ultimately be THEIRS, once Jesus comes back during the Rapture to kill all the infidels, and lead to a new kingdom of heaven on Earth.
(Pause.)
You read that right.
As much as Jews are the current enemy of everyone, (sadly,) Israel’s biggest supporters in American politics are not the Katzenbergs and Geffens of the world, but the 30% of America that’s rooting for the Rapture, and voting for Trump.
But you don’t read much about that, do you?
Let’s just say this out loud:
Palestinians deserve a country. They can’t stay stateless forever, anymore than the Jews could after the Holocaust.
But Hamas isn’t it.
You can’t make peace with an organization that is determined to wipe you off the face of the Earth.
Fuck those guys.
(They hate me, I’ll hate them right back.)
But bombing children for months on end, just because Hamas is callous enough to have created that strategy?
Colossally stupid, morally reprehensible, and perhaps nasty enough to kick off World War III.
Be better, Israel!
True story.
At a Thai dinner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, circa 2003, I broke down the endless cycle of violence between Israel/Palestine with a German friend, and predicted that ultimately, some UN-type, multi-national force would likely have to police Palestine for some period, to get Israel out, but guarantee a new terrorist state would not emerge on its borders.
Seems like the prediction wasn’t far off, as someone will have to rebuild Gaza.
But that can only happen once Israel stands down.
Bibi, stand the fuck down, and then take your medicine and let them vote you out.
You gigantic Asshole!
Let’s not stop there, though.
To all the young, Millennial and Gen Z Americans who are so enmeshed in Tribalism as to feel smug in hating Jews… Fuck you too!
Grow a brain, and learn some history.
(If you come for me, I’ll come for you right back.)
You dumb, dumb motherfuckers.
There are two sides to every story.
A progressive Duke History professor changed my life in 1993, and opened my eyes to humanistic liberalism.
Do your homework, kids. Fire up the Google.
The information is out there.
Hurt people hurt people, and Israel has made some horrifying blunders.
So yes, this iteration of an Israeli government is terrible, but there are still less Jews in the world than there were before Hitler killed 6 million of us.
80 years later, and we still haven’t caught up.
Furthermore, left-wing-zealots have killed just as many people, and been just as evil, as Pol Pot, Mao and Stalin will attest.
So if you want to act like an Ivy-League-Leftist-Nazi, and call for the Genocide of the world’s remaining Jews from behind the safety of your fellow college students at a big protest, instead, please come say it to my face.
Please.
(See how that works out for you.)
Sunshine and Olly 
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