The Day of the Dead – Honoring and remembering the dead – family, friends, beloved animal companions, the recent victims of the horrific Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, and the estimated 9,000 and counting now dead in Gaza, especially the children, and the dead in all the many places where there are wars and natural disasters, all perhaps equally movements of nature. May they all rest in peace.
It is further proof of the value of our commitment to investigate our hearts and conditioned thoughts to root out the hatred and indifference which, if unexamined, is the cause off all suffering.
This unimaginable slaughter is the magnification of the inability or failure to do that .
May we all call on Love to redouble our commitment and effort to ease the suffering of the world. It might be all we can do, but it is essential.
Thank you for this, Diana. I feel much as Gabor does that this relentless assault on Gaza (and the West Bank) is one the darkest things I've lived through--and it is at times a struggle not to succumb to despair or rage or judgement or self-destructive urges, or to reach for some form of spiritual opium that attempts to by-pass the raw pain, but to simply be present, to bear witness both to what is happening "over there" and also "in here." Knowing I am not alone is profoundly helpful. We all need each other. So, thank you for your comment.
Yes. We all need each other. Especially in the raw honesty of our feelings. Grateful not to be 'pacified' with "spiritual opium" as you said.
I dont know how to contain or hold my feelings of grief,.anger and despair. And I'm trying to embrace them as a way to share this vast, fathomless pain with all who are in an agony I cannot even imagine.
Thank you for your willingness and compassion to share something of the depth of your feelings, Joan . Yes, it makes a great difference to feel we are not alone.
Joan, as the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor and a woman living in Israel I am incredibly disappointed in the video you shared. I am well aware of what a genocide is, considering my background and the extensive research I’ve done on the subject, and what is happening in Gaza is not a genocide.
To take issue with what is happening is of course legitimate, to mourn innocent civilian lives is a must, but to take this incredibly complex issue and put it into black and white, and to throw the word genocide around when you clearly lack an understanding of either what genocide is or what the situation in Israel- Palestine is, is only spreading hate and misinformation. To describe the situation as if there is one side who is pure evil, oppressor and fully guilty for all suffering, and one side is pure good, victim, oppressed, is to show such a deep lack of understanding of the situation and such deep lack of compassion for everyone involved. I thought that after so many years of meditation you were wiser than that. More capable of understanding the complexities of life and the fact that rarely are things black and white. I guess I was wrong.
Dear Miriam, I recognize that you are living in Israel and have been through (and are still going through) deeply traumatizing events. But I can assure you that neither Gabor Mate, the man in the video I shared, nor I subscribe to the views you are imagining we do--that "one side is pure evil, oppressor and fully guilty for all suffering, and one side is pure good, victim, oppressed." Far from it.
This is my third post since the brutal and horrific attacks of October 7. If you are genuinely interested in how I see it, I wrote a long article—it is the second part of this substack post: https://joantollifson.substack.com/p/free-will. My next post shared a very moving talk by a Jewish Zen teacher, Norman Fischer, which included him reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s profound poem “Please Call Me by My True Names.” You can find the link to that in this post: https://joantollifson.substack.com/p/a-powerful-talk .
And contrary to your assumptions, I have read, watched and listened extensively to many different perspectives on this conflict over many decades. The conflict in Israel-Palestine, which has been going on all my life (I'm 75), is (as I see it) a complex and volatile situation occurring amongst deeply traumatized people on both sides, and there are many different narratives, viewpoints and ways of seeing and framing what has happened over my lifetime and before. I have been through many phases in my own evolving perspective on this situation, and it wouldn't surprise me if I go through more. I try to remain open. And I do have empathy with both sides. I don't support Hamas, although I do recognize that they didn't come out of nowhere, but I certainly condemn what Hamas did on October 7 and of course I condemn anti-Semitism and any agenda to wipe out all Jews. Contrary to your assumptions, I don't tend to think in terms of good and evil, and I certainly don't see things in black and white. I don't find any of that helpful. The main focus of my work is on what goes on in each of us, myself included, and not primarily on what is "out there."
The man in the video I shared here, Gabor Maté, is a Jewish Hungarian-Canadian medical doctor whose work has focused on addiction and trauma. He was born in Budapest during WWII, and his maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz. His medical career has included family practice, palliative care, working with a population of people in a rundown part of Vancouver dealing with homelessness, substance abuse, HIV, etc, and most recently, working on trauma. He has spent time in the Middle East, and I can assure you that he understands the situation deeply, although you may not agree with his views (or mine).
I have no interest in "spreading hate and misinformation." But as a citizen of a country whose tax dollars are funding Israel's brutal assault on Gaza, I do feel moved to speak out for the Palestinian people. And yes, I do see it as a genocide at this point. You may not, and we can disagree.
I wish you well in these dark and difficult times. And I send you my love. May you be safe. 🙏
Thank you for putting the time and effort in to write a well thought out comment.
Firstly, I apologize for assuming that you see things in black and white and I appreciate that you have tried to hear many different perspectives on each side.
Secondly, I would like to ask out of genuine curiosity, can you explain how you see this as a genocide?
I’ve seen this word used a lot and at the moment I don’t see any way in which this constitutes a genocide, but I accept the possibility that I may be missing something.
Thanks again for your thoughtful post and for you well wishes.
Miriam, I’m so happy to hear from you and to be able to further clarify and resolve. I appreciate your apology, and rest assured, I’ve done the same thing myself many times, as I’m sure most humans have—jumping to a conclusion when we are emotionally triggered. And you are in the midst of all this horror, while I am far away in a relatively safe and peaceful place. Although I will say, I have the deep sense that we are all one indivisible and interdependent whole beneath all the apparent divisions and distances.
This evening I watched an interesting conversation between Sam Harris and Graeme Wood, author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State, and my understanding of the situation was shifted yet again: https://samharris.org/episode/SE981CECEA6 -- I don’t entirely share all of Sam’s views, but it gave me a different perspective on the difficult situation Israel is in, as well as the one Biden is in, and vastly more empathy for both.
Perhaps genocide is the wrong word. It’s a loaded word, I know. This is certainly a situation with a very long and complicated history, and both sides have done terrible things over these many decades. I used the word because I do see a long history of Israel pushing Palestinians off their land, taking away more and more, forcing them to live in horrible conditions, wanting them to accept what have seemed to me like unequal “solutions", and I have seen over many decades incredibly disproportionate violence (fighter jets, giant bombs and white phosphorus used by one side; small rockets, suicide bombers and paragliders used by the other, with vastly more death and destruction on one side than on the other). I see Israel now being willing to drop a bomb knowing that it will kill and maim hundreds of Palestinians in order to maybe kill one Hamas leader. Yes, they drop leaflets warning people to evacuate, but it seems that there is nowhere to go and no safe way to get there and no way at all for the aged and the wounded. My sense is that Netanyahu seems to be going for a total wipe out of Gaza this time, or at least as close to it as he can get away with internationally. And the West Bank is under attack as well. That seems like genocide: “violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” But maybe it is the wrong word, since maybe at least most Israelis only want to destroy Hamas and not Palestinians in general. And I do assume this assault on Gaza comes from a desire to protect Israel (self-defense) along with the urge to avenge what happened, but my sense is that violence will only beget more violence, more hate, more terrorism. But I have no idea what can solve this situation, if anything even can.
Thank you for writing back. I wish you the best. 🙏
And Sam Harris often does a great job bringing perspective in situations :)
I am quite certain that as you said the majority of Israeli’s truly just want to feel safe in their homes. I also believe the IDF tries to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza to the best of its abilities, but I understand we may disagree about that.
I also completely agree with you about many of the injustices done in the West Bank- settler violence and pushing Palestinians off their land is awful and unacceptable. And I see how problematic fighting in Gaza is and how much death and suffering it causes to civilians there- I wish there was a better way to get rid of Hamas. However even with these very real problems and the deaths caused, I don’t believe that the intention is in any way to destroy the Palestinians as a group and therefore I’m confident that the word genocide does not apply here. I believe these deaths are unwanted civilian casualties in an unwanted war. (As far as Palestinians killed by settlers in the West Bank, that is enraging and unacceptable and must be dealt with immediately. I believe it is a fringe group inflicting this violence but I am disgusted that the government has not properly prosecuted them)
I wish I had a solution, as I’m sure we all do, but at the very least I hope we will be able to change our leadership soon and bring the country in a better direction.
Best wishes and I really appreciate you for continuing to have an open perspective and dialogue on the situation. That feels rare these days and it can be scary when you feel like no one is listening to each other anymore.
Ezra Klein has done 4 excellent shows recently on the situation in Israel-Palestine. I highly recommend them all, but especially the last two, one with a Palestinian, the other with an Israeli. The conversation with the Israeli significantly changed my thinking, gave me much more appreciation and sympathy for the Israeli perspective, and also gave me a little bit of hope for the future, which I had not had. Ezra prefaced these two conversations by saying: “Before there can be any kind of stable coexistence of people in Israel and Palestine, there will have to be a stable coexistence of narratives. And that’s what we’ll be attempting this week on the show: to look at both the present and the past through Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. The point is not to choose between them. The point is to really listen to them. Even — especially — when what’s being said is hard for us to hear.” Here they are, both very informative and nuanced:
A truly chilling video. I don’t know who this man is or how credible this particular story is, but if it is true, it is obviously very high on the list of horrifying atrocities committed by humans. It is referenced as well in the video I mentioned above with Sam Harris and Graeme Wood. And I certainly believe it could be true. Utterly horrible.
Over the course of human history, human beings have done unbelievably cruel things to other humans. And whether this particular horrific event actually happened or not, I have no doubt that brutal and cruel acts were committed by Hamas on October 7, and certainly horrible acts of violence have been committed on both sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict—although I have never heard of Israelis doing anything quite this up close and horrific. But then, it’s not a mystery how traumatized people on both sides who have seen loved ones killed can be filled with hatred and pain and motivated by that to perpetrate harm in ways they would otherwise have found unimaginable.
One of the things that disturbs me most in this situation is that, in addition to the misinformation generated in the fog of war that exists in any war, and in addition to the deliberate attempts at suppression, misdirection and propaganda that also seem to occur on all sides in every war, we now have these vastly expanded sources of news and information created by social media and the many different 24/hr global sources of information offering many differing perspectives, ranging from crazy conspiracy theories to credible possibilities, AND, we have the very disturbing capabilities of AI to create totally real-seeming videos of apparently real people saying and doing whatever the video-maker wants it to appear they were saying and doing. It seems to me that none of us can be absolutely sure anymore (at least initially) about what is fake news, deep fakes or deliberate misdirection and what is actually true—although, on the other hand, it is harder for governments and police and armies to lie given the way everyone now has a cell phone.
But assuming this story is true, as I believe it certainly might be, I don’t agree with this man’s conclusions. I may be wrong, but I don’t think all (or probably most) Palestinians are in support of everything Hamas does and certainly not of horrific atrocities such as this, any more than I think every Israeli supports everything Netanyahu, the IDF, or militant settlers do to Palestinians. And I definitely don’t think more violence is the solution. I don’t know what the solution is, honestly, or if there is one.
I’m also not nearly as sure as this man seems to be that Hamas is motivated primarily by a desire to kill Jews, rather than by a desire to end the state of Israel, which is potentially a very different goal (and yes, I’ve seen their original charter, and I know there is anti-Semitism among many Arabs, just as there is anti-Arab hatred and demonization among many Jews—and the fundamentalist Islamic jihadi mindset is certainly especially troubling—and the Sam Harris video suggests that Hamas is motivated by the end goals of that mindset—and I truly don’t know).
I’m also aware that many things can be lost in translation, deliberately or inadvertently, and that there is much public confusion conflating Jews and Israel, Palestinians and Hamas, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and so on. But to reiterate, I don’t support Hamas, anti-Semitism, Islamic fundamentalist ideologies, acts of terror, and certainly not any acts of extreme cruelty such as the horrific ones described here.
Again, I wish you safety and peace. Thank you for being here. We all need each other. Much Love to you....
Once again, thank you for the effort you put into responding to me :)
As far as the story this man tells, Israeli news agencies verified that a baby was in fact found burnt to death in an oven. As far as the simultaneous rape, I couldn’t say for sure because I don’t have the stomach to watch videos like that myself.
And I certainly hope you are correct in thinking that many or most Palestinians don’t agree with or condone these actions. I thought that way before this all happened but unfortunately now, after seeing so many reactions that celebrate or justify these atrocities by many Palestinians and Palestinians supporters, I’m not so sure anymore.
Either way, I continue to pray for peace and a better future for us all.
I would highly recommend, this program: Ezra Klein talking with Zack Beauchamp about what Israel should do, what the options are, what works and what doesn’t in fighting terrorism—excellent discussion: https://youtu.be/M7K327quaEc
Nothing is totally certain about how that baby died (and maybe never will be), here's an excerpt from the article :
"That paucity of knowledge leads, Beer said, to a number of gruesome questions: Did Hamas terrorists put the baby in the oven, then kill the baby as they turned the oven on? Did the baby’s parents hide the child in the oven to keep them safe from the attackers, only to burn as the house was set aflame? When was the baby killed?
“They have many bodies that aren’t identified yet,” Beer said. “Luckily today there is technology that they can do DNA and everything, but what happens when the whole family are murdered?”
He added, “A lot of the stories will never be told because the people that saw it and witnessed it are not with us anymore.” "
Besides I agree with you, Joan, when you say : "... I don’t think all Palestinians are in support of everything Hamas does..." There is, for example, the voice of that courageous Gazan woman saying “All of this is because of the dogs of Hamas" while grieving over the dead body of a loved one (probably killed after an Isreali airstrike) in a video that went viral on social media.
I think the men around her, cover her mouth for her own safety, since she could be in big trouble for saying that.
I'll end by sharing an interesting point of view of a Palestinian American on Reddit, here are the first sentences of his text : "I’m a Palestinian American that is Anti-Hamas. Let me be clear I am absolutely SICK to my stomach about what Hamas have done to the Israelis. But that aside I wanna once again talk about Hamas’s impact on the Palestinians. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: we don’t know how many people in Gaza ACTUALLY support Hamas because they’re documented to execute critics and political rivals." ( to read it all : https://www.reddit.com/r/IsraelPalestine/comments/17mc9t1/i_saw_a_video_of_a_palestinian_woman_in_gaza/ )
Thank you for all this, Cedric. It's so important for all of us to remember how easily misinformation can spread, how stories can get (intentionally or unintentionally) twisted as they are told and re-told, how many different interpretations, speculations and narratives are floating around about the motives and end-games of both sides, and how much we just don't know, while recognizing that unfathomable horror has been inflicted on both sides. 🙏
The more different perspectives I read and hear, the less I feel absolutely certain about, and the more I feel there is a mix of truth and misinformation on all sides. Some of the misinformation is deliberate—propaganda—some is the fog of war, and some is social media, rumor, and just the exaggeration and distortion that tends to happen as stories spread. Some of supposed atrocities of Oct 7 may not have happened—that’s what Max Blumenthal talks about here: https://youtu.be/d0gECjlpXF8 (and I’ve heard it from other sources as well, including an Israeli paper). Namely the really awful things like beheaded babies and rapes and the like. And some of the killing may have been done by the IDF and not Hamas. This is what Max is exposing, and I suspect it is at least partially true although I’d guess probably not the whole story. And there were other Palestinians there besides just Hamas, so not everything done was done by Hamas. But indisputably, many people in Israel, the majority of them civilians, were murdered that day and many others taken hostage. At the moment, many Israeli hostages are being freed along with many Palestinians who have been imprisoned in Israel (many without charges or trials), and in both groups, many are children. Israel vows to renew the bloodshed and destruction after this pause, and it really does now look like ethnic cleansing or genocide.
Regarding the terrorist attacks and atrocities of Oct 7, I believe they really happened, I've not personally seen the 48 min long film consisting of raw footage and pictures of what happened that day, taken from cctv, from the terrorists themselves, etc. but a lot of journalists (at least here in France) and deputies (french equivalent of us congressmen) have seen it and some of them clearly detailed what they saw. And I thank them for that because just saying "it's so horrible, there are no words" is not enough, it's important to know what really happened to put words on the images for those like me that didn't see the film, because if we don't know what's in the film, people can easily negate the 7oct attacks and just say "we don't have any proof, it's just propaganda".
So, if you are interested, here are two accounts of two persons that saw the images and described them :
It's on X but in french, so I'll translate it here :
"A father and his two young sons ran to hide in a shelter after the first shots. They are in their boxers, out of bed. Hamas terrorists throw a grenade into the shelter. The father throws himself on it to protect his children. He is killed. The boys come out of the shelter, step over their father's corpse, and take refuge in the house. The biggest one says: “I want to die, why are we alive? ". He treats his injured little brother. A Hamas terrorist comes in, opens the fridge, helps himself to a drink.
A man is on the ground. He's still moving. A terrorist takes a shovel, a square shovel with a long wooden handle. He brings the shovel down on the man’s neck.
A kindergarten. A woman hides behind cushions in a classroom. Two terrorists enter, shoot her, take the body and leave.
A black dog comes forward. The terrorist shoots him 4 times in the head.
Hamas leader on phone with terrorist: "cut off their heads and send us the photos".
Photo of a skull literally cut in two. Vertically. Carbonized.
A baby, head exploded. A piece of brain comes out.
Hamas terrorists jump on a corpse.
A man, alive, pulled by his hair, hoisted into the back of a car.
A Hamas terrorist on the phone with his parents: “Dad, mom, your son is a hero, your son is a hero. I killed 10 Jews. I killed 10 Jews, I have their blood on my hands”
The father: “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”
Rave party. Young refugees in a shelter, injured. Some call their parents. Next shot, they are all dead.
Hamas terrorists exult, shouting “we killed the Jew dogs”.
Next shot, terrorists repeat ten times: “Allahu Akbar”.
15 photos of charred corpses. Of some, there is almost nothing left.
This is what I saw. I didn't see everything. I closed my eyes several times. To protect myself. I did my best to report this testimony.
Tonight, I'm torn. I don't imagine that these images could be shown to the general public. Then, I see the long and pernicious poison of Holocaust denial taking effect. And I tell myself that by taking all the necessary precautions, we will have to show these images. To make us witnesses to the unspeakable."
I attended the 2nd press broadcast of the IDF documentary made from videos filmed on October 7, 23 by Hamas terrorists.
What I saw was simply unbearable.
The word barbarism is no longer enough to name the indescribable.
Armed terrorists massacre civilians at point-blank range in their vehicles, in the streets, in their homes. Men, women, children, the elderly.
A father and his two shirtless sons hide in a shelter. A terrorist throws a grenade there, the children survive.
One of them calls for his father and shouts:
- why are we alive, I want to die
45 minutes of bodies riddled with bullets, burned, decapitated, a killer attacks a civilian with a shovel, others shoot at the participants of the rave party in the desert, like in a video game.
A terrorist calls his mother in Gaza and shouts in excitement:
- I killed 10 with my own hands.
A Hamas leader on the line asks to cut off the heads.
A long series of photos of Israeli corpses transformed into piles of flesh, dehumanized, a baby with a shattered skull.
A selfie of the perpetrators of these abominations. They seem young, they laugh, they have fun, it’s a party.
It’s a shock, impossible to forget these images forever.
This massacre was carried out to open the door to chaos.
The terrorists wanted to cross a point of no return.
An obvious fact beyond the horror: its sponsors knew that it would provoke a single reaction from Israel and its leaders, a massive assault on Gaza.
Yes, the images are unbearable.
Yes, Israel engages in a form of wartime communication.
Because public opinion is changing over the weeks of bombings and fighting in Gaza.
The Hamas terrorists not only produced a massacre unprecedented since the Shoah, they wanted to humiliate, break, reach the Jewish people deep within themselves.
But they also planned the certain death of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians whose fate matters little to them. The Gazans who perish under the bombs are also the victims of Hamas.
This documentary is not the justification of deaths in exchange for deaths.
It tells of the outbreak of absolute chaos and its implacable, deadly logic.
The one that humanity must know how to put an end to."
To finish I'll share a clip of a french news tv station where Amine El-Khatmi (who wrote the first account I shared) is interviewed on what he saw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwUY-RmvSwI He says that during the 48 min film are shown 138 Isreali victims and that there is footage that wasn't even inserted in that film, sush as sexual content (for instance a gang rape ), and the journalist next to him confirms it and says : "yes, indeed a gang rape footage that has been shown today to some journalists". (min 6'45")
So as far as I'm concerned, even if I haven't directly seen the footage of the atrocities, I believe those that have seen the images, I believe their accounts, I believe that what happened oct 7 really happened... Isreali civilians, women, men, children, babies, killed, some beheaded, some raped, some burned, some stamped on,.... To me, those are facts.
What happened in Israel on Oct 7 was horrific, and Hamas has apparently vowed to do more of the same. What should Israel do? There are truly no good options that I can see. What they are doing (relentlessly bombing the civilian population, bombing hospitals, refugee camps, ambulances, etc., and cutting off food, water and electricity) seems profoundly cruel, and in my opinion, is putting Israel in greater danger, inspiring terrorism worldwide, increasing anti-Semitism, and flirting with setting off a regional and possibly world war. But what to do? For those interested, I highly recommend these six podcasts:
Ezra Klein talking with Zack Beauchamp about what Israel should do, what the options are, what works and what doesn’t in fighting terrorism: https://youtu.be/M7K327quaEc
Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisor Dr. Alice Rothchild on Democracy Now describing the health catastrophe in Gaza: https://youtu.be/cmPUzxcj9H4
I especially recommend the one with a Palestinian, and the one with an Israeli. Ezra prefaced those two by saying: “Before there can be any kind of stable coexistence of people in Israel and Palestine, there will have to be a stable coexistence of narratives. And that’s what we’ll be attempting this week on the show: to look at both the present and the past through Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. The point is not to choose between them. The point is to really listen to them. Even — especially — when what’s being said is hard for us to hear.” Here they are:
Conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi, a Jewish Israeli author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem: https://youtu.be/EVeh-26rCdQ?si=oEGpdlmvjgLEbfkB – this episode significantly changed my thinking, gave me much more appreciation and sympathy for the Israeli perspective, and also gave me a little bit of hope for the future, which I had not had.
Finally...this podcast of Sam Harris, which I had avoided listening to but finally did, has led me to question much of my thinking and many of my beliefs around all of this. I don't completely agree with everything Sam says, but it highlights a dimension of this conflict that many on the left, myself included, have been ignoring to our peril, and I think it is actually a very important dimension. Sam speaks about the importance of understanding both Islamic ideology and anti-Semitism, and the importance of not ignoring either: https://youtu.be/oFBm8nQ2aBo?si=LRsTGdMVk1FlL2T6
Five Myths about Israel and the War in Gaza by Sam Harris – below are links to both the written blog and the audio podcast, so you can read or listen. I don’t always agree with Sam, but I have great respect and appreciation for his integrity and his work. I’ve been a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause, and I’ve been supportive of the calls for an Israeli ceasefire. I might question or argue with a few things Sam says (or leaves out) here, but he makes some really excellent points. This is a perspective that I think those of us on the left who support the Palestinian cause and who are often highly critical of Israel really need to hear. So I encourage people to read or listen to this, and to do so with an open mind:
Thank you for posting this, Joan.
It is further proof of the value of our commitment to investigate our hearts and conditioned thoughts to root out the hatred and indifference which, if unexamined, is the cause off all suffering.
This unimaginable slaughter is the magnification of the inability or failure to do that .
May we all call on Love to redouble our commitment and effort to ease the suffering of the world. It might be all we can do, but it is essential.
Thank you for this, Diana. I feel much as Gabor does that this relentless assault on Gaza (and the West Bank) is one the darkest things I've lived through--and it is at times a struggle not to succumb to despair or rage or judgement or self-destructive urges, or to reach for some form of spiritual opium that attempts to by-pass the raw pain, but to simply be present, to bear witness both to what is happening "over there" and also "in here." Knowing I am not alone is profoundly helpful. We all need each other. So, thank you for your comment.
Yes. We all need each other. Especially in the raw honesty of our feelings. Grateful not to be 'pacified' with "spiritual opium" as you said.
I dont know how to contain or hold my feelings of grief,.anger and despair. And I'm trying to embrace them as a way to share this vast, fathomless pain with all who are in an agony I cannot even imagine.
Thank you for your willingness and compassion to share something of the depth of your feelings, Joan . Yes, it makes a great difference to feel we are not alone.
Joan, as the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor and a woman living in Israel I am incredibly disappointed in the video you shared. I am well aware of what a genocide is, considering my background and the extensive research I’ve done on the subject, and what is happening in Gaza is not a genocide.
To take issue with what is happening is of course legitimate, to mourn innocent civilian lives is a must, but to take this incredibly complex issue and put it into black and white, and to throw the word genocide around when you clearly lack an understanding of either what genocide is or what the situation in Israel- Palestine is, is only spreading hate and misinformation. To describe the situation as if there is one side who is pure evil, oppressor and fully guilty for all suffering, and one side is pure good, victim, oppressed, is to show such a deep lack of understanding of the situation and such deep lack of compassion for everyone involved. I thought that after so many years of meditation you were wiser than that. More capable of understanding the complexities of life and the fact that rarely are things black and white. I guess I was wrong.
Dear Miriam, I recognize that you are living in Israel and have been through (and are still going through) deeply traumatizing events. But I can assure you that neither Gabor Mate, the man in the video I shared, nor I subscribe to the views you are imagining we do--that "one side is pure evil, oppressor and fully guilty for all suffering, and one side is pure good, victim, oppressed." Far from it.
This is my third post since the brutal and horrific attacks of October 7. If you are genuinely interested in how I see it, I wrote a long article—it is the second part of this substack post: https://joantollifson.substack.com/p/free-will. My next post shared a very moving talk by a Jewish Zen teacher, Norman Fischer, which included him reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s profound poem “Please Call Me by My True Names.” You can find the link to that in this post: https://joantollifson.substack.com/p/a-powerful-talk .
And contrary to your assumptions, I have read, watched and listened extensively to many different perspectives on this conflict over many decades. The conflict in Israel-Palestine, which has been going on all my life (I'm 75), is (as I see it) a complex and volatile situation occurring amongst deeply traumatized people on both sides, and there are many different narratives, viewpoints and ways of seeing and framing what has happened over my lifetime and before. I have been through many phases in my own evolving perspective on this situation, and it wouldn't surprise me if I go through more. I try to remain open. And I do have empathy with both sides. I don't support Hamas, although I do recognize that they didn't come out of nowhere, but I certainly condemn what Hamas did on October 7 and of course I condemn anti-Semitism and any agenda to wipe out all Jews. Contrary to your assumptions, I don't tend to think in terms of good and evil, and I certainly don't see things in black and white. I don't find any of that helpful. The main focus of my work is on what goes on in each of us, myself included, and not primarily on what is "out there."
The man in the video I shared here, Gabor Maté, is a Jewish Hungarian-Canadian medical doctor whose work has focused on addiction and trauma. He was born in Budapest during WWII, and his maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz. His medical career has included family practice, palliative care, working with a population of people in a rundown part of Vancouver dealing with homelessness, substance abuse, HIV, etc, and most recently, working on trauma. He has spent time in the Middle East, and I can assure you that he understands the situation deeply, although you may not agree with his views (or mine).
I have no interest in "spreading hate and misinformation." But as a citizen of a country whose tax dollars are funding Israel's brutal assault on Gaza, I do feel moved to speak out for the Palestinian people. And yes, I do see it as a genocide at this point. You may not, and we can disagree.
I wish you well in these dark and difficult times. And I send you my love. May you be safe. 🙏
Thank you for putting the time and effort in to write a well thought out comment.
Firstly, I apologize for assuming that you see things in black and white and I appreciate that you have tried to hear many different perspectives on each side.
Secondly, I would like to ask out of genuine curiosity, can you explain how you see this as a genocide?
I’ve seen this word used a lot and at the moment I don’t see any way in which this constitutes a genocide, but I accept the possibility that I may be missing something.
Thanks again for your thoughtful post and for you well wishes.
Miriam, I’m so happy to hear from you and to be able to further clarify and resolve. I appreciate your apology, and rest assured, I’ve done the same thing myself many times, as I’m sure most humans have—jumping to a conclusion when we are emotionally triggered. And you are in the midst of all this horror, while I am far away in a relatively safe and peaceful place. Although I will say, I have the deep sense that we are all one indivisible and interdependent whole beneath all the apparent divisions and distances.
This evening I watched an interesting conversation between Sam Harris and Graeme Wood, author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State, and my understanding of the situation was shifted yet again: https://samharris.org/episode/SE981CECEA6 -- I don’t entirely share all of Sam’s views, but it gave me a different perspective on the difficult situation Israel is in, as well as the one Biden is in, and vastly more empathy for both.
Perhaps genocide is the wrong word. It’s a loaded word, I know. This is certainly a situation with a very long and complicated history, and both sides have done terrible things over these many decades. I used the word because I do see a long history of Israel pushing Palestinians off their land, taking away more and more, forcing them to live in horrible conditions, wanting them to accept what have seemed to me like unequal “solutions", and I have seen over many decades incredibly disproportionate violence (fighter jets, giant bombs and white phosphorus used by one side; small rockets, suicide bombers and paragliders used by the other, with vastly more death and destruction on one side than on the other). I see Israel now being willing to drop a bomb knowing that it will kill and maim hundreds of Palestinians in order to maybe kill one Hamas leader. Yes, they drop leaflets warning people to evacuate, but it seems that there is nowhere to go and no safe way to get there and no way at all for the aged and the wounded. My sense is that Netanyahu seems to be going for a total wipe out of Gaza this time, or at least as close to it as he can get away with internationally. And the West Bank is under attack as well. That seems like genocide: “violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” But maybe it is the wrong word, since maybe at least most Israelis only want to destroy Hamas and not Palestinians in general. And I do assume this assault on Gaza comes from a desire to protect Israel (self-defense) along with the urge to avenge what happened, but my sense is that violence will only beget more violence, more hate, more terrorism. But I have no idea what can solve this situation, if anything even can.
Thank you for writing back. I wish you the best. 🙏
Thank you for the clarification!
And Sam Harris often does a great job bringing perspective in situations :)
I am quite certain that as you said the majority of Israeli’s truly just want to feel safe in their homes. I also believe the IDF tries to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza to the best of its abilities, but I understand we may disagree about that.
I also completely agree with you about many of the injustices done in the West Bank- settler violence and pushing Palestinians off their land is awful and unacceptable. And I see how problematic fighting in Gaza is and how much death and suffering it causes to civilians there- I wish there was a better way to get rid of Hamas. However even with these very real problems and the deaths caused, I don’t believe that the intention is in any way to destroy the Palestinians as a group and therefore I’m confident that the word genocide does not apply here. I believe these deaths are unwanted civilian casualties in an unwanted war. (As far as Palestinians killed by settlers in the West Bank, that is enraging and unacceptable and must be dealt with immediately. I believe it is a fringe group inflicting this violence but I am disgusted that the government has not properly prosecuted them)
I wish I had a solution, as I’m sure we all do, but at the very least I hope we will be able to change our leadership soon and bring the country in a better direction.
Best wishes and I really appreciate you for continuing to have an open perspective and dialogue on the situation. That feels rare these days and it can be scary when you feel like no one is listening to each other anymore.
Thank you 🙏🏽
Ezra Klein has done 4 excellent shows recently on the situation in Israel-Palestine. I highly recommend them all, but especially the last two, one with a Palestinian, the other with an Israeli. The conversation with the Israeli significantly changed my thinking, gave me much more appreciation and sympathy for the Israeli perspective, and also gave me a little bit of hope for the future, which I had not had. Ezra prefaced these two conversations by saying: “Before there can be any kind of stable coexistence of people in Israel and Palestine, there will have to be a stable coexistence of narratives. And that’s what we’ll be attempting this week on the show: to look at both the present and the past through Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. The point is not to choose between them. The point is to really listen to them. Even — especially — when what’s being said is hard for us to hear.” Here they are, both very informative and nuanced:
Conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi, who is a Jewish Israeli author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem: https://youtu.be/EVeh-26rCdQ?si=oEGpdlmvjgLEbfkB –
Conversation with Amjad Iraqi, who is a Palestinian-Israeli, senior editor at +972 magazine and a policy analyst at the Al-Shabaka think tank: https://youtu.be/ou9dq90PihU?si=dSDQnc1vY4erpECO
Also, if you’re interested in understanding to what depths we’ve been traumatized here in Israel, this video sums it up in about a minute..
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNDCmCNb/
A truly chilling video. I don’t know who this man is or how credible this particular story is, but if it is true, it is obviously very high on the list of horrifying atrocities committed by humans. It is referenced as well in the video I mentioned above with Sam Harris and Graeme Wood. And I certainly believe it could be true. Utterly horrible.
Over the course of human history, human beings have done unbelievably cruel things to other humans. And whether this particular horrific event actually happened or not, I have no doubt that brutal and cruel acts were committed by Hamas on October 7, and certainly horrible acts of violence have been committed on both sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict—although I have never heard of Israelis doing anything quite this up close and horrific. But then, it’s not a mystery how traumatized people on both sides who have seen loved ones killed can be filled with hatred and pain and motivated by that to perpetrate harm in ways they would otherwise have found unimaginable.
One of the things that disturbs me most in this situation is that, in addition to the misinformation generated in the fog of war that exists in any war, and in addition to the deliberate attempts at suppression, misdirection and propaganda that also seem to occur on all sides in every war, we now have these vastly expanded sources of news and information created by social media and the many different 24/hr global sources of information offering many differing perspectives, ranging from crazy conspiracy theories to credible possibilities, AND, we have the very disturbing capabilities of AI to create totally real-seeming videos of apparently real people saying and doing whatever the video-maker wants it to appear they were saying and doing. It seems to me that none of us can be absolutely sure anymore (at least initially) about what is fake news, deep fakes or deliberate misdirection and what is actually true—although, on the other hand, it is harder for governments and police and armies to lie given the way everyone now has a cell phone.
But assuming this story is true, as I believe it certainly might be, I don’t agree with this man’s conclusions. I may be wrong, but I don’t think all (or probably most) Palestinians are in support of everything Hamas does and certainly not of horrific atrocities such as this, any more than I think every Israeli supports everything Netanyahu, the IDF, or militant settlers do to Palestinians. And I definitely don’t think more violence is the solution. I don’t know what the solution is, honestly, or if there is one.
I’m also not nearly as sure as this man seems to be that Hamas is motivated primarily by a desire to kill Jews, rather than by a desire to end the state of Israel, which is potentially a very different goal (and yes, I’ve seen their original charter, and I know there is anti-Semitism among many Arabs, just as there is anti-Arab hatred and demonization among many Jews—and the fundamentalist Islamic jihadi mindset is certainly especially troubling—and the Sam Harris video suggests that Hamas is motivated by the end goals of that mindset—and I truly don’t know).
I’m also aware that many things can be lost in translation, deliberately or inadvertently, and that there is much public confusion conflating Jews and Israel, Palestinians and Hamas, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and so on. But to reiterate, I don’t support Hamas, anti-Semitism, Islamic fundamentalist ideologies, acts of terror, and certainly not any acts of extreme cruelty such as the horrific ones described here.
Again, I wish you safety and peace. Thank you for being here. We all need each other. Much Love to you....
Once again, thank you for the effort you put into responding to me :)
As far as the story this man tells, Israeli news agencies verified that a baby was in fact found burnt to death in an oven. As far as the simultaneous rape, I couldn’t say for sure because I don’t have the stomach to watch videos like that myself.
And I certainly hope you are correct in thinking that many or most Palestinians don’t agree with or condone these actions. I thought that way before this all happened but unfortunately now, after seeing so many reactions that celebrate or justify these atrocities by many Palestinians and Palestinians supporters, I’m not so sure anymore.
Either way, I continue to pray for peace and a better future for us all.
I would highly recommend, this program: Ezra Klein talking with Zack Beauchamp about what Israel should do, what the options are, what works and what doesn’t in fighting terrorism—excellent discussion: https://youtu.be/M7K327quaEc
About that horrific story of the baby burned in an oven by those Hamas terrorists, I read this article that is quite complete about how that story emerged. : https://www.jta.org/2023/10/31/israel/an-israeli-first-responder-recalls-tending-to-the-body-of-a-baby-burnt-in-an-oven
Nothing is totally certain about how that baby died (and maybe never will be), here's an excerpt from the article :
"That paucity of knowledge leads, Beer said, to a number of gruesome questions: Did Hamas terrorists put the baby in the oven, then kill the baby as they turned the oven on? Did the baby’s parents hide the child in the oven to keep them safe from the attackers, only to burn as the house was set aflame? When was the baby killed?
“They have many bodies that aren’t identified yet,” Beer said. “Luckily today there is technology that they can do DNA and everything, but what happens when the whole family are murdered?”
He added, “A lot of the stories will never be told because the people that saw it and witnessed it are not with us anymore.” "
Besides I agree with you, Joan, when you say : "... I don’t think all Palestinians are in support of everything Hamas does..." There is, for example, the voice of that courageous Gazan woman saying “All of this is because of the dogs of Hamas" while grieving over the dead body of a loved one (probably killed after an Isreali airstrike) in a video that went viral on social media.
We can see the video here on X for instance : https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1720057376823234752
I think the men around her, cover her mouth for her own safety, since she could be in big trouble for saying that.
I'll end by sharing an interesting point of view of a Palestinian American on Reddit, here are the first sentences of his text : "I’m a Palestinian American that is Anti-Hamas. Let me be clear I am absolutely SICK to my stomach about what Hamas have done to the Israelis. But that aside I wanna once again talk about Hamas’s impact on the Palestinians. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: we don’t know how many people in Gaza ACTUALLY support Hamas because they’re documented to execute critics and political rivals." ( to read it all : https://www.reddit.com/r/IsraelPalestine/comments/17mc9t1/i_saw_a_video_of_a_palestinian_woman_in_gaza/ )
Thank you for all this, Cedric. It's so important for all of us to remember how easily misinformation can spread, how stories can get (intentionally or unintentionally) twisted as they are told and re-told, how many different interpretations, speculations and narratives are floating around about the motives and end-games of both sides, and how much we just don't know, while recognizing that unfathomable horror has been inflicted on both sides. 🙏
The more different perspectives I read and hear, the less I feel absolutely certain about, and the more I feel there is a mix of truth and misinformation on all sides. Some of the misinformation is deliberate—propaganda—some is the fog of war, and some is social media, rumor, and just the exaggeration and distortion that tends to happen as stories spread. Some of supposed atrocities of Oct 7 may not have happened—that’s what Max Blumenthal talks about here: https://youtu.be/d0gECjlpXF8 (and I’ve heard it from other sources as well, including an Israeli paper). Namely the really awful things like beheaded babies and rapes and the like. And some of the killing may have been done by the IDF and not Hamas. This is what Max is exposing, and I suspect it is at least partially true although I’d guess probably not the whole story. And there were other Palestinians there besides just Hamas, so not everything done was done by Hamas. But indisputably, many people in Israel, the majority of them civilians, were murdered that day and many others taken hostage. At the moment, many Israeli hostages are being freed along with many Palestinians who have been imprisoned in Israel (many without charges or trials), and in both groups, many are children. Israel vows to renew the bloodshed and destruction after this pause, and it really does now look like ethnic cleansing or genocide.
Hi Joan,
Regarding the terrorist attacks and atrocities of Oct 7, I believe they really happened, I've not personally seen the 48 min long film consisting of raw footage and pictures of what happened that day, taken from cctv, from the terrorists themselves, etc. but a lot of journalists (at least here in France) and deputies (french equivalent of us congressmen) have seen it and some of them clearly detailed what they saw. And I thank them for that because just saying "it's so horrible, there are no words" is not enough, it's important to know what really happened to put words on the images for those like me that didn't see the film, because if we don't know what's in the film, people can easily negate the 7oct attacks and just say "we don't have any proof, it's just propaganda".
So, if you are interested, here are two accounts of two persons that saw the images and described them :
It's on X but in french, so I'll translate it here :
First one from french politician Amine El-Khatmi : https://twitter.com/Aminelkhatmi/status/1724121077922578522
"A father and his two young sons ran to hide in a shelter after the first shots. They are in their boxers, out of bed. Hamas terrorists throw a grenade into the shelter. The father throws himself on it to protect his children. He is killed. The boys come out of the shelter, step over their father's corpse, and take refuge in the house. The biggest one says: “I want to die, why are we alive? ". He treats his injured little brother. A Hamas terrorist comes in, opens the fridge, helps himself to a drink.
A man is on the ground. He's still moving. A terrorist takes a shovel, a square shovel with a long wooden handle. He brings the shovel down on the man’s neck.
A kindergarten. A woman hides behind cushions in a classroom. Two terrorists enter, shoot her, take the body and leave.
A black dog comes forward. The terrorist shoots him 4 times in the head.
Hamas leader on phone with terrorist: "cut off their heads and send us the photos".
Photo of a skull literally cut in two. Vertically. Carbonized.
A baby, head exploded. A piece of brain comes out.
Hamas terrorists jump on a corpse.
A man, alive, pulled by his hair, hoisted into the back of a car.
A Hamas terrorist on the phone with his parents: “Dad, mom, your son is a hero, your son is a hero. I killed 10 Jews. I killed 10 Jews, I have their blood on my hands”
The father: “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”
Rave party. Young refugees in a shelter, injured. Some call their parents. Next shot, they are all dead.
Hamas terrorists exult, shouting “we killed the Jew dogs”.
Next shot, terrorists repeat ten times: “Allahu Akbar”.
15 photos of charred corpses. Of some, there is almost nothing left.
This is what I saw. I didn't see everything. I closed my eyes several times. To protect myself. I did my best to report this testimony.
Tonight, I'm torn. I don't imagine that these images could be shown to the general public. Then, I see the long and pernicious poison of Holocaust denial taking effect. And I tell myself that by taking all the necessary precautions, we will have to show these images. To make us witnesses to the unspeakable."
Second account by french journalist Jean-François Achilli https://twitter.com/JFAchilli/status/1724423424620056896 :
"Images of chaos
I attended the 2nd press broadcast of the IDF documentary made from videos filmed on October 7, 23 by Hamas terrorists.
What I saw was simply unbearable.
The word barbarism is no longer enough to name the indescribable.
Armed terrorists massacre civilians at point-blank range in their vehicles, in the streets, in their homes. Men, women, children, the elderly.
A father and his two shirtless sons hide in a shelter. A terrorist throws a grenade there, the children survive.
One of them calls for his father and shouts:
- why are we alive, I want to die
45 minutes of bodies riddled with bullets, burned, decapitated, a killer attacks a civilian with a shovel, others shoot at the participants of the rave party in the desert, like in a video game.
A terrorist calls his mother in Gaza and shouts in excitement:
- I killed 10 with my own hands.
A Hamas leader on the line asks to cut off the heads.
A long series of photos of Israeli corpses transformed into piles of flesh, dehumanized, a baby with a shattered skull.
A selfie of the perpetrators of these abominations. They seem young, they laugh, they have fun, it’s a party.
It’s a shock, impossible to forget these images forever.
This massacre was carried out to open the door to chaos.
The terrorists wanted to cross a point of no return.
An obvious fact beyond the horror: its sponsors knew that it would provoke a single reaction from Israel and its leaders, a massive assault on Gaza.
Yes, the images are unbearable.
Yes, Israel engages in a form of wartime communication.
Because public opinion is changing over the weeks of bombings and fighting in Gaza.
The Hamas terrorists not only produced a massacre unprecedented since the Shoah, they wanted to humiliate, break, reach the Jewish people deep within themselves.
But they also planned the certain death of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians whose fate matters little to them. The Gazans who perish under the bombs are also the victims of Hamas.
This documentary is not the justification of deaths in exchange for deaths.
It tells of the outbreak of absolute chaos and its implacable, deadly logic.
The one that humanity must know how to put an end to."
To finish I'll share a clip of a french news tv station where Amine El-Khatmi (who wrote the first account I shared) is interviewed on what he saw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwUY-RmvSwI He says that during the 48 min film are shown 138 Isreali victims and that there is footage that wasn't even inserted in that film, sush as sexual content (for instance a gang rape ), and the journalist next to him confirms it and says : "yes, indeed a gang rape footage that has been shown today to some journalists". (min 6'45")
So as far as I'm concerned, even if I haven't directly seen the footage of the atrocities, I believe those that have seen the images, I believe their accounts, I believe that what happened oct 7 really happened... Isreali civilians, women, men, children, babies, killed, some beheaded, some raped, some burned, some stamped on,.... To me, those are facts.
This podcast, which I had avoided listening to but finally did, has led me to question much of my thinking and many of my beliefs around all of this.
Sam Harris on the importance of understanding both Islamic ideology and anti-Semitism, and what the left has been ignoring: https://youtu.be/oFBm8nQ2aBo?si=LRsTGdMVk1FlL2T6
What happened in Israel on Oct 7 was horrific, and Hamas has apparently vowed to do more of the same. What should Israel do? There are truly no good options that I can see. What they are doing (relentlessly bombing the civilian population, bombing hospitals, refugee camps, ambulances, etc., and cutting off food, water and electricity) seems profoundly cruel, and in my opinion, is putting Israel in greater danger, inspiring terrorism worldwide, increasing anti-Semitism, and flirting with setting off a regional and possibly world war. But what to do? For those interested, I highly recommend these six podcasts:
Ezra Klein talking with Zack Beauchamp about what Israel should do, what the options are, what works and what doesn’t in fighting terrorism: https://youtu.be/M7K327quaEc
Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisor Dr. Alice Rothchild on Democracy Now describing the health catastrophe in Gaza: https://youtu.be/cmPUzxcj9H4
Dennis Kucinich weighs in: https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/07/dennis-kucinich-the-nothingness-of-a-war-consciousness/
Briahna Joy Gray talking with Chris Hedges about Gaza, Biden, the US role, and regional implications: https://youtu.be/iOjoGWbuQps
US nuclear sub deployed to the region: https://youtu.be/Dfq9nr9IdTM
How do Gazans feel about Hamas: https://youtu.be/5n9Xu5KrH3Q
Ezra Klein has done 4 excellent shows recently on the situation in Israel-Palestine. I highly recommend them all:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdMrbgYfVl-szepgVpArP0obwYgbKdfvx
I especially recommend the one with a Palestinian, and the one with an Israeli. Ezra prefaced those two by saying: “Before there can be any kind of stable coexistence of people in Israel and Palestine, there will have to be a stable coexistence of narratives. And that’s what we’ll be attempting this week on the show: to look at both the present and the past through Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. The point is not to choose between them. The point is to really listen to them. Even — especially — when what’s being said is hard for us to hear.” Here they are:
Conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi, a Jewish Israeli author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem: https://youtu.be/EVeh-26rCdQ?si=oEGpdlmvjgLEbfkB – this episode significantly changed my thinking, gave me much more appreciation and sympathy for the Israeli perspective, and also gave me a little bit of hope for the future, which I had not had.
Conversation with Amjad Iraqi, a Palestinian-Israeli, senior editor at +972 magazine and a policy analyst at the Al-Shabaka think tank: https://youtu.be/ou9dq90PihU?si=dSDQnc1vY4erpECO
Finally...this podcast of Sam Harris, which I had avoided listening to but finally did, has led me to question much of my thinking and many of my beliefs around all of this. I don't completely agree with everything Sam says, but it highlights a dimension of this conflict that many on the left, myself included, have been ignoring to our peril, and I think it is actually a very important dimension. Sam speaks about the importance of understanding both Islamic ideology and anti-Semitism, and the importance of not ignoring either: https://youtu.be/oFBm8nQ2aBo?si=LRsTGdMVk1FlL2T6
A WAPO article showing intentions of Hamas and how they laid the groundwork for Oct 7: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/12/hamas-planning-terror-gaza-israel/
In addition to Sam Harris's podcasts, these articles and videos are helpful for understanding the Israeli perspective:
Yuval Noah Harari: https://samharris.org/episode/SE55A958943
Bari Weiss speech: https://www.thefp.com/p/you-are-the-last-line-of-defense
Bari Weiss on Triggernometry: https://youtu.be/V57DNSF7y7Y?si=fAur90jXi8IJo22q
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12629243/raised-curse-israel-pray-destruction-jews-AYAAN-HIRSI-ALI-Hamas-ISIS.html
For more on Israel-Gaza and the Palestinian struggle:
An excellent conversation with Sandy Tolan: https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/17/humanity-has-failed-gaza/
And another with Glenn Loury and Robert Wright https://youtu.be/zbscM6ss4Tk
Chris Hedges and Medea Benjamin: https://youtu.be/FN5FgiwYGp0
Chris Hedges/Max Blumenthal: https://youtu.be/d0gECjlpXF8
Col. Larry Wilkerson: https://youtu.be/q8SdlzMuwsc
Chris Hedges: https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/01/chris-hedges-israel-reopens-the-gaza-slaughterhouse/
Noam Chomsky: https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/07/noam-chomsky-a-middle-east-peace-that-could-happen-but-wont/
Five Myths about Israel and the War in Gaza by Sam Harris – below are links to both the written blog and the audio podcast, so you can read or listen. I don’t always agree with Sam, but I have great respect and appreciation for his integrity and his work. I’ve been a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause, and I’ve been supportive of the calls for an Israeli ceasefire. I might question or argue with a few things Sam says (or leaves out) here, but he makes some really excellent points. This is a perspective that I think those of us on the left who support the Palestinian cause and who are often highly critical of Israel really need to hear. So I encourage people to read or listen to this, and to do so with an open mind:
Transcript: https://www.samharris.org/blog/5-myths-about-israel-and-the-war-in-gaza
Podcast audio: https://samharris.org/episode/SEABD60C96D