Some thoughts on Gaza

I don’t think my thoughts are very important, but I’m writing this to confirm for myself what I believe.

First I wrote a poem:

I don’t know shit about forgiveness

All I know is horror and pain has always been a part of this reality 

People are born, die and live in terror

And I’ll be damned if I could figure out a reason why 

Sure maybe if I really want to dissociate, I could say that they chose to live a life of challenge so that their soul can understand something blah blah blah 

But it always denies the other truth 

The truth of pain 

And there’s a reason why we run from it like it’s haunting us 

But it’s also true that there is no actual escape 

We are here in this mysterious place for the short time and we don’t know why, but can we live into the question? Can we live into the unknown?

Can we try and grasp at the light the beauty that was always there too? (I don’t deny that.)

Can we hold it all even though we don’t understand a word of it? Even if we don’t understand why it’s happening? Can we feel it all and choose compassion anyway?

Especially when we feel the pain

Especially when we see the horror, the violence

Can we choose compassion anyway?

Don’t waste your time asking why

Just take a breath

Ask your body 

What to I do now?

And be brave enough to listen to the answer 

And here are my thoughts:

I am a victim of terrorism.

My father died in the September 11th terrorist attacks.

I know how terrifying and destabilizing it is to lose a family member in such a violent and sudden way.

I have compassion for the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on October 7th, as well as those being held hostage. It’s painful and nothing can change that.

I also know what it’s like for my government to use a tragedy I’m connected to as a pretext to commit incredible violence and harm.

I saw our government start unjustified wars, drop drone strikes and bombs on civilians (including children), and engage in unwarranted surveillance and imprisonment. I saw soldiers come back with PTSD unable to participate in society.

And I watched all of this violence being committed in what was defined as a “war on terror,” which never seemed to make anyone safer.

Years later, I saw the unbelievable chaos that ensued as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, and I thought, “What was all of this for?”

And I didn’t have a good answer.

I’m not an expert on the region, but watching videos from Palestinians on the ground in Gaza for these past many months paints a stark picture that leaves no room for doubt. What is happening is a genocide. Over 30,000 people have been killed in a breathtakingly short amount of time.

So many of them civilians.  

So many of them children.

This is not a war.

The actions of the Israeli government make it clear that they do not care about the hostages. If they did, they would behave very differently. All they seem to care about is the destruction of Gaza and the displacement and elimination of the people that live there.

And in witnessing this violence happening in Gaza, it might feel righteous to hate those that do this. But hatred just fuels the cycle of dehumanization and violence. Engaging in anti-Semitic rhetoric does nothing to help the Palestinians and causes harm to Jewish people everywhere. It is not something I would ever condone. From my view, I prefer to focus on helping those in need and focus on disrupting the systems that perpetuate violence and harm.

The Palestinian people deserve to live on the land of their ancestors. They deserve to be free. They have experienced such profound and deep oppression for so long. It must end.

A permanent ceasefire is just the beginning of the healing needed for this region, but it is a critical first step.

It’s easy to look at the actions of the Israeli government and condemn their behavior. But their actions are not at all dissimilar from those of the United States government (which is why Biden supports them). Maybe you have some awareness of that and have advocated for change, but if you’ve paid your taxes, on some level you have consented to the U.S. military-industrial complex and everything it engages in. So it would not be honest to condemn others when your hands aren’t exactly clean. All of us are complicit. And when I think about the citizens of Israel, I try to remember that they are separate from their government.

But it’s never too late to change course.

Advocating for a ceasefire and the liberation of the Palestinian people is essential. It’s also critical that we do the inner work to see that we have been invested in these systems of violence and oppression and divest. Because what is happening in Palestine is not new. Humans have engaged in dehumanization, genocide, and mass violence many times before. Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, and many other places are also experiencing it now. 

So the question is, what is at the root of that behavior, and how do we as a collective start to change it? 

How do we continue to participate in the dehumanization and violence that exists in our culture? 

How can we adjust our actions to support liberation?

I don’t have clear answers to those questions. But there are many people offering concrete ways to help folks in Gaza.

• Operation Olive Branch allows you to directly provide funds to families to get them out of Gaza.

• Anera provides aid on the ground in Gaza.

• Jewish Voices for Peace provides lots of education and prompts to take action