Imagine Nothing to Kill or Die For (It isn’t hard to do)
In Gaza/Israel/Palestine/Judea/Canaan [1]
I start to write this shortly after the news that Hamas massacred over a thousand people, taking over two hundred hostages back into Gaza; while in retaliation, Israel has been bombing Gaza into rubble, neighborhood by neighborhood, killing thousands. The carnage only promises to expand and escalate. I shed tears for all of them. Those tears are salted by the bitterness spreading around me, the hardening of hearts, the drawing of lines in the sand, leading us all deeper into a whirlpool of carnage.
My first reaction was that our son could have been among those murdered/kidnapped/wounded in the attack by Hamas at a music festival. He was in Paris in 2015, just a few short blocks from the terrorist attack on Bataclan concert hall. Our son had been meaning to go to Israel, and the festival attacked by Hamas would be something he could have been found enjoying with other young people . . . until it turned into terror. His dark skin would not have saved him from the carnage. That is something certain groups should have considered, before celebrating that carnage as an act of “resistance.”
Attacks against both Muslims in retaliation for Hamas’ actions, and Jews in retaliation for Israel’s actions, has already begun here in the United States. We have both in our diverse family.[2] The fact of our diversity will not protect us from these hate crimes from either side.
After hearing this news, I posted what I thought was a message of peace on social media — some of the lines from John and Yoko’s song Imagine:
While many of my friends and family appreciated this, many others took offense to the post as a “naïve betrayal” of one side or the other. Should I be faulted for not declaring which side’s atrocities are the worst? Should we all be weighing the atrocities of one side against the other? Is there any end to this, other than mutual annihilation? Complete and utter annihilation of the other side is what the rulers of Israel and Gaza, respectively, call for.
GOD DOES NOT BLESS ANY WAR
Each side invokes religion to justify their carnage. And each side claims to quote commandments from God justifying what they do. That is why John and Yoko asked us to imagine “no religion” as a “reason to kill or die for.”
In the Torah (Old Testament) God commands the Israelites to conquer all the peoples of Canaan; not only conquer, but “you must doom them to destruction: grant them no terms and give them no quarter.” Deut 7:2. “You shall destroy all the peoples that your God delivers to you, showing them no pity.” Deut 7:16. In absolute terms, we are commanded to “not let a soul remain alive.” Deut. 20:16. Passages like these are what Netanyahu and the right-wing settlers use to justify their treatment of Palestinians.
For their part, Hamas claims that the “Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation,” told them:
‘The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”
The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Article 7.
On October 7, the followers of Hamas showed that this was meant literally, as they glorified their bloodshed on social media and bragged to their families about how many Jews they killed.
To the contrary, what the Qur’an actually says is that “Believers” (in Islam) are to “argue only in the best way with the People of the Book, except with those of them who act unjustly. Say, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you; our God and your God is one.’” Qur’an 29:46 (translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem 2010). That parallels what is probably the core prayer of Judaism — the Shema: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד — Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. This is the message I was trying to convey with my post.
So, when we “pray for Israel” or “pray for Gaza” what are we really asking for? In the War Prayer, Mark Twain answered this, in response to the patriotic clergy asking God to “bless” our troops in Spanish–American War and the subsequent Philippine–American War:
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! [Mark Twain, The War Prayer].
The God I believe in does not ask us to kill. The God I believe in does not bless or support any religion, any country, or any reason to kill or die for.
For expressing this message of unity and peace I have been called “naïve.” Others expressing the same message have been called worse. I say that it is insisting on framing everything in terms of who is “justified” or to “blame” which is being naïve. The question is not Which side is justified, or Whether one atrocity justifies another, or even Who is to blame. Justification and blame only make things worse. What those who insist on viewing the conflict in those terms fail to understand is the difference between explanation and justification.
To say that Hitler was abused as a child may explain his sociopathic behavior as an adult, but it does not justify it. To say that Israel turning Gaza into an urban prison explains the violent behavior of Hamas, but it does not justify it. To say that the stated intent to kill all Jews by Hamas and their actions in carrying out that intent explains the extreme measures the State of Israel has taken against all Palestinians, does not mean those atrocities by Israel are justified.
Looking for justification can only result in escalating bloodshed. Looking for explanations is the only path to solutions.
Sadly, the ones who understand this best are those who are perpetrating escalating violence on each side. Both Hamas and the Netanyahu government are conducting their atrocities in order to provoke more atrocities in return. That is how each rose to power, and that is how each plans to stay in power. Terrorists seek to provoke more violence by their actions; they thrive on chaos. (Does that remind you of anyone who has recently had power in the USA?)
We give power to the terrorists on both sides, by buying into their sociopathic view of the world. In this sociopathic fantasy, all that matters is escalating retribution. But did slaughtering young people at a music concert stop Israel from taking the homes away from Palestinians? Is destroying entire neighborhoods, killing its residents, going to stop future terror by Hamas or other similar groups? It is those who believe in retribution who are naive, living in a fantasy world. The reality is that all this blame and justification has accomplished is to increase the violence and expand the conflict.
EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO A HOME; NOBODY HAS A RIGHT TO A HOMELAND
What passes for a “debate” on this conflict is really no more than ignorant and hateful rhetoric that each side hurls against the other. If you wipe clean the lenses of perception, the absurdity of this rhetoric becomes clear.
- Zionism is called “racism” — yet the exact same sentiment by Palestinians is called “self-determination.”
- Any opposition to the State of Israel is called “anti-semitism” — which would make me an “anti-semite.”
- The actions of the other side are “genocide” while the actions of your own side are those of “defense” or “liberation.”
- Everyone seems to be just throwing out jargon and rhetoric, like the above, as well as “de-colonization” and “Never Again.” At best, this jargon is a way to avoid a genuine discussion. At worst, it supports the atrocities committed under these banners.
Central to this faux-debate are competing claims of whose “homeland” it is. Where you stand on those claims determines the rhetoric you use. Are you “defending” or “liberating.”
But, nobody then, and nobody today, neither Jews or Palestinians, have any real claim to the land. None of us created the land. Human beings wandered the globe since our origins in Africa, sometimes as explorers, sometimes as settlers, sometimes as conquerors and sometimes as refugees. Nobody has a right to a “HOMELAND.” What we all have is a right to a safe HOME for ourselves and our loved ones. A “Homeland” is a place to keep “others” (however that is defined) out, while a “Home” is a place to be safe with your loved ones, whether you have lived there for centuries or are a refugee displaced from somewhere else.
That is why I do not support the State of Israel, nor Hamas, nor any supposed “State” of Palestine. [3] I do not support any claim to a “homeland” of any group. What I do support is the legitimate claim of each and every person to a safe “home.” Violence, no matter who perpetrates it against whom, no matter the alleged “justification,” is inimical to a safe home. Only Peace can assure anyone a home.
I did not always believe this way. I was raised believing that Zionism was necessary to create a Jewish State to protect Jews from another holocaust, and that Israel was a sort of socialist utopia, with everyone living on a kibbutz. That was in the early days of the State of Israel, when it was being attacked from all sides by other states; I hardly heard anything at all about the Palestinians living on that land.
Then I went to Israel in 1972, as part of a youth tour. It is a beautiful land, with beautiful people. History and heritage are found at every step, layer upon layer, going back over ten thousand years. For me, the most inspirational place was not in Jerusalem, or any of the other religious sites. My most inspiring moment, my epiphany, was climbing up Masada, the last holdout of Jews rebelling against the Roman occupiers, to see the dawn over the desert. The oppressed and oppressors, rulers and resisters, were all long gone. But the land remained, and the sun still rose over the desert.
But what hit me the hardest, my anti-epiphany, was the hatred all around me. Hatred coming from beautiful people, Jew and Arab. Hatred so thick and heavy you could feel it in the air as a heavy fog. Yes, there were (and are) those, on all sides, seeking peace. But the hatred settled down on and around the peacemakers, isolating them and dampening their voices. Hatred is a heavy burden to bear, which will bury us if we choose to carry it (and it is always a choice).
I returned saddened by what I felt. I struggled, and still struggle, with my feelings over Israel/Palestine/Judea/Canaan. For the most part, I have tried to ignore it, since I have no answers, and could see no glimmer of the prospect for peace. But the recent events I can no longer ignore, and I must face this conflict and my feelings about it. At the risk of losing friends and alienating family, I must speak out against the hate on all sides .
To explain where I am coming from, consider the story of the Exodus, retold at Passover every year, as a central theme of Jewish identity. It tells of our ancestor’s freedom from slavery in Africa. To me, the lesson should not be the freedom of just our people, but an inspiration to work for the freedom of all people — the end of slavery itself, in all its forms. “Never Again” should mean not just “never again” to our people, but Never Again by Anyone, to Anyone.
One particular tradition of Passover is particularly apt for these times. Our celebration of freedom must be diminished by its cost in the suffering of others, even our enemies. So we symbolically take out a drop of the wine of celebration for each of the Ten Plagues.
I am not saying violence may never be necessary in the struggle for freedom. But when it is, the need for violence is itself a setback, and we need to mourn for all those who fell, not just “our” people. This is also the lesson Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to express, in explaining his philosophy of non-violence:
“The attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil. . . . We are out to defeat injustice and not white [or Muslim, or Jewish, or whatever] persons who may be unjust.” An Experiment in Love (1958).
This same call to justice, rather than revenge, was spoken at a memorial for Hayim Katsman — a scholar, a military veteran, and peace activist, killed by Hamas:
“Do not use our death and our pain to bring the death and pain of other people and other families. Let us understand that the only way is freedom and equal rights.”
YOU MAY SAY THAT I’M A DREAMER . . .
You may say this is naïve idealism for a world that does not exist. I say it is a scientific fact of the real world we live in. The waters, the winds, the dust of the earth, know no boundaries, are not stopped by any wall or line in the sand. The atoms which make up each of our bodies today came, at one time, from all parts of the Earth. And so did we. Homo Sapiens, as a species, have traveled out of their birthplace in Africa, to every continent of the Earth. We are still traveling on the surface of this planet spinning around a star in a twirling galaxy in an expanding universe. We are all, as Joni Mitchell sang, just “billion-year-old carbon.” That is reality. The separateness of people, of countries and borders, are the illusions. Those illusions only have the power we give them.
But war, greed and intolerance is human nature, you may say. I say that cooperation is human nature. Our success as a species has nothing to do with our individual strength or even brains. Rather, our success is based on our ability to work together, and to pass down knowledge learned by one generation to the next. It has been that instinct for cooperation which has allowed homo sapiens to prosper, and it is that instinct which may yet save us from self-extinction. Historical fact also supports this. See generally, David Graeber & David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2021) which demonstrates that war, greed, and intolerance have not been, nor are, inevitable. Rather, these things are, by definition, inhuman.
I must confess to one article of faith which I cannot prove. Just as I believe in God, I believe that God’s greatest gift to us was Free Will. We do not have the ability to choose the circumstances in which we find ourselves, but we always have the ability to choose how we react to those circumstances. So, the question before us in these circumstances is whether we choose to hold on to hate for the other, or to reach out for cooperation with each other; to choose war, or to choose peace.
So, what is the answer?
I don’t have the answers. But I do know what is not an answer:
- Violence is never a solution. Violence may be necessary, perhaps, to stop further violence. But it is never an answer.
- There can be no peace negotiated between the Netanyahu government and Hamas. Each is invested in escalating the violence, not stopping it.
- There can be no answer without acknowledging the humanity of those on the other “side.” Ask not for whom the bell tolls — it tolls for thee.
Before we can even search for answers, we must be able to ask the right questions:
- We should be asking for the explanation of how we all got in this mess, rather than trying to see who is justified and who is to blame.
- We should be asking how we can assure everyone is safe in their own home, rather than who is entitled to a homeland.
- We need to listen to each other, without judgment.
You may still say that I am a naive dreamer for thinking a kumbaya moment can accomplish anything. But how is the escalating violence, the spreading of hate and division going? Standing for peace is much harder than just joining the rush of lemmings over the cliff. I am privileged in having been mentored in non-violence by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and being old enough to have seen the successes of the Civil Rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I can tell you that non-violent resistance works — it is hard, but it is ultimately more effective than violence and hate. See Erica Chenweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works — The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (Columbia U. Press 2011). At the very least, we should not be adding to the hate, escalating and spreading it over the world with our words.
I have struggled through this article, which has gone through many revisions, as well as many titles. As my mouse hovers over the <publish> button, the IDF has already occupied a large part of Gaza, and the death toll has exceeded ten thousand. Sometimes the war seems far away, but then I see the hate and division right here, on the other side of the world. I fear these divisions will only empower the rise of fascism and return to power of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, right here in the USA. I fear every day for my own family, targets of hate from all sides.
Perhaps I should just hide and hope it never reaches me, and not endanger myself and my family further by wading in to this swamp of putrid hate. But I cannot turn away.
But what can I do? What can we do?
In the short term, we can support those organizations providing aid to victims on all sides, and those urging peace. (See the Resources listed below).
In the long term, we need to change the lenses of perception we are all viewing this conflict through. (Again, see the Resources listed below). Peace cannot be achieved through the rulers; it can only be achieved by people. Peace can only be achieved if we want it, if there is always someone asking for it, reminding all of us that it is a choice we have.
So, this is my offering towards Peace. I offer a different way to look at what has happened, what is happening, and most important, what can happen. I hope the desire for peace will be contagious. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. There are brave voices speaking out from the epicenter of this hellish storm. They have inspired me to speak out. We each have a choice. If enough of us choose peace, there can be peace.
WAR IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT
NOTES
[1] The names used for this small piece of land themselves tell stories of conquest, repression, and rebellion. Canaan is the name given to the area and people, before the Hebrews took it over after escaping slavery in Africa. Israel is the name of the current state, and also the name used at various times in history, going back nearly three thousand years, named after the Patriarch of the Jews (cousin to the Patriarch Ishmael of the Arabs). Judea is name given at the time of Roman occupation of the land, about two thousand years ago. Like the word “Jew” it comes from one of the sons of Israel — Judah, which was the last surviving tribe. The Jews revolted against Roman occupation, not once but at least three times. After the last revolt was put down in 136 C.E., the Romans not only slaughtered, enslaved, or otherwise dispersed Jews throughout the Empire, but changed the name of the Roman province from Judea to Palestine, to cut off all ties between the land and its rebelling people. The current killing is going on mostly in Gaza, a thin strip of land just 41 km (25 miles) long and from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide. The earth itself is soaked in the blood of many peoples.
[2] I should explain where my perspective comes from. My heritage is Jewish. Nearly all of my family in Europe were murdered in the Holocaust. Of those few who survived, most were involved in active resistance, including a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. My wife (the mother of the son I referred to) is what you would call “Black” or “African American” — although her ancestry includes Chinese, Native American and European. My Ex (the mother of my two older sons) is from Guatemala; her brother recently discovered that part of their ancestry was from Jews fleeing the Inquisition. While my wife, raised Christian, married a Jew, her sister married a Muslim, and her cousin a Buddhist. For more about our diverse families’ parallel stories, see my series on STAND BY ME — A SERIES ON BLACK/JEWISH RELATIONS, published in An Injustice!
[3] The truth is, I don’t support any state any more than is necessary. But I find any state based upon a particular religion or ethnicity to be particularly odious. Our tolerance of such states and rulers explains (but does not justify) the current violence in the Middle-East.
RESOURCES
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) — the primary (perhaps only) provider of medical aid to Gaza right now. They desperately need help.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) — A global aid fund, their Israel Emergency Response provides aid on the Israeli side, both to Jew and Arab.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) — Has been working alongside partners inside Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt to provide more than one million hot, freshly prepared meals in the region, along with produce, food kits, and other sources of support.
(I encourage you to give to all three — MSF, JDC and WCK- if you can, to make sure ALL people affected are given help).
Standing Together — a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice.
Jews of Color Initiative — works to build a truly multiracial, anti-racist Jewish community in which Jews of Color can experience joy and reach their full potential and belonging as leaders and community members.
I’m Going to War for Israel. Palestinians Are Not My Enemy , by Nir Avishai Cohen — A Major in the Israeli IDF shares his thoughts before going to war.
Statement of Solidarity with Israel/Palestine — from Tikkun, a Prophetic Jewish, Interfaith & Secular Voice to Heal and Transform the World.
New Ground — A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change.
Narrative4 — Recommended by my wife as offering a powerful way of building bridges between people by having them share and re-tell the story of each other.
The Rabbi’s Cat — A beautiful animated movie about tolerance and intolerance.
The Iron Giant — Another beautiful animated movie, this one about the ability to choose whether to kill or not.
(Yes, these are cartoons, but I firmly believe that we cannot achieve peace unless we can first imagine it).
