What is going on in Gaza today is frightening, horrifying and truly sad. Over the last few days and weeks if any of you have a Facebook (FB) page you have seen posts like this, or perhaps this, or maybe even this, or a myriad of other posts. The saddest part about all of this is the five camps of people that I see forming as a result of the recent increase in hostilities: (1) The Pro Israel camp; (2) the Pro Palestine camp (3) people who are too afraid to say anything; (4) people who think they don't know enough; and (5) people who just don't care.
Group 5 will always be a part of the world we live in. There will always be people who just don't care, who cannot be bothered to worry about the plight of others in certain situations. It is easy to find the lack of compassion to be disheartening, but one hard look in the mirror and we may all find ourselves a little troubled by our own lack of "compassion." How else does it make sense that we live in wonderful homes, wear great clothing, eat great food, while millions in the world don't even have clean water... For my part, I think we are all drawn to issues for different reasons, and some people are drawn to more issues than others. I myself, am guilty of ignoring many issues, so I accept Group 5 as a reality of the world we live in and understand that I too am a part of that group.
I often feel like a member of Group 4. There is so much to know and in my opinion not a whole lot of resources. I just note, that in a conflict so complicated very few people "know enough."
I sympathize with Group 3. I have been wanting to write something like this for days, but haven't because I was afraid to appear insensitive or to offend people, or to make people think differently of me. I found myself wondering, how any perceived Pro Israeli comments would be taken by my friends? how Pro Palestinian comments would be taken by other friends? Is it okay to not pick a side? Is is okay to pick a side? I am not sure I have the answers to those questions, but after yet another myriad of posts on FB this morning, I decided to write this anyways.
Now for Groups 1 and 2. I understand that for some people there are personal reasons for being a part of one camp or the other. Some have seen personal family in the conflict and others have very committed ties to the underlying politics of the situation, people I think of as insiders. For those that are close to the conflict it seems fair to assume that their biases are real and that their opinions however subjective are justified.
However, I don't think that being of the Muslim faith or of the Jewish faith makes you an insider. To the doctoral resident in the US, or the investment banker who have a new found interest in posting videos like the ones mentioned above, I simply would like to request that you be judicious in what you post.We all know that civilians are dying, but posting gruesome images of that does not add anything positive to the discussion. Neither does posting the founding decree of Hamas.
In my opinion, to find an ultimate resolution to this conflict will continue to be difficult. The relentless screaming and blaming from "outsiders" is certainly not going to help the insiders reach a resolution. I am not an expert on the issue, but I hope to follow this post with a follow up on my own history of the conflict as I understand it. Hopefully from a more level perspective. If any people have specific questions or thoughts that they think I should address or explore, please let me know. Thank you for reading.
