A Middle East reader

Where a Jewish humanist found light in these dark times

I interrupt this space’s usual programming to offer readers links to recent columns I found helpful in sorting through my conflicted emotions in the wake of Hamas’ cold-blooded slaughter of innocent civilians in southern Israel:

Peter Beinart in the New York Times: “There Is a Jewish Hope for Palestinian Liberation. It Must Survive.”

Jeffrey Sachs on the Common Dreams website: “Saving Israel and Palestine Through the United Nations.”

Robert Kuttner on The American Prospect: “Israel’s Dwindling Moral High Ground.”

Two from Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times: “The Massacre in Israel and the Need for a Decent Left” and “Piling Horror on Horror.”

And, surprisingly, from Tom Friedman in the Times: “Why a Gaza Invasion and ‘Once and for All’ Thinking Are Wrong for Israel.”

As an American citizen who is Jewish, I have supported the Palestinian people’s right to a homeland — the two-state solution — for over half a century. More recently, I have lent a sympathetic ear to the idea that Israel, despite its current leadership, could evolve into a secular, democratic state with equal rights for all, including its Palestinian citizens. Both positions implicitly endorse Israel’s right to exist.

As the child of a Jew lucky enough to escape Eastern Europe in the late 1930s (at least 11 members of my father’s extended family did not), I recognize barbarism when I see it. Waging war on innocent civilians is barbarism, whether carried out by Nazis, religious fanatics or an aggrieved nation’s government seeking revenge for the slaughter of innocents.

The need to bring the perpetrators of Hamas’ war crimes to justice is clear. But I do not pretend to know the best path forward for the Israeli government and its allies — including the U.S., whose president is traveling to the Middle East tomorrow.

I do know one thing, though: Engaging in retaliatory war crimes in Gaza cannot be part of the answer. Forced evacuations, blockades of food, fuel and medical supplies, and the indiscriminate bombing of civilians are war crimes, just as a military invasion whose intent is to machine gun civilians at concerts, on Kibbutzes and in their homes are war crimes.

Here’s hoping that President Biden brings that message to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in addition to pledges of continued U.S. support for Israel in the face of potential assaults from neighboring nations seeking to take advantage of Hamas’ murderous provocations.