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Lynna Schaefer's avatar

Thank you for speaking my heart. A chilul hashem, a spiritual crisis. We will be living it the rest of our lives and who knows how much longer? Bless your clarity and courage

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jo's avatar

Of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass said: "It was the glory of this man that he could stand alone with the truth, and ... await the result." You, Peter Beinart, stand with William Lloyd Garrison, "alone with the truth." Thank you for your courage.

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SK's avatar

Thank you, Peter, for expressing the despair and anger that we feel. Even as a secular Jew, I feel an added burden and fury over what Israel is doing and the complicity of the great majority of Isreali and diaspora Jews. I do not accept that Israelis are not getting accurate information because their television shows won't show it. Every person under 75 uses the internet and social media. It reminds me of how German Jews found ways to avoid "knowing" in the midst of the Third Reich. Handfuls of Israelis are willing to protest, which means everyone with a conscience in Israel could as well.

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SK's avatar

Interestingly, I meant to write that it reminds me of how Germans who were not Jewish found ways to avoid "knowing" in the midst of the Third Reich. But the fact is that disavowal is, unfortunately, a psychical mechanism of which most of us avail ourselves at some tragic point or another.

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Linda Miller's avatar

Truly you are a voice in the wilderness.

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Shai Gluskin's avatar

Thank you, Peter. I'm reposting this. Thank you for trying to break through the horrible denial of the genocide happening now in Gaza.

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Bruce Patt's avatar

Peter, your deep pain is palpable. Your work toward justice is so important. Unfortunately, the calculus of politics, power and racist tribalism have rendered the State of Israel as just another example of inhumanity in the guise of virtue.

I am a Jew, descended from refugees of the Russian Empire. I do not believe in any God-concept. If I follow any Jewish teachings, I do not do so because they are Jewish, but because they are morally just. They are principles of humanity which throughout history have suffocated beneath tribal rivalries.

The State of Israel is a creation of European colonialism, Western guilt, self-righteousness, superstition and greed. It could have been accomplished in justice, but it wasn’t. If racism was a founding tenet I can’t say, but surely it has been used as a wedge of justification for refining an apartheid social and political structure. All of this denigrates the name of God, as you’ve put it. It denigrates what it means to be a human being whose life is of no greater value than that of anyone else.

I have relatives in the U.S. who are big-shots in raising money for Israel, who didn’t think Obama was “good for Israel,” and who have long referred to Palestinians as “animals.” To me, they are not Jews by values of morality, but by the value of political power. Pious practitioners of the faith, they have helped build a great economic and military power. My complicity has been the state of ignorance I was taught in Temple and Sunday School. Never again, if I can help it.

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Kathleen HIll's avatar

Thank you for this. Yes, a genocide.

So many denials of this fact. I think we all have a responsibility to speak out everyday, everyday. The media avoids naming it, describing it. I think the holocaust will have to be described in the same breath “afterwards.”

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Anjali's avatar

I really appreciate this.

I come from a very different religious/spiritual background, but am feeling an agonizing sense of moral injury right now. The dissonance between daily life in the United States and our taxes and political will being directed toward facilitating Israel's genocide in Gaza is unbearable.

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Amy Davidow's avatar

Thank you, Peter. I'm a Zionist in recovery. Former AZYF madrichah who sprang into action during the first intifada by joining the International Jewish Peace Union and then New Jewish Agenda. The pain is truly great.

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Sigve Tonstad's avatar

I wept when I listened to your message today. A wound in the heart, a wound in the fabric of the world. Thank you.

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Joseph A Fadel's avatar

Thank you Peter for expressing how I feel even if I am not of the Jewish faith. My humanity is in shock with what the US is allowing to happen.

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Linda Snider's avatar

Peter. I hope and pray that the Israeli genocide will NOT haunt you for the rest of your life! In my humble opinion you have done as much, and often more, than most “broadcasters,” or

media outlets. I hope you’ll get huge

audiences in Australia! My group and I

will keep “Standing with signs for

GAZA, Peace for Gaza, for Ukraine”!

Linda

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Ellen Oxfeld's avatar

THANK YOU so much for speaking what so many of us feel, but can't put into words as you do so powerfully. I listened more than once, because I wanted it to sink in enough that I could articulate some of this myself. Your message speaks to all of us, whether we are Jewish or not, or whether we are religious or not. It is a spiritual crisis for all Americans, and considering the complicity of many European countries, possibly for the Europeans as well. I will forward this on to as many people as I can think of. I know we must not despair, as we all try to do what we can -- attend protests, write letters, donate to families in Gaza and the West Bank, but feel so powerless against the machine of inhumanity and indifference of our political leaders (and judging from your comments, many religious leaders as well). How will history judge this? I think we know.

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dvorah's avatar

with you and all the others in grief and in sorrow.

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philistinie's avatar

God First had Moses. 'Jewish and Israelite People' failed him, so he sent Jesus. Otherwise why was Jesus even needed? Islam also followed when Christians failed Jesus! It is the same message for all. Believe in God, Do good in this world. That's it. That is all that is needed!

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Kathy's avatar

For those of us paying attention, donating to organizations trying to assist Palestinians, trying to share the dispair…. The outrage grows as those in power continue to disconnect and move on. I’m so angry I can’t lift my head

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