We must take responsibility for the evil that we ourselves do. It’s too easy to project evil onto others, and kill them, and say “I had to do it, because they are evil.” It’s childish and immoral to lie to ourselves about ourselves, and to deny our own responsibility.
Please stop denying Israel's responsibility in Oct. 7 and blaming Hamas for all the deaths. At least 3/4 of the deaths were caused by the IDF. Hamas' plan was not to kill a bunch of Israelis. The plan was to abduct a large enough number that Israel would release the illegally imprisoned Palestinians (5.000 then; more than 10,000 now). Israel kills most of their own that died. Hamas did not even know the rave was happening. And Israel moved the rave even closer to the border wall hours before the rave started. Don't lie by omission. I understand that as a Western Jew you are uncomfortable about what Israel did on Oct. 7. But don't deny it.
Sinwar was in Israeli prison for killing Palestinian collaborators. This is what American Green Berets did in Vietnam and elsewhere. Read Annie Jacobsen's book on the US assassination policy through the decades. It's pretty nauseating.
You forgot Arafat. They poisoned him. May they rot in hell. He made so many concessions it's crazy. And still they killed him. Political neanderthals.
Thank you, Peter. It is a shame, isn't it? All of us non-Jews, non-Palestinians, just like Ta-Nehisi Coates has said, we have been lied to, we have been used. We learned all those stories about the Holocaust, watched all the heart-wrenching movies, and what did we get out of it? Norm Finkelstein was right. But now that we see it, we needed a voice like yours to verify it, which is its own indictment of the dysfunction. But now that we are all looking at the mass slaughter... it's astoundingly shameful. Some people are still sitting in their hollow sanctimony, others are just looking away because it's just so awful, and then the rest of us who are still paying attention... This is a tragedy not only for Human Rights and the institutions that have been raised in the name of that noble idea, it is a tragedy for our communities. Why should any of us care about our neighbors, our friends, if it seems the majority only care about their own religious or narrowly defined ethnic/racial tribe? And especially those with money... As you were saying to Ben Rhodes on Pod Save the World, there are those Jews who are writing $1m checks to AIPAC, while Jews without $$$ are not able to write a check to a Peace PAC in order to change American public policies. We all have to wonder who those people are... they surround us. They are our neighbors. They roam around freely in our society. They send the money and make all Americans - regardless of our identities - sitting ducks for righteous terrorists. It's madness. Kamala said Justice had been done when Yahya Sinwar was killed. But no one is calling for Netanyahu or his crew to be killed in order to pay for the 40k+ Palestinians they have murdered. What a mockery of the concept of Justice! What a mockery of the Western concept of "individual rights" that so many have heralded as the core principle driving Western Civilization to unassailable heights. Individuality is clearly a select notion applied when those with the biggest weapons choose to apply it, and null and void when they don't. Thanks, Netanyahu, Israelis and Biden - you have taken us all back the most uncivilized state of all - that Might makes Right and Reason is no match for 2000 lb bombs. F-k the Enlightenment.
You do a great job summarizing these events. I can’t thank you enough for your perspective and wisdom! I can see why my great uncle Sid (I attended his funeral) valued your friendship so dearly.
A very helpful summary thank you. I do want to caution people not to rule out a day when Jewish Israelis and Palestinians can all live together in a truly democratic state. If the French and Germans could forgive each other after World War II, everything is possible. We can’t stay in our own corners forever.
This generation of Israeli Jews is impossibly indoctrinated. I don't think they can live with Arabs of any religious faith. And I sure don't want them in my neighborhood. I don't think they can live peaceably with me. Their indoctrination is too severe.
Everyone needs to speak for themselves. Don't rely on Peter to express what you are afraid to say. Your truth is, by necessity, different from his. I appreciate him but in no way does he speak for me. Speak up. It's the minimum that you can do. Must do.
Also - if illegitimate violence by non-state actors (e.g., an oppressed group), is corrupting, as Coates comments (can't remember if I heard this in your interview or elsewhere?), illegitimate violence by a state is corrupts governing principles of the state. No?
Peter, Thank you for this. I agree with all of it but would add a couple of things. First, when a state assumes the right to assassinate leaders it does not like, it loses the right to morally object when other states take the same course in respect to it. Could Israel really express moral outrage if Netanyahu or Ben-Gvir or Smotrich were assassinated by Palestinians? Of course, it could be objected that the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah are not leaders of states but were non-state actors. Still, they were seen as leaders by many Palestinians and that is what counts.
Second, I do not think it is an accident that Israel's recent assassinations have been of men who were actually or potentially interlocutors with Israel. This was particularly true of Ismail Haniyeh (probably misspelling his name) who was a policy guy, not a military leader, and trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza. Let's see this for what it is: part of the goal of having endless war against the Palestinians and the countries supporting them. I do not think that is a cynical view but what one can infer from Israeli actions.
Third, I think if is of interest and relevance that the US passed a law in 1975, signed into law by Gerald R. Ford, making it illegal for US government officials to carry out assassinations of foreign leaders. This showed understanding of what is not acceptable if one wants a world operating under certain moral and legal restraints, not the law of the jungle.
What did I think of the New Yorker's take on Ta-Nehisi Coates? Well, I think the title of my recent post at my substack blog Literature R Us, "The New Yorker disgraces itself with its disgusting hit piece on Ta-Nehisi Coates, accused of, you know, TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL!" gives you a clue.
While I very much appreciate this post acknowledging that Israel has targeted Palestinian leaders for assassination for decades, describing Ghassan Kanafani as a leader akin to Yahya Sinwar is erroneous. He was a much admired writer and editor, and he continues to be admired worldwide today, decades later, much in the way James Baldwin does. The fact that Israel not only targets Palestinian militants and political leaders for assassination, but also writers, poets and journalists, should be of great concern to all of us. It means that Israel not only goes after perceived political enemies, but is keen to stamp out Palestinian culture. That explains why during its Gaza onslaught it has bombed all the universities, many schools, printing presses, cultural centers, theatres and libraries. There is a case to be made for genocide. We should not turn away from the facts. —Jordan Elgrably, editor, The Markaz Review
An interesting argument from Miami Beach Palestine solidarity ranks that speaks to Nosey Parker's last post revolves around supporting or even incentivising Jewish emigration from Palestine to the US, as a practical measure and as an obligation both toward Jews for refusing refugees during the Shoah and toward Palestinians, the theft and ethnic cleansing of whose homeland US taxpayers pay for and arm.
We must take responsibility for the evil that we ourselves do. It’s too easy to project evil onto others, and kill them, and say “I had to do it, because they are evil.” It’s childish and immoral to lie to ourselves about ourselves, and to deny our own responsibility.
Please stop denying Israel's responsibility in Oct. 7 and blaming Hamas for all the deaths. At least 3/4 of the deaths were caused by the IDF. Hamas' plan was not to kill a bunch of Israelis. The plan was to abduct a large enough number that Israel would release the illegally imprisoned Palestinians (5.000 then; more than 10,000 now). Israel kills most of their own that died. Hamas did not even know the rave was happening. And Israel moved the rave even closer to the border wall hours before the rave started. Don't lie by omission. I understand that as a Western Jew you are uncomfortable about what Israel did on Oct. 7. But don't deny it.
Sinwar was in Israeli prison for killing Palestinian collaborators. This is what American Green Berets did in Vietnam and elsewhere. Read Annie Jacobsen's book on the US assassination policy through the decades. It's pretty nauseating.
You forgot Arafat. They poisoned him. May they rot in hell. He made so many concessions it's crazy. And still they killed him. Political neanderthals.
Thank you, Peter. It is a shame, isn't it? All of us non-Jews, non-Palestinians, just like Ta-Nehisi Coates has said, we have been lied to, we have been used. We learned all those stories about the Holocaust, watched all the heart-wrenching movies, and what did we get out of it? Norm Finkelstein was right. But now that we see it, we needed a voice like yours to verify it, which is its own indictment of the dysfunction. But now that we are all looking at the mass slaughter... it's astoundingly shameful. Some people are still sitting in their hollow sanctimony, others are just looking away because it's just so awful, and then the rest of us who are still paying attention... This is a tragedy not only for Human Rights and the institutions that have been raised in the name of that noble idea, it is a tragedy for our communities. Why should any of us care about our neighbors, our friends, if it seems the majority only care about their own religious or narrowly defined ethnic/racial tribe? And especially those with money... As you were saying to Ben Rhodes on Pod Save the World, there are those Jews who are writing $1m checks to AIPAC, while Jews without $$$ are not able to write a check to a Peace PAC in order to change American public policies. We all have to wonder who those people are... they surround us. They are our neighbors. They roam around freely in our society. They send the money and make all Americans - regardless of our identities - sitting ducks for righteous terrorists. It's madness. Kamala said Justice had been done when Yahya Sinwar was killed. But no one is calling for Netanyahu or his crew to be killed in order to pay for the 40k+ Palestinians they have murdered. What a mockery of the concept of Justice! What a mockery of the Western concept of "individual rights" that so many have heralded as the core principle driving Western Civilization to unassailable heights. Individuality is clearly a select notion applied when those with the biggest weapons choose to apply it, and null and void when they don't. Thanks, Netanyahu, Israelis and Biden - you have taken us all back the most uncivilized state of all - that Might makes Right and Reason is no match for 2000 lb bombs. F-k the Enlightenment.
You do a great job summarizing these events. I can’t thank you enough for your perspective and wisdom! I can see why my great uncle Sid (I attended his funeral) valued your friendship so dearly.
This is the substitute for a possible future, made increasingly impossible by each killing. Not to mention each massacre. Thanks again.
I would like to recommend a novel by Adania Shibli, Minor Detail.
A very helpful summary thank you. I do want to caution people not to rule out a day when Jewish Israelis and Palestinians can all live together in a truly democratic state. If the French and Germans could forgive each other after World War II, everything is possible. We can’t stay in our own corners forever.
This generation of Israeli Jews is impossibly indoctrinated. I don't think they can live with Arabs of any religious faith. And I sure don't want them in my neighborhood. I don't think they can live peaceably with me. Their indoctrination is too severe.
Everyone needs to speak for themselves. Don't rely on Peter to express what you are afraid to say. Your truth is, by necessity, different from his. I appreciate him but in no way does he speak for me. Speak up. It's the minimum that you can do. Must do.
Also - if illegitimate violence by non-state actors (e.g., an oppressed group), is corrupting, as Coates comments (can't remember if I heard this in your interview or elsewhere?), illegitimate violence by a state is corrupts governing principles of the state. No?
Peter, Thank you for this. I agree with all of it but would add a couple of things. First, when a state assumes the right to assassinate leaders it does not like, it loses the right to morally object when other states take the same course in respect to it. Could Israel really express moral outrage if Netanyahu or Ben-Gvir or Smotrich were assassinated by Palestinians? Of course, it could be objected that the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah are not leaders of states but were non-state actors. Still, they were seen as leaders by many Palestinians and that is what counts.
Second, I do not think it is an accident that Israel's recent assassinations have been of men who were actually or potentially interlocutors with Israel. This was particularly true of Ismail Haniyeh (probably misspelling his name) who was a policy guy, not a military leader, and trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza. Let's see this for what it is: part of the goal of having endless war against the Palestinians and the countries supporting them. I do not think that is a cynical view but what one can infer from Israeli actions.
Third, I think if is of interest and relevance that the US passed a law in 1975, signed into law by Gerald R. Ford, making it illegal for US government officials to carry out assassinations of foreign leaders. This showed understanding of what is not acceptable if one wants a world operating under certain moral and legal restraints, not the law of the jungle.
What did I think of the New Yorker's take on Ta-Nehisi Coates? Well, I think the title of my recent post at my substack blog Literature R Us, "The New Yorker disgraces itself with its disgusting hit piece on Ta-Nehisi Coates, accused of, you know, TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL!" gives you a clue.
Please quote the Hebrew. We want to see if your pronunciation is Sephardic or Ashkenazic.
While I very much appreciate this post acknowledging that Israel has targeted Palestinian leaders for assassination for decades, describing Ghassan Kanafani as a leader akin to Yahya Sinwar is erroneous. He was a much admired writer and editor, and he continues to be admired worldwide today, decades later, much in the way James Baldwin does. The fact that Israel not only targets Palestinian militants and political leaders for assassination, but also writers, poets and journalists, should be of great concern to all of us. It means that Israel not only goes after perceived political enemies, but is keen to stamp out Palestinian culture. That explains why during its Gaza onslaught it has bombed all the universities, many schools, printing presses, cultural centers, theatres and libraries. There is a case to be made for genocide. We should not turn away from the facts. —Jordan Elgrably, editor, The Markaz Review
An interesting argument from Miami Beach Palestine solidarity ranks that speaks to Nosey Parker's last post revolves around supporting or even incentivising Jewish emigration from Palestine to the US, as a practical measure and as an obligation both toward Jews for refusing refugees during the Shoah and toward Palestinians, the theft and ethnic cleansing of whose homeland US taxpayers pay for and arm.