The Kids Are Alright
Have we fallen into a moral gray zone, captured and paralyzed by our fear, our prejudices, and our loyalty to our Jewish brothers and sisters?
It should go without saying that the events of October 7th were horrific.
The attack by Hamas was an attack not only on the people of Israel but on the Palestinian people as well; each side betrayed by the ineptitude and outright malevolence of their leadership.
The Israelis were betrayed by an unforgivable arrogance that led them to ignore advanced warnings of the attack and then to follow up that attack with claims that magnified the carnage, some the result of the fog of war, but many more the result of outright lies and half-truths masked by their ban on outside journalists - and UN Investigators - who might be able to hold them to account.
The Palestinians were betrayed by their own leadership - first in its corrupt malfeasance in governing, building tunnels and armaments instead of an economy, and then launching an attack that was sure to elicit a violent response and gin up a propaganda mill on both sides of the war.
If the old wisdom that “truth is the first casualty of war” were ever true, this is a study in its merit.
In the wake of both the Hamas attack and the Israeli and American response, college students took to the streets and quads to express their support for an end to the violence in Gaza. If you have felt a sense of political whiplash over the response by the political and media establishments, you were not alone.
A month ago, politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbot, Florida Governor Desantis, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson were beating their chests about the denial of free speech on college campuses and this week they are joining together to say that students calling for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza need to be silenced. Their hypocrisy exposes the thinly veiled hidden “Christian nationalist” agenda of the right and a profound lack of moral courage on the left, seduced into silence by the deep pockets of lobbyists from pro-Israeli PACs and the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us of.
RFK Jr missed the one moment that could have made him a real contender in the general election, the moral courage of his father evading him in a moment that, in my opinion, his father would not have shied away from. There is no “Ripple of Hope” in his line of sight, as death and hunger are rained down on the guilty and innocent alike.
With the exception of Bernie Sanders, and Cornell West there isn’t a major political figure who can claim any high ground in this tragedy.
Donald Trump is almost irrelevant to the mix, even though he is bosom buddies with Netanyahu. Hopefully, both are about to be deprived of their wet dreams of a new era of anti-democratic, fascist domination.
Joe Biden is a puddle of indecision.
RFK Jr can’t run fast enough to avoid his father’s shadow. The mere mention of Gaza and the Palestinian people makes him squirm.
Benjamin Netanyahu is surely the worst of offenders. He should have resigned immediately for the hubris and arrogance of ignoring advance warnings of the Hamas attacks. Now he is more interested in trying to rehabilitate his own reputation than the survival of his nation’s soul. If the long-term effect of this conflict is the squandering of goodwill and the complete dismantling of support that Israel might have gained from the horror of the Hamas attack, we may be, sadly, witnessing the beginning of the end for the Israel story. Though it may also be that we are witnessing the beginning of the end to religious nation-states. Nations that have an official religion as their raison d'etre. This would be a welcome thing for both Israel and the nations that embrace Islam in the same fashion, but don’t hold your breath for that.
Ironically, Netanyahu calls these peaceful gatherings of American kids “unconscionable”, even calling Jewish students antisemitic by extension. Many of the same tropes of the Vietnam antiwar movement have reared their ugly heads: I can hear Spirou Agnew and Richard Nixon snarling “outside agitators”, though when thousands of upstanding Americans join those kids they will find themselves having to police their own language once again. . . and, make no mistake, the echoes of Vietnam, Kent State and Jackson State are already shaking up the political establishment and the “mainstream media”. One slip up by police or the National Guard will bring middle America into the streets as well, just as it did when they killed those kids at Kent State and Jackson State.
For now, politicians and media, both left and right, echo Netanyahu’s rhetoric, first by parroting his lies and defending his complete refusal to allow media and United Nations officials to provide independent verification of facts as presented and then telling Americans how we should respond as if he were OUR president.
Many politicians and media representatives have lined up behind him. Presenting the campus protests as antisemitic and evil. But this is unequivocally not the case. The protests have been composed of a colorful tapestry of race and religion, peacefully supporting one another, policing their ranks against the rhetoric of hate and antisemitism.
Have there been examples of the exceptions to this? Of course. Any time that large crowds gather in addressing a controversy there are bound to be some folks looking to take advantage of the situation, The recent attacks on student demonstrators at UCLA by a “pro-israel” counter demonstration are one obvious example. According to Rolling Stone Magazine:
“Shortly before midnight, a group of about 200 pro-Israel counter-protesters arrived at UCLA’s campus and began attempting to tear down barriers surrounding the student encampment. Videos on social media show the group firing fireworks into the encampment, beating students, throwing objects, and shouting things like “second Nakba,” at the encampment — a reference to the 1948 ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Palestinians from the territory that now comprises Israel.”
But dissensions within the ranks of those demonstrating against the violence in Gaza are few and far between, in fact these students have gone out of their way to stress their solidarity with one another, irrespective of religion, race or any other construct the media and politicians choose to cook up.
Like everyone else, I find myself being drawn into the moral grey zone when it comes to this tragedy. It is too easy to just sink into the ambiguity of the moment. We have all watched for too long as this problem has developed but these young people give me hope because they are the new generation of Radical Centrists. Unwilling to shrug their shoulders and accept things as they are. Like the young people who led the way in the 60s against racism, against intolerance, against Vietnam. They are willing to question authority when the facts run contrary to the rhetoric.
I wish they were there when my beloved country committed genocide against my Abenaki and Iroquois ancestors and all of their Native American brethren; I wish they were there when our nation turned a blind eye to the genocide that claimed the lives of more than 6 million Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, and others under the evil of Hitler; I wish they had been there when the Turks committed genocide against the Armenian people, or Rwanda was torn apart by hatred and genocide.
I thank the Great Spirits of the universe that they are willing to stand up NOW and risk all that they put on the line.
More than 35.000 dead, overwhelmingly women and children.
More than 50 campuses, with more joining daily, lifting their voices for justice and peace.
If not us, then whom? If not now then when?
This is what democracy looks like.
Links
Bernie Sanders Speaks Out
Why so many young Jews are turning on Israel | Simone Zimmerman | The Big Picture S4E7
The truth about October 7: Director Richard Sanders discusses his Al Jazeera film with Peter Oborne
Award-winning journalist and film director Richard Sanders, sits down with Middle East Eye columnist Peter Oborne to discuss his latest film with Al Jazeera’s Investigation Unit (I-Unit) October 7.
The film provides a forensic analysis of the Hamas-led attack on Israel that day, revealing human rights abuses committed by Hamas fighters. The months’ long investigation also found that many claims repeated by politicians and western media, including mass rape and killings of babies, were false.
Stephen Capos, Child Survivor of the Holocaust
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