Israel/Palestine for Dummies

If you’re like me, you may have spent a great deal of time over the past several months trying to understand exactly what’s going on with the Israel/Palestine/Hamas situation. We have people in America protesting both sides, we have billions of our tax dollars going to help Israel while we’re also supporting Ukraine in their defensive efforts against Russia’s ongoing invasion, and I also keep thinking about what amazing things we could do for Americans with all of that money.

In order to try and have an informed opinion about it, really just for my own peace of mind, I’ve spoken with good friends who are Jewish and also students at the high school where I teach who are from Palestine. I’ve also watched countless new reports and documentaries about the conflict. The Jewish people are understandably ticked off at the Hamas terrorist attack that started this latest conflict, and I completely relate. If my neighbor beheaded by daughter and threw her on a bonfire in my front yard I’d go full Liam Neeson/Keanu Reeves on his ass. I get it. On the other hand, Hamas views Israel as illegal occupiers of their land, an argument which also has some merit.

I’m not here to pick sides, and if you’d like to read the best summary of this entire situation from an historical point of view I highly recommend reading this article written by a Palestinian who blames their own government for the conflict. Instead, I’m here to explore a larger issue, as I devote this space to doing.

As I write this the Kansas City community is reeling from a mass shooting that broke out as the city was celebrating their NFL Chiefs Super Bowl win. It should be shocking, but we had 656 such shootings last year in America and nearly 5,000 people have already been killed by episodes of gun violence in 2024. in Missouri, where this latest event transpired, it’s legal for minor (imagine!) to carry firearms and it was a minor who opened fire on that Kansas City crowd. America’s love affair with guns comes at a very high, very deadly price.

(As an aside, Taylor Swift, my new favorite singer and a noted Chiefs fan, has announced that she’s donating $100,000 to family of the victim of the shooting.)

Unfortunately, gun violence is not new and it is certainly not limited to the United States. Every real newscast across the country has daily segments about wars being fought, random shootings, gang violence, drug cartels driving people out of South American countries, conflict all over Africa … in fact, there are over 10,000 armed conflicts currently raging around the world, many stemming back as far as the 1940’s.

On their 1995 album “Beggar on a Beach of Gold,” Mike + the Mechanics released the song “Someone Always Hates Someone,” which tackles this issue of humanity’s proclivity for killing in as eloquent and poignant a way as I have encountered.

Last night I shook hands with the devil
In a dream that I can never lose
He laughed when he saw me cryin’
At the pictures on the evening news
He said it’s not really a dilemma
You’re just a little out of touch
Don’t think of the situation
’cause it’ll make you think too much

Someone always hates someone
Someone always hates someone
Someone always sells a gun
’cause someone always hates someone

Don’t we all do this? We watch these things transpire and wonder why things are so bad. We wonder what we can do about it, and the answer is, really, not too much. No matter who we vote for or which cause we send money to, the violence persists. Someone is always greedy enough to sell guns.

A child will be born tomorrow
As open as an empty cup
And we’ll fill it with hope and sorrow
The very things that messed us up
We’ll ask him to join the congregation
A Hindu Muslim Christian or Jew
Pretty soon he’ll recognize his brothers
But soon he’ll know the enemy too

Someone always hates someone
Someone always hates someone
Someone always buys a gun
’cause someone always hates someone

Children aren’t born wanting to kill or even judge others. They have to be taught prejudice, judgment, hate and even violence. They’re sponges, too, picking up on the attitudes and behaviors of their parents even faster than they pick up on their words. When my daughter was born I felt it a daunting responsibility to raise her to be one who judges and embraces prejudices. So far, 12 years in, I seem to have done a pretty good judge. She wants to be friends with everyone, and does not recognize religion, race or creed. Unfortunately, there are many children who fall victim to the prejudices of their parents. They learn to hate. They buy guns. They perpetuate the dance of violence that plagues the planet.

I died and I went to heaven
In a dream I never had before
A good friend who had gone before me
Had kindly left my name at the door
I looked on the face of the almighty
Couldn’t help myself
I started to shout
How come you made a mess of things
How come you didn’t work it out

(extra beat here – anticipating a profound answer)

He said
Someone always hates someone
Someone always hates someone
There’s so much love for everyone
But someone always hates someone

I spent much of the first half century of my life looking for God. I studied every major religion, attended various forms of worship, and read literally hundreds of books on Christianity. When my step-dad got his Masters of Divinity and became a Presbyterian preacher as his second career, I read the books he was assigned and even had conversations with some of his professors because I was consumed by my search. Where I have landed as of today is that there is no personal God. There’s a creative Force (as George Lucas described God) that surrounds us, penetrates us and binds us all together, but if that Force cares one way or the other what we do I haven’t seen any evidence of such. I’m not suggesting that’s THE Truth, merely stating what my journey has revealed to date. I’m still walking.

I don’t know why the things we claim to abhor – greed, hate, violence – are so consistently pervasive in the human race. It looks like our greed may be the one that ends our species, as love of money and material things made us turn a collective blind eye to the realities of our intentional destruction of the only ecosystem that can sustain us. We have even come to use God, Jesus, Mohammed, Allah as justification for our biggest human failings. It’s me who wants to kill my neighbor and steal his land and resources – it’s GOD who wants me to do it. What choice to I have?

Ha.

There are plenty of geopolitical issues behind the war between Israel and Hamas, and depending on which side is telling their story it’s possible to empathize with both. The truth, however, is much less complicated.

Someone always hates someone.

Let’s try something different. Withhold judgment when it boils to the surface. Try understanding where someone you don’t know is coming from. When anger tries to rear its ugly head, take a break, label that anger and push it away. Guns don’t solve problems. Anger, fear aggression, the Dark Side are they. Don’t assume you know who someone is because they are wearing a burka, a yamaka or cross. Let’s spread some love today, or at least resist the urge to express anger or judgment. We can’t control world governments or stop wars, but this small thing we absolutely can do.

Maybe it will be contagious!

-B