Today has been a tumultuous one, and the promise of more tumult appears visible on the horizon, tumult that will possibly continue (this time) until a Palestinian state is formed. The chaos unleashed today may not end.
Below, I'm going to a) very briefly explain what is happening today, and b) explore what I must do, as Jew, to decrease the chances of such tumult to cycle, unending, into the future.
A. Today – Crashing Israel's Borders
Today is Nakba Day, the annual moment in which Palestinians mark, with sadness and anger, their displacement and/or fleeing that occurred in the wake of Israel's establishment. (I am not writing history here or trying to make a political statement. Rather, this is simply an explanation of what is being recognized today.)
And today, there have been protests throughout the West Bank and Gaza. And there has been violence. But unlike other moments, Israel's borders have seen Palestinians trying to break through electrical fences or coalescing close to the border at three places: Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. And Israel has killed Palestinians trying to do so along both the Syrian and Lebanese borders, 8 in total to date.
The violence precipitated by today's actions will not end when the sun goes down. For when it rises tomorrow, we may see that a force has been unleashed which will not be contained until a Palestinian state is formed, be that in September when the UN unilaterally declares statehood for the Palestinians or sooner, if a miracle diplomacy prevails.
B. What I Must Do In Response, as a Jew
For too long, as a Jew invested heavily in Israel's existence, in its survival, I have focused upon my people's suffering, my people's victimhood. I have focused on the death of most of my family in the Holocaust, I have focused on the deaths of my friends and the injury of those close to me at the hands of Palestinian terror. And I have gone back, reading the chronicles of our history, in which time and again, throughout the ages, we have been the focus of genocidal maniacs.
For too long I have done this, and only this, for I have been obsessed with claiming, and reclaiming – repeatedly – my people's victimhood. We are the true victims, I've repeated far too many times in my lifetime, and this repetition has blinded me, sometimes willfully, sometimes unintentionally, to the victimhood of the Palestinians.
It's a zero-sum game I've played, as a Jew, thinking incorrectly that, in the conflict between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, only the true victims are worthy of being championed, not understanding that in this conflict, there are two sides, two victims, two peoples who have seen the knife's edge and the flash of pyrotechnics.
But I refuse to play this game any longer. I refuse to ignore that, whatever I think about history, and the way in which the history of the region has been interpreted, one thing cannot be ignored: my enemy has suffered, is suffering, and if anything is to be done to end this pathological conflict, I must begin by recognizing this.
I must look upon today, upon Nakba Day, and say, Yes, you have suffered too. I must look upon Palestinian pain not as a threat to my own survival, not as a threat to Jewish victimhood being legitimate and potent, but as a simple truth. A human truth. A terrible truth.
As a Jew, I must recognize this and, in doing so, call upon my fellow Jews, I must call upon the Israeli political establishment – particularly Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyah and Defense Minister Ehud Barak – and request that we remove our victimhood blinders and recognize the real suffering on the other side while maintaining and telling the stories of our own.
As a Jew, I must reach out to those Palestinians who want to recognize my legitimate existence, to recognize the existence of Israel, and speak to them. To tell them that, yes, I see you. I see your suffering. And I want it to stop, just as I want it to stop for my own people.
I must do this. And I must do this now. For September is looming. And Israel/Palestine today is burning.
And I'm not sure when the fires are going to be extinguished.