As an ignorant Methodist farmboy from rural Michigan I probably should not be writing this and if I offend anyone I deeply apologize. I am terrified of I/P diaries and I do not want to tangle with those who are experts on history and the Middle East but-
I am just asking that people who wish to express their opinions on what is happening over there try to reflect on just why Jewish people may have a different perspective than the rest of us. To many of us the Middle East is just a hard, dangerous, bloody place where everybody hates everybody else and bloodshed is as common as a yard sale at a local Baptist church.
It is easy for the rest of us to say, Jews have no right to be there. They should give the land back to the Palestinians and just let them have it.
I am neither a lawyer nor a historian. But I have to ask, where in the whole world can a Jew feel safe, accepted, and a healthy and respected member of the community? For two thousand years the world has ostracized them, isolated them and persecuted them, killed them and chased them out.
If you think the massacre in Israel this past week is bad, just read up on Jewish history sometime. Just look at it. Every page is covered with blood, the blood of innocent Jewish people who were simply living their own lives and trying to worship God in their own way. And for this everyone came in and killed them.
When I was growing up I read of the Holocaust and I thought, as horrible as it was, it was just an isolated event caused by a madman who had seized power in Germany. But as I read more I realized that that was not true. The Nazis may have taken antisemitism to an extreme but Europe has been rife with it for millennia. Maybe not every year, maybe not every generation, but it was there.
What must it have been like in all of those generations to know in the back of your mind that at any moment the locals might rise up and massacre you and your family and loved ones? And yes, that is an absolute fact. It must have been always there, a constant nagging concern that no matter how patriotic, accomplished, and compassionate you are, someone might kill you just because?
And if not Israel, where can a Jew feel truly safe even today? Even in America we have Nick Fuentes and others who openly preach antisemitism and hide behind the screaming parrot, “Freedom of Speech!” so no one can stop them.
Great Britain? Do you know even the vaulted Agatha Christie wrote an antisemitic detective novel?
France? Look at the history of antisemitism there. Liberty, equality, fraternity… but not for thee.
Russia? Fiddler on the Roof barely scratches the surface of what happened there.
Germany? Well, enough said.
I am not saying who is right and who is wrong but please, when we argue these things, please try to understand why Jews may think as they think and sometimes act as they act. The whole world has hated them for generations and now in many places the hate is rising again.
Where can they feel safe? Israel may not be perfect but how can they not see it as their only refuge?
I grieve for all of the Israeli people slain and suffering. I understand that the Jewish people must be reeling in shock all over the world. I hope they handle this wisely and with whatever compassion the situation will allow.
But I am not going to condemn them.
I am not going to engage in the comments with anyone who wants to argue what Israel or the Palestinians should or should not do. There are plenty of other stories here for that. I am just asking that we have a little perspective and understanding.