William Lindsey :toad:
I have hesistated to post about the remembrance of the Hamas atrocities of October 7 because, frankly, I feel burned when I post even excerpts from people — often people of profound Jewish faith and deep moral insight — about what happened last October 7 and the further horrors that have now ensued.
From the outset, pushback against some people raising their voices to comment about these matters was fierce.
William Lindsey :toad:
All that by way of preface to sharing some things I've read today and recently that speak strongly to me:
"At times I have felt almost paralyzed with hopelessness, not only because of the foolishness and cruelty of political leaders but because of what I see in my fellow citizens."
~ Paul Waldman
#October7 #Israel #Netanyahu #Gaza #Palestine #Lebanon
/5
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/a-year-of-anguish-and-self-delusion
William Lindsey :toad:
I have Jewish friends, and I have Palestinian friends. I hear grief on both sides, and I feel pain emanating from both sides. To me as someone standing "in the middle," the humanity of both sets of friends counts profoundly. This is where I will keep standing as my own moral centerpoint no matter how much anyone on any side tries to bully me into silence — and you do not promote a moral viewpoint when you silence and bully others.
William Lindsey :toad:
This is why I have sought all along to listen to Jewish thinkers who have always taught me so much, whose religious insights reach the core of my non-Jewish soul, whose moral sensibility is so inspiring.
I'm an outsider to the grief and rage those who lost relatives or who are deeply connected to Israel for good reasons have felt in wake of October 7. I understand and honor their grief.
William Lindsey :toad:
There have been strong attempts to silence and censor some voices, to slap the ugly label of antisemitism on anyone asking whether atrocious violence in response to atrocious violence is a solution to anything at all — including many Jewish people and many Jewish people of profound faith and strong moral conviction.
As an outsider to the Jewish community, I have no right to address these issues as if I'm an insider.
William Lindsey :toad:
"As Israeli philosopher Oded Na’aman writes, 'Of course, even if the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip were possible it would be abhorrent, but at this moment it is important to understand that many Israelis support the immense use of force for the sake of a goal that upon reflection they themselves admit is unachievable. There is simply no available vision of a tolerable future.'”
William Lindsey :toad:
Part of Judaism’s voice comes for me very powerfully in this notion, also in the Talmud, that G-d created Adam, who is not of any race or religion. Judaism does not believe that Adam and Eve were Jews. They were universal human beings before G-d creates a covenant with Abraham."
~ Peter Beinart
#October7 #Israel #Netanyahu #Gaza #Palestine #Lebanon
/10
https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/atoning-for-the-past-year
William Lindsey :toad:
"as trivial or excusable or even cause for celebration, an act of resistance granted righteousness by what came before and after, without any need to consider what it actually consisted of. People tear down posters of the hostages held by Hamas, lest anyone see them and consider their humanity. …
I’ve tried in vain to find anyone who can offer a plausible path to a peaceful future for Israel that begins with what is happening now."
William Lindsey :toad:
"I have been staggered by the amount of time and energy that is spent on denying the humanity of others and insisting that today’s crimes are justified by yesterday’s, that some people’s suffering can be ignored or dismissed as meaningless while other people’s suffering excuses the most monstrous savagery."
William Lindsey :toad:
"It is not both-sidesism or facile moral equivalency to see these tendencies from both Israelis and Palestinians, and advocates for both. On this anniversary one can’t ignore how many treat the pogrom of October 7 — 1,200 people killed, hundreds taken hostage, families murdered in their homes, butchery to rival the worst of history’s massacres —"
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