I think the above is one of the most insightful things I’ve ever said.
Israel is a state created in response to massive trauma. It is sadly no surprise to me that its responses are traumatized, but it should go without saying that the state’s actions are inexcusable, and that the lack of broad international intervention is (yet) a(nother) deep stain on humanity: “Hurt people hurt people” at a societal scale.
This analysis is inspired by Sarah Schulman’s book Conflict Is Not Abuse, which discusses ways that traumatized people (and peoples) defensively lash out. It was an early read in Hussein’s Healing Arc and one that has wisely primed in me both compassion and caution for trauma folk.
Even setting aside that Israel’s creation was supported by states very glad to see Jews “returning home” (ie leaving), it seems obvious that when your country’s founding belief is “our people will never be safe until we have a homeland”, you’ll be real defensive about said homeland. And when the homeland is defined by drawing some lines on a map, as colonizers are inclined to do, with scant regard for the current occupants… well, it all seems somewhat inevitable.
Regarding the invasion of Gaza: I suppose if you look at it coldly, the question is whether killing sixty thousand people and displacing two million is worth it for a few hostages. Aanother option might be to grieve it as a horrific tragedy and refuse to stoop as low, for instance. Instead we have something that looks an awful lot like vengeance and extermination.
FWIW, not that I am particularly educated nor that my opinion matters, my preferred solution is one state, secular, with full citizenship and voting rights for all. This would effectively end the existence of a Jewish state, which I’m fine with: I’m pretty averse to theocracies, and find it kinda suspect that the western world seems to carve out an exception in its distate towards them in this particular case.
Of course, given the massive economic, political and military power differential, a combined state seems very unlikely; more likely a single state will be achieved sooner or later via the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians, thus creating another traumatized diaspora.