Here's what my Jewish friend has to say about #Gaza


From Ben Brandzel ( @brandzel ) http://freedom4palestine.org/ OK, I'm going to step in it. As a Jewish American human, this whole situation is anguishing for me on every level. (Well, no, not the levels that are anguishing for people in Gaza or Israel fearing for their lives and mourning their dead loved ones, or the people across Palestine who lack basic rights and freedoms, but in all the ways it can be anguishing emotionally and mentally for a spectator who feels special culpability and connection to this from at least two facets of my identity).
I just watched this video from Jewish Voices for Peace, which was especially powerful for me because it's hard for me to be as emotionally open to the angry criticism of my ideological peers as I'd like to be when I feel they don't "get" the Jewish perspective. That's a physiological limitation, sure, but it's real.
This video is not analytical and prescribes no solution, which means it's surely not a complete response to this situation. But I think I need to focus more on moving my reactions away from "absent" than worrying about how far they are from "complete". Perhaps that's true of many of us. And this video is a simple reminder of a very important place to begin...with a visceral, emotional acknowledgement of the human cost of this war in Gaza.
Because it's coming from Jews, I don't get my hackles raised about "balance" as I might if it were coming from non-Jews who weren't simultaneously addressing the legitimate pain and fear of Israeli Jews. That's because as Jews, I think we can all rest assured that the Israeli government (which claims to represent us all as a people) is doing a great job defending the life and limb of Israeli citizens (which is very important). But that means we can and ought to focus our energy on the part of representing our people where they are utterly failing: safeguarding the morality of Jewish impact on the world around us (which is also very important), and ensuring that we Jews never, ever, ever, ever fall into the trap of dehumanizing those whom we impact or even bitterly oppose, as has so often been done to us throughout our history (which, perhaps, is the most important thing of all -- for haven't we always known that surviving as Jews means not merely living, but preserving our spiritual integrity? And isn't that linked most strongly to our treatment of others?)
Especially as the current government of Israel is failing all Jews in these crucial respects, I believe it falls to all of us to take up the responsibility ourselves -- to defend our own moral and spiritual integrity as a people in this world. And making and sharing a simple video testament to the unquestionable humanity of those killed in Gaza feels like a good beginning.
Anyway, that's my gush. Here's the video. I'd love to know what you think. http://freedom4palestine.org/

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