2024 10 05
Money: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems! St Germain, Wisconsin. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I started writing this after hearing Jon Stewart’s interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates and continued writing it this morning while listening to a This American Life’s episode from firsthand accounts of the kidnappings in Israel/Gaza, along with seeing this tweet about a possible impending strike or invasion of Iran happening right now.
I won’t claim to have any answers or point any fingers. I am merely trying to better understand, which, if I did have any ideas on what to do, it would be this (while acknowledging that mass-understanding is a remarkably hard, if not impossible, task).
Ta-Nehisi Coates said something on Jon Stewart that really stuck with me. On his recent trip to Lebanon, he was struck by the simple act of hearing, from Palestinians, what their issues are. It’s a common-sense idea that usually goes ignored. Hearing, and understanding, the perspective of the other side. Once you realize they are also humans with similar thoughts and concerns as yourself, it becomes quite hard to justify the endless bombing campaign being made against them.
Tit for tat forever.
The conflicts in the Middle East are vastly complicated to the point they have become a cliche. Personally, I’ve been critical of Israel’s handling of their response to the brutal invasion of their territory, in large part because I have been to Lebanon and talked with Palestinians myself. They were sane, and logical, and passionate. One guy, roughly my age, told me he would never in his lifetime be okay with Israel… existing. Then we went and casually grabbed beers at a bar (where he also described horrific events that happened during the previous war). These extreme thoughts and ideas are commonplace on both sides because of the decades of back-and-forth violence and escalation.
Once you see this perspective firsthand, you realize the price that will need to be paid in order for one side to get their way, and it quickly becomes untenable. Surely, diplomacy is the only possible solution, and for that you need give, not just take.
This is all to say, I also think Israel has been right and justified to an extent. Both sides are guilty of horrible behavior and both sides have been victims of it as well. When you are the clearly dominant force, as is Israel and the United States in most conflicts to have taken place in our lifetime, if you act as the bully you should expect the bruise to your reputation. What worries me most about this conflict, which gets largely ignored, is that it’s not as one-sided as most people realize. Iran is an active participant. That is where things can snowball, quickly. That is where I now fear Israel sees an “opportunity” to act, now, swiftly and dramatically, in order to cease the moment, regardless the consequences.
We’ll eventually reach a tipping point and opinions will change. Possibly after millions of people are dead — but let’s pray it doesn’t come to that. It’s ironic that religion is so much at the core of these issues because praying is really the only option for most of us looking on in horror at what is now playing out. Praying, and hopefully, despite the darkness, a bit of understanding.
-Clayton
