Both right. Both wrong. But only one really bears responsibility.

[MannyGoldstein]

I read a post earlier today that bemoaned the lack of comments by Jewish posters on the tragedy in Gaza. For what it's worth, here's my take:

A horrible mess in the Middle East, many are dying, many more injured. It has been this way, more or less, for more than 60 years.

The Israelis have a good points! They're tired of rockets getting lobbed at them, and sharing a border with folks that want to annihilate them is a bad situation.

The Palestinians have good points! They're terribly oppressed by the Israelis, who helped themselves to Palestinian land.

Good points, but much suffering and death. For many years this has been true, and nothing improves. The Palestinians suffer more, their desperation and hatred of Israel grows. The Israelis see the increased hatred and become more dug in. And the wheel goes around again.

Neither side will ever win. Wars are almost never won without so utterly decimating the enemy that they lose all will to fight. Think firebombing of Dresden or Sherman's march to the sea. The Palestinians are simply incapable of it, and the Israelis are unwilling to inflict the necessary horrors that are orders of magnitude above what we're witnessing today.

If neither side can win, then the only way forward is for one side to unilaterally act to create a tenable situation. And only one of these two sides really has the power to do this, and that is Israel. It's been that way for decades. Israel is a powerful and prosperous nation that has the wherewithal to make things right here. Until Israel unilaterally finds a way to establish a Palestinian state, and to allow decent lives for the Palestinian people and bright futures for their children, there will be no peace.

It is all on Israel to do the right thing here, and it has been for many years. There is no practicable solution that will stop the rockets and polemics overnight. But give people decent lives, give them a reason to believe they can create a better tomorrow, and they'll start thinking about making a better tomorrow instead of thinking about killing the people who turn their lives and dreams to shit.

I'm not an expert on Israel, but I have no doubt that they, like us, have a military-industrial complex that causes all manner of mischief to keep their citizens afraid and in a state of perpetual war: there's good money in this evil. Israel, like the US, must find a way forward that shoves these extraordinarily-harmful people out of the way so we can live in decent, functional, and caring societies. The way into the light is to embrace peace as boldly, as vigorously, and as unilaterally as we've embraced war.

We must all give peace a chance. It's our only chance.