'From the river to the sea': Why these 6 words spark fury and passion over the Israel-Hamas war

[raging moderate]

36. I heard it used to express a desire for genocide about 68 years ago.

Last edited Wed Dec 6, 2023, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Back when I was about 7-8 years old, about 68-69 years ago, one of my first memories of a news show was an interview with some sort of Arab commander, expressing a determination to drive out or stamp out all the Jewish people in Palestine. I am not Jewish, but I am human. I have watched this tragedy unfolding all my life, with multiple efforts by some to achieve a lasting peace and multiple efforts by others to start a genocide. Jews have been living in that region for thousands of years, and Muslims have ruled there for well over 1500 years. Maybe it was fun for Muslims to live in a country with Jews as long as they could swagger around as the bosses and control the lives of others. Maybe the Muslims did not realize it was not so much fun for others. Maybe the Jews just did not dare complain but just stood it somehow. Some kept living there; the Brits found thousands when they invaded long ago. And some of them slipped away if they could find a place where it looked as if they could be more free. And this turned out not be be dependable, but they won enough friends to be all right some of the time. And And then some European and American gentiles turned into Nazi monsters who treated them much worse than the Muslims had. Six million slaughtered, and many more mangled into misery! So of course they wanted to come home. And really, most Jewish people I have known have been fine people, and they are generally intelligent and principled people. The Muslims and the Jews in that area had had a shared experience of being bullied by England. Germany's temper tantrum made England see the flaw in bullying, and they have pulled back. If the Palestinians had had the sense to welcome the Jewish expatriates home with love and honor and give them their official safe space, probably the resulting cooperative efforts would have made that region the richest on Earth. Many chances at a peaceful resolution of this conflict have failed. I do think the Muslims really let their tempers drive them into horrible inhuman attacks on many Jews, and not just this year but my whole life. I do think the Israeli government has really lost their tempers and gone overboard on their response, doing more horrible inhuman attacks. Look, you guys, you can decide to put a stop to this mess. When you fight a monster, take care that you do not become the monster. The region of your brain that is telling you to massacre these other people is about the size and shape of a pea (I saw several in my human anatomy class). Think about negotiation, toleration, cooperation. You are both generally temperate, self-disciplined, diligent groups, when you are not throwing temper tantrums. You are both plenty smart. Your region still could become the richest on Earth.