@Parsifal - I have hesitated a long time before penning this, as I have some Jewish friends on here, but this needs to be said, and I have some friends in Israel who are suffering - my ex-French teacher had become a good friend before she decided to join her children in Israel, now some 10 years ago - we are still in touch via Facebook and she has lost a son-in-law in this war.
As for you, we have met, I found you likeable, even if somewhat combative and so I have read your well-reasoned contributions from time to time.
You are a mouth piece for Israel, and here you are living in a peaceful country - having grown up in an even more peaceful country, having had a good education, have a great job etc. etc. - you are living a privileged life in this benign place!
And yet you spend your days taking part in events which no longer concern you nor your family. Yes, I could go back through my ancestry and find out that many of my peasant ancestors have been ill-treated, maybe even killed with impunity, maids impregnated by the 'Lord' as happened to my great-grandmother - - or put into the army as cannon fodder without consent etc. etc. - why don't I do this?
because it's close to a mental illness to carry so much resentment! - please free yourself from this burden of perceived loyalty to an arch-conservative Jewish 'cause'. There are many liberal and clever Jews in this world who have moved on with their lives and who can live without those memories of the Holocaust and perceived obligations of loyalty to Israel
Now to the history:
Jewish people had a sad past, the refugees from Europe were in need of a homeland, in need of a refuge, in need of solace. The memory of the Holocaust is still sacred in Israel and is rightly so.
The Jewish people I have met over the years (2 ladies were excellent music teachers to my children and became personal friends) have bought 'trees' to be planted in Israel from time to time and the older one said to me one day: 'I support this charity because it's good to know we have a homeland' - she never set foot in Israel in her lifetime, but it was an emotional need to know there was a 'homeland' - I totally get this.
However, it was also the homeland of what are now called 'Gazans' - the former Palestinians.
I happen to know a now aging English sailor who was part of the evacuation process as well as re-settlement of European Jewish refugees into what was then Palestine back in the 1940s. He claims that the new-comers went into homes which were still warm from their previous Palestinian owners or tenants; at times he was also instrumental into moving and transporting the former tenants - he did not relish that task, was eventually re-assigned.
Modern Israel is a construct, the land was called Palestine for a long time, and was taken from the former Palestinians and a small part assigned to them - I don't know what that smidgeon of land is called now, but they'll eventually lose that one, too.
Why could the Israelis not incorporate Palestinians into their new country and be a bit more humble about the whole process?
Yes, I would fight back, if someone ousted me from my home, and I would have a life-long resentment about being ousted, being dispossessed.
P.S. I have just watched - again - some of SBS programming -
every time Israel commits some minor transgression (in this case Trump did it in their behalf) SBS programming features Nazi atrocities from WWII
in order to: distract attention from the latest doings of Yahoo & Co!! Nazi war atrocities are relentlessly regurgitated, just to keep the empathy juices for Israel flowing - - don't think the public isn't aware of this manipulation! I do resent this, especially since none of my family where ever Nazis, they were socialist, we even had a distant relative who lost his life in the Spanish Civil War, but he was only whispered about, I only found out when I was an adult, who this distant cousin was.
I have Jewish friends, still have a 'half-jewish' ex boyfriend in Vienna (his Mum was Jewish and a total survivor, who just went on with life as a single Mum, after the war, because she had divorced her husband, and he complains about the same thing, namely as soon as one criticises Israel, one is labelled a 'Nazi' - - he calls it 'die Nazi-Keule' is employed (Keule = club)
Israel, or at least their right-wing political parties and 'religious' leaders - need to stop harping on and on about their past.
I honestly cannot see how Israel can ever fix its relations with its Arab neighbours now! Even their only friend, Jordan, seems to be running out of patience - after all they seem to be inundated by the refugees resulting from these conflicts.
Get a move on, Israel, though by now, I believe this situation will only resolve itself by having every single Gazan in the ground under a grave stone.
There won't be a humanitarian solution, the times for that have long passed.
Good luck with building a holiday resort - as Trump has suggested - on that bloody ground.
Taurisk
