Every person I know - including every Jewish person in my community - is devastated about the war in Gaza.
Each one of us is enormously distressed by the plight of innocent civilians AND about the civilian casualties AND about the fate of the hostages AND about the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israelis on October 7th.
Grief and empathy can contain multitudes. Distress rarely swims in a single lane.The details of sexual violence and horrific torture committed against women and children in that massacre and the fate of the remaining hostages are beyond comprehension, as are the images of the innocent children, women and men in Gaza who have tragically been killed in this conflict.
Terrorism, war, sexual violence and the death of civilians are always tragic and we must never stop being shocked and appalled by the loss of human life.It’s what happens next that presents us with a choice.
the article continues with a description of when id being experienced by many Jews. I don’t experience it because i am not a Jew but it is irrelevant to how I experience grief and horror for both Palestinians and the victims of the October massacre, to how I see both events as inextricably linked and to how I attempt to deal with it by being as rational and balanced as I can.
