I must join others in condemning the bombing in Tel Aviv
that killed more than 1,200 people. Those
killed were mothers and fathers, children and
grandparents. They were soldiers and
civilians, people simply attending a concert.
They had no idea they had breathed their last
breath when they died. They were going about
their business, possibly blissfully clueless
about the next moment. Their deaths, horrible
deaths, must be mourned.
There are also as many as 200 hostages, some American
citizens. Brutally, some of the hostages have
been paraded about. Some families have no idea
whether their loved ones are dead or alive.
Barbarism is associated with taking hostages,
mainly innocent civilians, and it must be
condemned, with the hostages released soon.
But Netanyahu’s assertion that he will not
bargain with Hamas, the group that took the
hostages, does nothing to facilitate hostage
release.
Israel is justifiably enraged and has vowed to retaliate.
And the retaliation has begun with bombing
attacks on Gaza. These ruthless attacks have
hit mothers and fathers, children and
grandparents, soldiers and civilians, and
people living their lives. They had scant
warning of their coming slaughter. They were
going about their business, possibly
blissfully clueless about the next moment.
Thousands in Gaza are dead, and their horrible
deaths must be mourned. Tens of thousands of
others are affected by Israel’s blockade of
Gaza, which has restricted the availability of
food, water, and medical supplies.
The Bible says something about an eye for an eye, but an
eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. I fear
that we in the United States were blinded long
ago. There is no excuse for the carnage Hamas
imposed on Israel. Period. There is also no
excuse for starving people to death or
removing tens of thousands from their homes,
forcing them to leave everything behind. When
President Biden says, “We stand behind
Israel,” already sending military equipment
and asserting a strong presence, what is he
speaking to the Palestinian people?
The United
Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs has documented the loss of human life in Gaza and the West
Bank between the last (2008) and now, not
including the current conflict. There have
been 6407 Palestinian fatalities and 306
Israeli fatalities. Where have world voices,
now united against Hamas brutality, been in
the face of Palestinian fatalities
exponentially greater than any Israeli
fatalities? Without excusing Hamas (because
their cruelty is inexcusable), cannot one
understand Palestinian frustration and,
perhaps, brutal action? Hamas didn’t do the
Palestinian people any favors. Israel’s
retaliation has left as many as a million
displaced. But I think of the Harlem
Renaissance poet Claude McKay, whose 1919
poem, “If We Must Die,” spoke of armed
resistance against racism. The poem begins,
“If we must die, let it not be like hogs,
hunted and penned in an inglorious spot.”
McKay continues, “If we must die, O let us
nobly die,” and concludes, “Though far
outnumbered, let us show us brave, and for
their thousand blows deal one death blow, what
though before us lies the open grave like men
we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
pressed to the wall, dying but fighting back.”
It’s a powerful poem, written in response to
the carnage of the Red Summer of 1919, where
random packs of whites attacked Black people
for next to nothing, slights real or imagined,
protests to our very presence, even as Black
men had returned from World War I.
Many will find the comparisons between Palestinian
insurgents and Black freedom fighters to be
false or untimely. I understand. I especially
realize that McKay was not writing about
killing women and children or putting them in
danger. I cringe at the notion that human lives, especially
children’s, are considered “collateral
damage.”
Israeli lives must be valued, and so must Palestinian
lives. Human life is equivalent, but the media
does not reflect it. There were protesters
outside the White House saying they stood with
Palestine. Can’t we all stand with life? Until
we embrace the equivalency of life, this
conflict will continue, and an eye for an eye
leaves all of us blind.
