April 30, 2024….It’s about 8:25 am in Jerusalem. I have just finished a very hard to put together Zoom discussion with people we would consider “the left” in Palestine/Israel…it has become harder and harder to do this because people talking to the press or activists or scholars and journalists outside of Israel have come under close scrutiny and repression, whether they are Jewish, Arab or for some reason particularly Jewish and Arab clergy. A Jewish nurse who has served with the Red Cross in Gaza and came home for Passover was detained for almost a week because she would not tell where her cell phone was. An original member of our group, she pretty much lead tonight’s talk. We had two Rabbis, one of whom I know from her days in Rabbinical school in Philly and another who is the son of one of the people who got me out of that Israeli prison in the early seventies. We could not get the Christian clergy…he is under “detention”..we have four Arab activists, one of whom is new to our group, all of whom have been detained,,including the woman who was “sexually abused” while in detention. And three very vocal male Israeli activists..Tonight as usual I mostly listened…They all found it disturbing that they read about so many Americans who say that the IDF attacks and killing should continue until the “hostages” are all free. Many have a hard time believing that so many Americans can say such a thing when the people being killed had nothing to do with the Hamas attack. When it was all over I was kind of given an “assignment”..they consider such a position “irrational” and that what is happening now will make the Israeli population the “villains” to future historians. There has always been concern in this group about how Israel will be remembered for this . The pressure there is on to get rid of Netanyahu while there are still a surviving population of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to even make peace with is an ongoing concern…this has caused many different groups in Israel to form coalitions with other groups. They want me to find a group of Americans who are saying the attacks on Palestinian civilians should continue until the hostages are all free…and assess whether they are “Delusional Trump folks” or represent a larger American grouping. I don’t think the Americans positions on this are that simple…I don’t think I can do this…I know a lot of people who say this..some do indeed sound like fanatics …people I don’t talk to much anymore….but these people in Israel sat down and talked to me at great risk to themselves and then thanked me for bringing people who didn’t talk to each other much in Israel/Palestine, to the same table to find common ground…I think I owe them….we shall see if I can do this.
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