10-10-2023, 06:57 PM
(10-10-2023, 06:52 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: It is true that the majority of Palestinians support Hamas and their attack on Israel. In a world where nuance is reality, though, we need to have empathy for those Palestinians that may support Hamas but aren't out there killing innocent people. There are so many Arab Palestinians that have been facing atrocities for their whole lives. In all seriousness, the best analog for the situation Arab Palestinians face is the American Indian wars of the 19th century. Hamas is analogous to those that followed Tecumseh, or maybe Sitting Bull/Crazy Horse. They were fighting back against what they saw as an oppressive society that had broken promises and stolen their land. The native people that wouldn't fight still cheered them on from afar, and then we did things like Wounded Knee.
I spent so much time talking about this stuff over the summer because my tent mate for two weeks was a lawyer from Long Island, which if you know anything about stereotypes the likelihood was high that he was Jewish, and he was. He sat on the National Committee for the BSA as a representative of the Jewish community (there are several of them) and through him I met so many people and had so many discussions, including with the Jewish and Muslim chaplains on staff. One of the reasons I love Scouting is because it is a place where people from all over the world come together from different backgrounds with a common set of values that connects us all. It's a bit idealistic, but in this environment we can have some really interesting conversations and it really helps with the understanding side of things.
I would agree, right up to the refusal to utterly condemn the actions of Hamas. You can condemn Hamas unequivocally and still be opposed to Israel's actions, or the brutality the IDF is capable of. You can do so and still sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians as well.
BTW, this is also a double edged sword, you can condemn the actions of the IDF and still understand why Israel conducts itself as it has, given the utter hostility of their neighbors from their genesis and the multiple, and ongoing, attempts to utterly destroy the nation, both with conventional militaries and terrorist organizations.
