One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

This author is passionate about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. He does a great job in sharing that passion. Rather than jumping right into it, he starts with his background growing up in Egypt and eventually making it to North America. The Middle East is filled with dictators and many abuses of human rights. The west claims to be better and generally does so at home. However, it treats others differently. Euphemisms such as "collateral damage" are used to minimize the deaths of others. He criticizes those that support Israel as well as the inaction of political parties. The Democrats get the most condemnation. They seem to focus on "not being Republicans", but then do very little to actual benefit those in need. This sounds very familiar and is similar to what I recently read about Native American Advocacy.

The Israel/Palestinian situation is a textbook case of the futility of revenge. Gaza's attacks on Israeli civilians immediately pivoted sympathy towards the Israelis.  The Israeli counterattacks have then lead to greater sympathy towards those in Gaza. So perhaps attacks do work if you know your enemy will just attack back. I wonder how much of this all would be resolved if the rest of the world would just back away. Other Arab countries started attacking Israel from the start. Western support Israel (especially after holocaust guilt.)  Now many aid workers and international organizations supporting Palestinians. Each external party has their own goals and they are not necessarily in sync with those living there.

The author is careful not to present extremist advocacy. There is no "Palestinians should expel all Jews". Instead, it is just Israel should not kill Palestinians and should treat them like normal people. This is an easy sell. However, is it a long term solution? How do we get "good government" in areas that have not previously had it?