A Heartbreaking Lack of Understanding
August 4th, 2014 | 
Author: I guess I’m naive.
It was obviously a mistake to open my head and heart and share my thoughts on something as profoundly controversial as the Israeli Palestinian conflict. A mistake to speak out against war in general and this one in particular.
In hindsight it occurs to me that my biggest mistake was not only not taking a side but also lamenting the conspicuous horror and consummate savagery of it. Sincerely and honestly despairing all the senseless death of men and women and children. So many, so completely innocent of everything, but still finding themselves between powers greater than their own and no where to run.
I guess it was a mistake to so earnestly, perhaps brazenly, reveal my own humanity and genuine empathy. I guess it was a mistake to instead of endorse the actions of one side or the other, to have the audacity to wonder at its end. To hope for a resolution. It’s a mistake I can live with. I’ll own that mistake every day with every fiber of my being.
For this I have been called an anti-Semite. It breaks my heart, it really does. Some are content to say so behind my back, but some who are so quick to judge have been valuable friends of mine for nearly a quarter century. People whom I respect and without reservation can say I love. People with integrity and in possession of hearts so honest and open as to be vulnerable to all the cruelties of life and other people. People who I know feel the same about me for the same reasons.
Some of these people now judge me to be anti-Semitic because I didn’t pick a side.
Their side.
I imagine that if no one were to take a side, war would be impossible. I’m a pacifist. I am guilty of that and so be it. But I absolutely bristle at the label of anti-Semite. It is no different than the furious offense I would take to being called a racist or a homophobe. It is beyond exasperating. It is not in any way representative of how I’ve led my life and the choices I’ve made as the result of teachings by good, honest and thoughtful parents.
To be called any of these things is bad enough.
It is an anathema.
To be thought of as any of them is soul torturing.
I would ask any of you who actually know me, who know my heart, my actions and deeds as a fellow inhabitant of this planet to stop and think. Just because I oppose not just your war but all war including the ones my country wages, all violence and cruelty, all man’s inhumanity to man, that doesn’t make me an anti-Semite. That merely makes me a human being with a modicum of compassion for all the other human inhabitants of this tiny blue marble hanging in a universe too vast for any of us to comprehend.
I have maligned no one in particular, I haven’t discriminated against any individual or group. I have never in my life consciously engaged in anything of the kind. What I have done is shine an obviously uncomfortable light on every single one of us.
“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” -Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.
If I have offended anyone, it was not my intent but I nonetheless apologize. I’m not sure whether it’s more painful to have inadvertently done so, or for any of you to assume I would do as much with malice or intent.
Drinks for my friends.
*In the interest of context this piece is intended to address a small number of reactions to the previous one on the same subject-simply scroll down to the previous blog*
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You haven’t offended me. Anyone I know who has a peace loving heart/mind would not be offended. We’d just be agreeing with you while breathing a heavy sigh at the other brainwashed & silly members of our species.
Dammit people. It’s a TINY piece of real estate we have to share here. There’s no where else to go. None! Not for at least a hundred years or likely a 200 or so more.
I DO sincerely condemn hamas and other Jihadists for being so vehement in their assured fervor that mutually assured destruction is okay with “Allah”. & I also condemn the zionists (who will most likely be the begginings of the end of Judaism) whom ascribe that the will of a ‘supreme being’ lies solely within their ranks. The irony of their actions post WWII more than sickens me.
Asshats supreme abound & galore.
& I will also condemn “Christians” who would so support the very same ideals Hitlers’ roundtable espoused in their fervent motives during WWII.
One tiny blip of a planet folks. Insignificant at the very best.
An especially well placed shame on you – to any of you – that think we’re so special that we can gamble our mutually shared species’ survival on the tenets of the words of jealous goat herders from millennia ago. Get a grip & realize there’s nowhere else to go, not in our or our great grandchildren’s lifetimes. If ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8P1Y1a7-L4
I don’t know what you’re talking about here. I hadn’t seen any comments accusing you of being an anti-Semite or taking the wrong side of anything.
If you have offended anyone by speaking the truth — congratulations. It makes me very happy when people call me names, attack me, for speaking out against Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians. I enjoy creating distress in these people’s minds. I don’t even bother responding to the tedious charges of anti-Semite. They want you to respond, to defend yourself, to distract the conversation from your point, which is that genocide is bad, and Israel is the wrongdoer in this scenario. Good for you. Keep speaking up, but stop apologizing.
You’re doing what every other “journalist” in the world should be doing … speaking the truth … there is NO side to the truth … it is what it is … shame on anyone who calls you out for speaking it … and, I agree with NABNYC … no need to apologize … keep up the great work …
It won’t be the first time, nor will it be the last. This is not a war, but collective punishment. Yes, I have been called both anti-Semitic and a self-hating Jew for saying so. It doesn’t obliterate the truth….and you have no need to apologize. Not to anyone.
No, you are not naive. just speaking the truth, I am with you I can’t pick either side, all I see is death and destruction and the innocents being killed, because they were in the wrong place at the right time! It needs to stop on both sides, this is truly heartbreaking!
Michael, it never entered my mind to think you guilty of anti-semitic. Frankly, it mystifies me that anyone else would think so. As “they” say around the places I hang out, what others think of you is none of your business. Of course, easier to say, than put in practice! I tend to edge towards nuclear vindication, LOL.
Michael, If your passion and truth of how you feel offended people close to you, then maybe..just maybe that didn’t really know you or want to know you as well as you thought my friend. I too have made that mistake of telling dear close friends and family of how I felt about politics, religion, and acceptance and the response I received was surprising to say the least. Being called “anti-American” “Muslim-Kenyan President lover”, “not a Christian because I believe in marriage equality for everyone”, I just smiled and said I would rather tell the truth and offend everyone than lie and offend no one.
Keep on with your highly intelligent, thoughtful, and truthful thoughts of how you feel about things. We only live once my friend, and then we die…BUT our truth and words will live after we are gone…
Your right, his words on Fox News and the ones in the videos don’t match up. I beielve Mr. Gochez even said in his Fox news interview that he teaches capitalism is bad, and then says he doesn’t teach his political ideas. Those two just don’t jive together. I tend to think that his revolution may not be as peaceful as Mr. Gochez says that he’s promoting.
Michael, I haven’t read anything that suggested to me that you are anti-Semitic. Nor have I read anything that sounded like you were trying to offend anyone. But, I only have a vague understanding of why they are at war. I don’t feel like I know enough about it to chose a side. I do know that people are being killed on both sides and I want them to stop killing each other. I just want it to stop.
Michael – I have been accused of the EXACT SAME THING by people who know me – and I have jewish ancestors and they are not that far back. My great grandmother was jewish but I had someone recently dare to call me anti-semitic because I called a pox on both houses – jewish and Hamas because I’m tired of seeing dead children and women and innocent civilians on the news. So I called Israel on their brutality. I also called Hamas on being disingenuous on occasion but I was called anti-semitic because I was not 100% on Israel’s side. I’m fed up and it’s time that the pro-Israelites get some perspective. To call someone “anti-semitic” because they have called Israel on ugly and warlike horrific behavior is ugly and exhibits a new kind of bigotry that is appalling. To say that “Israel” can do no wrong because it is “Israel” is stupid and moronic. You were right to say what you did. Do not take the opinion of people who are blind and deaf to heart. It does not say anything about you. What it does is says FAR FAR more about them and their weakness.
Ya, I’ve been called a hater. But you know it’s not true and speak up we must and we will be heard.
God Bless you
Same here, Michael. It really is heart-breaking and personal when people we consider friends accuse us of HATING because we don’t see eye to eye with their ceaseless defense of what they consider justified killings. I am going to use the royal “they” here: They never, ever back down and never ever seem to think about another point of view. They’re smug and self-righteous and lack compassion or empathy. Zionists remind me very much of a certain US political party. I will never understand why we continue to support this with our tax dollars and our hearts.
Israel right now reminds me so much of congress. They accuse the other side of using human shields, with absolutely no proof, although there is proof that THEY HAVE DONE THIS themselves (Impeachment-gate, anyone?), and so that becomes the latest defensive talking point they use. AIPAC is Fox news for the zionist set. It’s so disheartening. Don’t let it get you down. We know in our hearts what our motivations are, and they come from love, not hate.
Love you, Michael.
Michael, it is, indeed, a hard pill to swallow when friends can so easily turn and label you simply because you disagree. But, you spoke your heart, you spoke the truth, and you spoke to all of us who were feeling much the same way. Of that you should be proud. It takes a lot of courage to speak the way that you did – especially on a topic that is so divisive and controversial.
You are far from ‘naïve.’ You are miles ahead of those so quick to label. You have taken a subject that many of us have avoided and opened a dialogue that has been a long time coming. Kudos to you for that.
Dear Michael,
You have both a brain and a heart and know how to use them. Let the “naysayers” do what they do best: call us names. I look forward to reading your point of view. I find you balanced and fair. It’s the world that’s not – and you can’t be responsible for them. Keep on writing, please.
Michael,
I did a semester long Poli Sci class in college where each of us was assigned into group that somehow interacted in this issue. I was put into the Israeli Group. Our job during the semester was to interact with the various players we could interact with by diplomatic relationship and shape the issues to our favor as much as possible. At the end we had a summit with all of the players and worked out more or less the Clinton Deal. However this was ten years earlier in the 80’s when I did this class. I was the chief negotiator for my group (Israel) at the summit.
I tell you this history of mine, because in my opinion the issue is so complex that there is no “right answer.” Each side can point at the other an wag their fingers about some wrong the other side has done. And this conflict will go on in perpetuity because I am convinced neither political structure on either side really wants it to end. They have a convenient enemy to scapegoat for all their problems.
I as well as you abhor the carnage that takes place on a human toll because of this conflict. As my prof in college used to say, “They are fighting about a spit of land that is the size of Alameda County, (CA).” I am not a member of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim faith, so I am not so emotional about the religious significance of the holy sites. I appreciate them for what they mean to each faith. I have read religious texts by all the faiths regarding the significance of them, so I appreciate that as well.
As a young man I hoped that this conflict would be solved in my early adulthood and a new era of peace and respect would be shared by Christian, Jew and Muslim. Now as Middle Age is rapidly getting it’s grips into me, I see little hope that this conflict will be solved in my lifetime. And the carnage will go on…and many hundreds more thousands will die…It reminds me of that cartoon of the aliens above Earth, where there are bombs and dust clouds all around the Earth in the background and one alien says to the other, “They’re fighting about which religion is the most peaceful.”
Skal to my friend,
You have nothing to be sorry for, you only wish for peace, there is nothing wrong with that. I’ve noticed too, in this conflict, if a person is against what Israel is doing with regards to the bombing of the Palestinians, they call that person anti-Semitic; and I say they’re wrong!! I do not hate Jews, (but I do have a thing or two against their religion, and all other religions for that matter) I’ve also had many Jewish friends in my life; but I hate what they are doing to the Palestinians. Israel receives millions of dollars worth of bombs and other assorted ways of killing, from us; and the Palestinians, not so much. True they do get bombs and such, but not nearly to the extent that Israel has. The whole situation is almost a one-sided massacre; along with the Palestinian soldiers, they have killed innocent women and children. The Palestinian death toll is well over 1800, the Israeli death toll, 64! Yeah, a one-sided massacre! Israel had more armament, hell, they had more of everything. I wonder how well the Palestinians would have done with a super power backing them, and sending them bombs and planes, they might have had an equal chance. No Michael, you have nothing to apologize for, but I think maybe Israel does, for the massacre of innocent children. Yeah, The Palestinians have been killing Jewish children for many years, and Israel has been killing Palestinian children; and all because of their religions. More people have died in the name of religion and their wars, then for any other reason. I am sick of fighting and wars, I’m sick of hearing about what it says in the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, they kill and push aside anyone who is in their way, because that’s what their holy book says. Well, if you get rid of religion, you’ll get rid of most reasons for war. But unfortunately most people can’t live without religion, so we’re stuck with wars. PEACE!
Michael, while you might have misunderstood something, your critics do not misunderstand you. Your trouble is that they understand you all too well. They hate truth for it makes their side look bad. They hate justice because it is on the side of the victims of their side. They can’t criticize what you say, so they attack you personally. An old dishonesty that, but then your critics are interested in neither truth nor honesty. They have no honor.
But you have the great honor to be hated by them. Congratulations. Being a real human is not easy. It is a rare accomplishment. It may get you nowhere now. It may even get you harmed. But if there is ever to be an end to this viciousness, if ever people will be able to think of peace, it will be because such actions as yours shamed the devils, or their week kneed supporters, into change.
You are speaking with your heart. You are siding with the weakest, the oppressed and that is alright in my book. I have been called anti-Semite too, but the next time “they” place that label on you, respond with the truth: You can’t be anti-Semite, because Palestinians are more Semite than the vast majority of Jews from Israel. Semitic doesn’t equate Israeli or Jew.
We all have to let our voices heard, the more we speak the closer those poor people of Palestine will be able to live in peace.
“Israel should get the hell out of Palestine”. This simlpe misquote turns her into an anti-Semite when she is herself a Semite. Idiots!
Very well written and presented Michael!!!!
I congratulate you for your humanity and your compassion. I, too, have been baffled my entire life by humanity’s insanity!!! Only very recently did a friend give me the book “The World Peace Diet” by Dr. Will Tuttle which I had heard about but didn’t expect to find anything new in. From early on reading the book, Dr. Tuttle BLEW ME AWAY with his brilliant and very compelling explanation of how and why humans have been making themselves insane for thousands of years!!! I am also VERY inspired by the essentially simple solution of what we can truly do about about turning things around!!! Check out the book, please!!! You can buy it for almost nothing on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/World-Peace-Diet-Spiritual-Harmony/dp/1590560833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407522754&sr=8-1&keywords=world+peace+diet <3 Peace and love to all beings!!!
I am actually surprised by your surprise. Was this your first dip in the pro-peace in Israel-Palestine water? I call it the Defamation of the Anti-Defamation Machine. Speak up against an unjust war or in sympathy for the death of innocent civilians and you’re an activist. Do the exact same thing in regards Israel-Palestine, you’re an anti-Semite (which is a hilarious misnomer. Many of the Palestinians (and other Muslim and christian groups in the region) are also Semitic peoples. They should just say what they mean: anti-Jew) or you’re a racist or a Nazi. It’s been a brutal battle over the last four weeks. No not in Gaza; but on social media right here in the US. There is this very small but very alert vigilant and disciplined group of American Jews who are monstrous wicked mean-spirited and hypocritical when it comes to defending Israel. They have no allegiance to anything but Israel and Zionism; no loyalty or allegiance to friendships, nor the United States, nor democracy, and certainly not to truth or integrity. Their aim is hyper-focused: get YOU to shut the fuck up and sit down. They will attack and insult you for even considering “peace” or for even mentioning that you are observing what’s happening in Gaza at the moment. They don’t want you to look. They don’t want you to see. They don’t want you to tell others that you’re looking or seeing anything. UNLESS you wholeheartedly agree with their “yay we’ve killed all the children in Gaza” chants and general mission to be right all the time no matter what they do. They just want you to shut up. And they will tell you just that right to your face –while calling you a racist and a nazi. They’ll slap you down and make you feel guilty and wrong and bad about yourself for even wondering about those innocent people being killed. That way, Israel can keep on doing what it’s doing without worry or concern of future consequences. Guess what? It worked. You spoke up. You picked your head up as a concerned citizen of the world to see what was going on and BAM! their attack was so strong and so resolute that they got you to immediately shut up and even issue a public apology. For not doing anything. That’s how it works. It’s a wicked game. But you’ll get used to it. Especially for first timers. That shock is so strong the first time from the severity of their attack that you back away real quick. And they know that. But don’t let it intimidate you. You’re bigger than that. And you know who you are. If there’s anything that YOU know, it’s you. So don’t cave so quickly next time. Stand up tall and proud. What you’re witnessing is an abhorant slaughter my friend. A slow deliberate ethnic cleansing and an illegal occupation and enslavement of an entire country full of people. Just because it’s “sanctioned and financed by the US” doesn’t make it anything different than what it appears to be on the surface. If you don’t like what you see — and you shouldn’t; no one does — say something. It’s the ONLY way we make progress as a species. It’s the only way we ever have historically. We cannot be shot down so easily because someone calls us names or attempts to use subconscious guilt trip tactics by using “the holocaust” etc. NOTHING justifies killing innocent people, or old people, or pregnant women and little kids. Don’t let them force you into pretending that you suddenly believe that it is all justified through your silence because you’re now intimidated. For that’s exactly what it looks and feels like — that you’re okay with it all now. And that’s exactly what they want. Sit down and shut up Michael. Or else.
You are not an anti-Semite. You’re human. There is no right or wrong in acknowledging all humanity…no matter where they come from, nationality, or religion. Why do people want to pick a side. War is hell…for everyone. Whoever dies with the most points, still dies.
if you donot support state of Israel you hate juice. you are a anti semetical, communistal, rascist jew hater man.
the juice have right to potect their own people by exploding all everyone in gazza. get that in your libral head you stupip idiot. you shot missil at me i shot like 50000 missil at you thats just how world works dont like it go cry to Presedent Obama the #1 antisemite in america.
should change youre name to Michel JewHate Dogless
i have won this arguement thank you good buy
YOUR SENSITIVITY IS TOUCHING, TO SAY THE LEAST. I’VE ENJOYED YOUR JOURNALISTIC STYLE FOR SOME TIME….YOUR MOSTLY PRO DOPE, YET ANTI DOPE’S,& JAW DROPPINGLY FUNNY, SO DON’T STOP!
BUT IS DROPPINGLY ACTUALLY A WORD, SHOULD BE!
OH THERE IS AN HOURLONG INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, GO TO newyorktimes.com THEN VIA YOUTUBE, YOU WATCH HIM. IT IS REFRESHING…I’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR OPINION ON THAT PIECE.
PEACE OUT!
REIYA
Michael, first off, I do not know you, thus nothing that follows should be taken as an attack on you nor your expressed views.
This situation, however, has much less to do with religion, than it does international politics and that us a distinction that I believe most miss. As a devote atheist and cultural Jew (there is a difference) I am the son of an atheist who was himself the son of an atheist. That my father, the atheist, also was buried, wearing the Medal of the Negev (a high honour from the Israeli government) does not make him less of an atheist. It simply indicates, as is true with me, that we are able to distinguish facts from fiction and hold that there are facts that reveal the essence if most conflicts.
In reading not only the comments above mine, but hundreds of others from countless people, so very sure of what they know, when I believe they “know” very little. My background includes a period of my life, served in the intel community, during which I studied many such geo-political conflicts, I would offer the following “facts”. Should snyone have data that refutes any if them, I would welcome their enlightenment.
So here are my “facts”:
1.- there has never been a Pakestinian Arab country on any of the land currently or historically inhabited by the modern state if Israel.
2.- The population of Israel includes 20+% of which is Arab and Palestinian.
3.- The a Palestinians in the West Bank refugee camps are fewer in number than the Arab/Palestinian population that lives within Israel.
4.- The Israeli Palestinians all hold either full citizenship or permant residency.
5.- The a Israeli a Palestinians have full voting rights and currently serve in the Zisraeli Parliament as well as serving as Mayor in several Usraeli cities.
6.- The Palestinians that are in the West Bank, went there out of fear from the presumed military destruction if Israel, that was threatened by its Arab neighbours. They were not “expelled”.
7.- Arabs and Palestinians currently serve in the Israeli military, holding ranks as high as General, even though Israeli law prohibits their being drafted.
8.- In the last year, Israel has dedicated over $300,000,000 to increasing the numbers of Arab and Palestinian kids attending Israeli universities.
9.- Israeli hospitals have been providing free specialised medical services to Gazan Palestinian children for years.
10.- Culturally and very symbolically, Palestians have been included in such “cultural” activities as in 1999, when a talented and very attractive Palestinian was chosen as Miss Israel.
11.- Israel has two official languages, Hebrew and Arabic.
Now to the geo-political side:
1.- It was Israel that unilaterally returned the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, when nothing in return, but peace was requested.
2.- Much has been made of a so-called Usraeli “land grab”, yet Israel returned the entire Sinai to Egypt, leaving it less than half the area it occupied before 1978 and the Sinai was well known to contain more oil and gas reserves than all of Usrael, including Gaza.
3.- an astute observer would not that in this present conflict, Hezbollah has not sided with the Palestinian. Neither has Egypt nor Jordan (they have said supportive things, but have done nothing if consequence).
4.- Egypt has quietly assisted with the destruction of those tunnels that ended in Egypt, as they fear Hamas, just as much as the Israelis.
5.- while any loss if cuvilian life is unacceptable, ever, one should note, as have the French and Spanish and Canadian press, that the numbers if dead and wounded, reported by Hamas, include all of their own soldiers, who they consider to be “civilians”.
6.- Hamas not only admits that it uses it’s civilian population as “human shields”, they celebrate this horror.
7.- The real “players” in this conflict, are Iran, Syria who use the Palestinians and the Israeli’s as proxy fighters for the real war, which is raging between the two “brands” of Islam.
Ok, so there are my assertions and I await a specific response to them. In the mean time, I want it understood that I cannot stomach Bibi N. Anymore than any other atheist would; do not support the right wing us Israeli politics and deplore the conditions that Hamas and Jordan force upon the Palestinian people, under their control. Yes, religion is evil, but in this circumstance, I believe most people are missing the real players.
Sincerely and with respect to all peace loving people.
Lee
There comes a point in each of our lives when we have to decide whether it’s more important to appease everyone, or to be true to ourselves. I choose to be true to myself, and in turn respect all who take that path, regardless of whether I agree with them or not on specific issues. Just so long as they are respectful themselves, that is… I won’t put up with bigotry in any form. Nothing – I repeat, NOTHING – you’ve written has been at all hateful. Not supporting particular governmental policies, no matter which government, does not make you anti-(fill in the blank).
People can call you anything they like. All that matters is what you answer to. Simplistic, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
But what you have related to is not clear. I agree on few points but at large extend this article no up to the mark. And you have posted this link on my facebook wall. Please dont do and let me decide first.
You are an amazing and compassionate person.