The history of the Middle East — especially between Palestinians and Jews — abounds with blame, recrimination, retaliation, and an escalating perpetual cycle of mistrust and violence. And there is indeed plenty of justifiable blame to go around on multiple levels and sides.

Hey, let’s blame the United Nations and the countries throughout the world for partitioning the area into two separate and connected strips of land, one for the Jewish people and one for the Palestinians, without fully conferring with the Palestinian people themselves ahead of time.

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I’m tired of being told that my criticisms of Israel make me a Nazi
It’s clear that America’s pro-Isreal bias has been shutting down critical conversations for decades — it’s well past time for that to stop.

Let’s blame the world community for displacing Palestinians from lands on which they had long lived.

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Let’s blame the British for attempting to keep out European Jewish refugees who were attempting to flee the horrors of the Holocaust and find safety in a Jewish homeland.

Let’s blame the Arab states for attacking the small new country of Israel from all sides with its mighty armies in 1948, and then again in the major wars in 1967, 1973, the Lebanese Israeli wars, the Palestinian’s First and Second Intifadas, and the unimplemented Oslo and Camp David Accords.

Let’s blame the assassins of Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1981 and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Let’s blame the political and military takeover of Gaza in 2006 by Hamas and their threats to force all Jews into the Mediterranean Sea, the continual wars in Gaza between Hamas militant terrorists and Israel, and the brutal murder of over 1,400 Israelis beginning on October 7, 2023 – the worst single day for Jews since the Holocaust. And let’s blame Hamas for kidnapping and holding innocent hostages.

Let’s blame the Israeli people for placing into power autocratic right-wing governments who oppress the Palestinian people and kill any chances for peace.

Let’s blame right-wing Israeli governments for permitting so-called Jewish “settlers” (aka. land thieves) to build homes, businesses, and complete towns on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, displacing Palestinians from East Jerusalem, while constructing an apartheid system privileging Jews while marginalizing and isolating Palestinians throughout the occupied territories Israel conquered in 1967 after the “Six Day War.”

Let’s blame the Israeli government for creating a virtual open-air prison in the Gaza Strip setting up extreme humanitarian conditions for the millions of residents who are packet into densely populated warrens.

Let’s blame the Iranian regime for supplying Hamas and Hezbollah with financial aid and weaponry to conduct military campaigns against Israeli citizens, and let’s blame Hamas for exploiting the Palestinian people in Gaza and by using them as human shields in its wars with Israel.

Let’s blame President Donald Trump for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which further incited the Palestinian population.  

Let’s blame world leaders for turning their attention away from the perennial conflicts and tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, and for the apparently dead peace process.

Lets’ travel backward in time and let’s blame the United States and other countries for not coming to the defense of European Jews under the terror of Nazism before and during World War II, which resulted in the murder of approximately six million Jews.

Let’s blame the British and their Prime Minister Lord Alfred Balfour, who issued a public statement in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine even though only approximately 15% of the region’s population comprised Jews at that time.

Let’s blame Theodor Hertzl who popularized the concept of Zionism and published his pamphlet, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in 1896, arguing that “The Jewish Problem” was not individual, but rather, political and national, since nowhere in the world could Jews feel safe and protected.

Let’s blame the Spanish and Mexican inquisitors for murdering and banishing Jews and Muslims during their terrorist “Inquisitions.”

Let’s blame Catholic Popes for sponsoring their “Crusades” to conquer the Holy Land while slaughtering Muslims and Jews.

Hey, let’s blame Abraham who exiled his maidservant Hagar and their son Ishmael when Abraham’s wife gave birth to their son Isaac.

Let’s blame the Hebrew’s God for inflicting upon the Jews a severe famine forcing them to journey to Egypt.

Let’s blame the ancient Egyptian leaders for enslaving the Israelites for 400 years, for the Israelites’s God in raining down seven evil plagues upon the Egyptian people ending in the deaths of their first born, and the parting of the Red Sea drowning the Egyptian army led by their leader, Ramses the so-called “Great.”

Let’s blame Moses, sister Miriam, and brother Aaron for leading Jews from Egypt back to their homeland in Canaan.

Let’s blame the Assyrian invaders who took the Jews prisoners, and expelled and dispersed them throughout the land.

Let’s blame the Babylonians who conquered the Jewish homeland, destroyed their first Temple, and once again, dispersed the Jews.

Let’s blame Greek commander Alexander, ruler of Macedonia, who defeated the Persians and conquered Canaan, outlawed Judaism and made the Jewish practice of circumcision and observance of the Sabbath crimes punishable by death.

Let’s blame the Romans who persecuted Jews for retaining their cultural and religious traditions and took most rights of citizenship from Jews.

Let’s blame me for exposing those who have been blamed and for the way I have framed this history.

Let’s blame anyone who blames anyone and anything at all.

Hey, why don’t we also blame the God of the Jews, the God of the Christians, and the God of Islam for promising the same area of land to three separate religious groups?

We can heap loads of blame everywhere and on all sides. But as we blame and blame and blame and then we expect different results, we are certainly left with insanity, resulting in increasing tensions, violence, death, and the possibility of an ever-widening breakout of war and destruction.

Can we at least suspend blame for a while?

By suspending blame, we are not forgetting history, but rather, we are engaging in an emotional ceasefire for a time.

By now, many people understand the tragic histories of the Jewish and Palestinian people. One thing must, however, remain clear: If one views the conflict as a binary with either the Palestinians or the Israelis as either the victims only or the perpetrators only, then one does not understand the histories or the issues.

The fact is that both Palestinians and Jews are indigenous to what we call “The Middle East,” and Jews have existed there when the area was known as “the land of Canaan.” Yes, it is also true that most Jews who reside in what today is called “Israel” arrived there during the late 19^th and 20^th centuries.

In demanding that Jews vacate the area is as unrealistic as it would be to demand that everyone without at least 50% indigenous heritage must abandon “the Americas” and return to the land of their ancestral heritage(s).

The only way forward is for Jews and Palestinians to arrive at a solution to live with or beside one another as neighbors, respecting each other’s histories, heritages, religions, borders, and customs in peaceful coexistence.

The seemingly intransigent and tragic conflict between Palestinians and Israelis has lasted many generations, resulting in perpetual war, death of innocents and combatants alike, pain, grief, suffering, terrorism, hopelessness, denial, separation of families, loss of property and material possessions, and a numbing of the senses. The entire planet and all its inhabitants have been negatively affected by every detail (small and great) of this perennial impasse.

Is there any way out of the morass, or will this current reality never change? I am not a mystical sage. I have no magic crystal ball in which to gaze. No beautiful doves are ready to take wing on my signal. 

But through extensive study and contemplation, I have perceived some options:

People on the political Left and the Right can stay entrenched in their binary ideologies and policy positions. They can continue to pursue the present course of (non)action and perpetual antagonism by marginalizing and demonizing anyone who in any way supports the establishment and/or maintenance of the state of Israel as a nation for the Jewish people.

They can also persist in uttering the word “Zionist” with disgust and scorn as justification for automatically dismissing others’ views and stances, while telling themselves they are “remaining true to their principles,” “maintaining their integrity,” and most of all, “acting intersectionally.”

Groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their Iranian sponsors can perpetually refuse Israel’s “right to exist,” and repeatedly launch missiles on territories populated by Jewish civilians while using their own civilians as fodder for incoming bombs.

Palestinian and Jewish parents can continue to send their youth in harms’ way in defense of sacred soil promised by God to three varied peoples: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

On this latter point, to paraphrase Golda Meir, fourth Israeli Prime Minister and a founder of the state: Peace will come when the Arabs [and Jews] will love their children more than they hate [each other].  

The Israeli government and leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas can remain intransigent on several critical issues while failing to move forward on good-faith peace efforts and agreements.

They might feel concerned that if peace were to break out in the region, then current and future levels of foreign aid from outside nations and individuals might dry up with these sources no longer seeing further need for aid. They may also use the Machiavellian tactic of “divide and conquer” to better ensure their chances of retaining and enhancing power.

The Israeli government can accept the terms for peace issued by some leaders of the “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” (BDS) movement by:

1. ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands that International law recognizes the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan Heights as occupied by Israel.

2. granting Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel their right to full equality,

3. respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in United Nations resolution 194.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR) in 1948 is meant “as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.”

Central to the UDHR in Article 13(b): “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” Palestinian refugees are entitled to this binding universal right, in the same way that all other refugees are, whether they come from Bosnia, Rwanda, South Africa, or anywhere else.

The U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 2535 in 1969. It recognizes “that the problem of Palestine Arab refugees has arisen from the denial of their inalienable rights under the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.

In addition, UNGA resolution 3236 reaffirms “the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return.”

I am not aware of many BDS leaders advocating for a “Two-State Solution” or even for a “One-State Solution.” If the Israeli government were to accept Palestinian’s “right of return,” would this ensure peaceful co-existence or, rather, the termination of the state of Israel, or somewhere between these options?

One can demand that Jewish people, native and immigrant, go back “home” to their countries of origin, no matter where that may be and no matter the current stage of (un)rest. On this account, one can also demand that all non-indigenous non-First Nations peoples evacuate North and South America and the Caribbean for their ancestral homes as well.

A pro-Palestine and pro-Israel Option

Another option, however, includes stepping back and taking a 30,000-foot overhead view so we can comprehend where we have been and possibly chart a different path forward by considering ourselves as both and simultaneously pro-Palestine and as pro-Israel, and by seeing these positions as not mutually exclusive or contradictory.

Like myself, for those who fundamentally (no pun intended) oppose the concept of any nation with an official or unofficial religion — either de jure (by law) or de facto (by fact), and, therefore, contest the existence of any theocratic state, and, in particular, Israel — I am attempting to suspend my judgment on this point for the time being.  

I have personally determined that a Jewish state is critical if the Jewish people are to survive physically, religiously, and ethnically as a people. I have several reasons for coming to this conclusion. Essentially, I base my reasons on my study of history, which shows clearly that no nation has, for the long-term, protected and defended the rights of its Jewish residents freely to practice their faith, to attain and maintain full citizenship rights, and to have rights of protection from state-supported or state-sponsored violence and violence from the people.

I must, however, qualify my endorsement for a Jewish state with my suggestions for moving forward.

First, to be clear, I would have much preferred to have seen the creation of a Jewish state following World War II carved out from lands in eastern Germany through western Poland. Having stated this, however, these are my suggestions:  

• Israel must end the occupation of all Palestinian lands confiscated since the 1967 War. Israel should either return the territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 War or negotiate a “land swap” agreement arrived at by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority in the context of non-partisan international negotiators.

• Initiate a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” along the lines of one established at the end of the Apartheid system in South Africa to promote restorative justice in the region.

• Israel must close and return all so-called “settlements” on the occupied territories, unless and until compromise solutions to this issue are negotiated.

• Israel must grant full and complete citizenship rights to all persons living as permanent residents in Israel regardless of religious, ethnic, or political backgrounds and affiliations.

• All Israeli government buildings and proceedings must move from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv or another location of choice within the negotiated borders of Israel.

• Jerusalem should be constructed as an international city and internationally controlled and defended with privately-owned properties and free and open access.

• Establish two states, Israel and Palestine (or any other name of the Palestinian’s choice).

• Each country, Israel and Palestine, can and should join in a NATO-type alliance with other countries with the equivalent of Article 5 in the NATO charter stating that if either of these countries is attacked by the other or by another country, member nations from their respective alliances will join them in defensive measures. These alliances should be composed of Western and Middle-Eastern/Eastern nations to better ensure against chances of proxy wars between East and West.

• Nations throughout the world must officially recognize Israel and Palestine, set up official embassies staffed by ambassadors and support personnel.

• Palestine must be admitted to the United Nations as a bone fide country with all the rights and privileges this entails. 

• Allied countries need to continue current or increased rates of economic aid to the reconstituted Israel and Palestine for an agreed-upon number of years (minimum 15).

• All nations need to ensure the normalization of relations with Israel and Palestine, including direct flights from their nations to both Israel and Palestine.

• Strong anti-discrimination policies and enforcement procedures must be provided to uniformly and consistently protect residents and visitors of these nations of their civil and human rights.

• Student, educator, business, arts, agriculture, science, technology, and other exchange programs between the two nations should be instituted to provide a means to perpetuate understanding and cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis.

I welcome suggestions and additional items to this list.

I am certain that the clear majority will automatically reject some or even most of these suggestions, and quite possibly, for this reason, the list might ultimately prove ineffective as a compromise framework.

But since governments and their representatives have not been able or even willing to bring equitable and lasting peace to the Middle East, I hope we as all the people will finally have a voice, a seat at the figurative and literal table.

Maybe if more people stand firmly as both Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel, maybe we can break the age-old bypass and reach a peaceful conclusion. End the binary, bring on peace.

The hatred and killing has gone on much too long. We must STOP THE BLAMING, for blaming is getting us nowhere!

Let the healing begin.

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