Gaza, the war that infected facebook

Normally my Facebook feed is fairly sedate. There was a time when it contained a bunch of irritating political rants, often fearful tirades against Obama and his perceived agenda. For my own sanity, I hid those people from my newsfeed. Most of the tirades people in my feed post now are antiGMO and the like, which, while annoying, are not nearly as laden with strong emotion, so they don't bother me at all. However, after the recent outbreak of violence in Gaza, many of my Jewish and Israeli friends have been posting highly emotional updates about Gaza. If I were to distill the message, it would be that Hamas is a deadly enemy that wants to kill all Jews, yet the world has taken their side! They feel afraid, hurt and betrayed. I believe that Palestinians probably have similar sentiments about Israel, although I don't have any Palestinian friends on Facebook, so this is an educated guess. Given the obvious deep anguish that my Jewish friends are feeling, it occurs to me that framing the debate merely as "Israel should stop killing so many civilians," is ignoring real human suffering on the Israeli side of the border. It's easy to fall into that type of thinking when one looks at the relative death tolls: far fewer Israelis have died than Palestinians, in both civilian and military categories. And it's also easy to fall into that kind of thinking when one sees that Gaza is a giant ghetto walled off from the rest of the world. However, Egypt is also culpable. They share a border with Gaza. The truth is that the Palestinians don't really have any friends, and they are fucked by their own leadership.
Despite the fact that Hamas is a bunch of murderous thugs, it is nevertheless saddening  to see the amount of hateful rhetoric coming out of the Israeli side. Israel is projecting an image of martialism and war, and whatever the cause, justified or unjustified, it is a real tragedy to see what should be a pinnacle of human understanding, home of some of the most revered religious sites in the world, engulfed by hatred and mistrust.

I hid my friends who were spewing anti-Obama rhetoric because I felt that it was simply a reflexive passing on of misinformation, and that it served no purpose. However, I will not hide my Jewish friends' posts about Gaza, despite the mental turmoil that it engenders. These are real tragic events that are happening in the middle east and, even though it would be easier to turn my head and not get involved, it seems to be that it is a moral imperative to understand not only what is happening on the ground (and try in my own way to contribute to peace) but also to understand the deep suffering that is going through the minds of my friends, and try to hold them in my compassion. This last idea is probably where I can have the most direct effect.