10/11/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

“There is no place for hate in America. Not against Jews. Not against Muslims. What we reject is terrorism.” Thanks for saying that yesterday. I wish your tone had been less belligerent. I would prefer an attitude of profound sadness rather than a stance of aggression.

            I keep asking myself the same question Thomas Friedman asks in the NYT today, “where did this ISIS-like impulse for mass murder as the primary goal come from?” I am wondering about the misguided young men who committed these atrocities. What kind of training were they given? How did their sense of decency become so perverted? As I try to wrap my head around their state-of-mind, I imagine they are subject to the same kind of propaganda as the troops in Burma. Perhaps they were given drugs, too. Now they are trapped in the warren of tunnels under Gaza, ready to engage in guerilla warfare. It’s not going to end well for anyone.

TF says, “Netanyahu has never wanted the world to believe that there are ‘good Palestinians’ ready to live side by side with Israel in peace.” He also points out, “America cannot protect Israel in the long run from the very real threats it faces unless Israel has a government that reflects the best, not the worst, of its society, & unless that government is ready to try to forge compromises with the best, not the worst, of Palestinian society.”

Please remind Bibi not to use U.S. weapons against civilians or in civilian areas.

I hope we can learn the lesson of post-apartheid South Africa & realize that hostilities only end when we have truth & reconciliation. This will require that all parties acknowledge the harms they have caused.

Please start to use the term, “forgiveness.” We won’t get anywhere until we do.

BYBS,