A Plea for a Ceasefire

I am, yet again, struggling to form coherent words on the catastrophe in Israel, Palestine and the surrounding countries.

Yet again, I keep writing and deleting over and over again because I can’t bear the thought that I’d misspeak about a situation so complicated and terrible and make somebody’s trauma worse.

I’ll get this out of the way first: I have no solution for the conflict, and I’m not going to pretend I do. I don’t think anyone reading this does either. But I think it’s a red herring to say that only people who know how to fix it are allowed to point out when something is gravely wrong. If you see a grave wrong, you must speak out to try and get it to stop.

I want to stress that it is true that Israeli civilians suffered a despicable terrorist attack for which there is no excuse. Anyone denying that is a fool.

I want to reiterate that antisemitism is evil and sinful, it’s deadly, it’s very common and getting worse lately, and we all ought to speak out against it.

Hamas is a terrorist organization; they only want to create chaos and more hatred. Anybody defending Hamas itself is insane.

Furthermore, Jews aren’t Israel, Israeli civilians aren’t Netanyahu, and Palestinian people aren’t Hamas. And, of course, not everyone in Palestine is Muslim; there are some of the world’s oldest Christian communities suffering there as well.

All of that has to be said before I get to the point, which is that Amnesty International has provided a great deal of evidence that the Israeli military is unlawfully using white phosphorus on Lebanon, and they’ve maimed at least nine civilians with it and burned their properties. Using white phosphorus indiscriminately on a civilian area is a war crime, for good reason. White phosphorus burns all the way down to the bone, it re-ignites whenever exposed to oxygen,  it kills if even ten percent of the body is exposed. Such an act can’t be defended. It has to stop.

Bombing civilians in a refugee camp is also inexcusable. And, as we all know by now, Israel did this and admitted it. They were, apparently, aiming for Hamas militants in a tunnel underneath the refugees, but they didn’t hold back. They killed at least 195 civilians, with 120 missing and hundreds injured. Yes, we’re told the refugees were being used as human shields, but the correct thing to do when your enemy is using human shields is to stand down. The difference between a good guy and a bad guy is supposed to be that the good guy acts justly, even if that means they don’t get to win by the most expedient way. Instead, they buried children alive. There is no moral high ground if you do that.

My heart goes out to the victims of these acts, as it does to the victims and the hostages of the October 6th terrorist attack. I am sick at the thought of all of this suffering.

I know that nobody powerful will read my words, but I want to use this platform to beg for a ceasefire, and to beg all of my followers to use any platform they have to do the same. What was done to Israel was horrendous. What Israel is doing in retaliation is unconscionable and will fix nothing. For the sake of the men, women and children trapped on the ground, we need a ceasefire.

Pray for peace.