Hamas is not Palestinians. The Israeli government is not Israelis. What is informing your thoughts on this horrific war? I made a list of questions to help me clarify my own thoughts.
If only the whole world could read this! Thank you for being a voice of reason and for always making me dive a bit deeper into my own views with your thought provoking questions. We need more Gabrielle Blairs in the world ❤️
Hi Gabrielle, I always appreciate how thoughful you are. I was wondering if you subscribe to the Making Sense Podcast by Sam Harris? Someone shared his most recent episode with me on the topic of moral equivalence and I would be interested to hear your thoughts if you have listened.
Thank you for the recommendation, Amy. I just listened to it. I appreciated that he introduced another lens for studying the situation. But as it ended, I was disturbed at what I interpreted as his efforts to devalue the loss of civilian Palestinian lives; his insistence that we can't and shouldn't compare the number of deaths of Israelis and Palestinians because of the intentions of the leaders of each group. Perhaps I did not understand his argument, but if I did understand, I did not agree at all.
I feel that it's important to hold the idea that "both things can be true" uppermost with this situation. But that concept doesn't fit on a chyron or headline. The oppression of Palestinians by Israel is wrong, and feeds the terrorists' narrative of grievance. Hama's should be dismantled, and Netanyahu is a crook and a fascist. Jay Kuo had a quote from an Israeli about the consequences of electing a criminal and thinking everything would be just fine. A lesson we need to take to heart here.
"The oppression of Palestinians by Israel is wrong, and feeds the terrorists' narrative of grievance. Hama's should be dismantled, and Netanyahu is a crook and a fascist."
You forgot one question. You asked: If that were to happen, and Hamas was the government of the country of Palestine, do you believe it would be safe for Jews to live there?
The question you missed is: If that were to happen, and Hamas was the government of the country of Palestine, do you believe it would be safe for *Muslims and Christians* to live there?
Hamas just wants to kill. They have already murdered at least 40 Arab Israelis, including a woman in a hijab and a doctor who started reciting the Quran to the murderers. If they ever actually finished off the Jews, do you think they would then stop?
Also, thank you for pointing out that Americans, Canadians, and Australians do not have a leg to stand on in this argument. Another question: if you're OK with everything that Hamas has done, then would you be OK with Native Americans paragliding off their reservation and into your community, raping your sister, and kidnapping her kids? Because if anyone has a claim to America, it's not you or me; it's them. Is it OK for them to then shoot, rape, torture, and burn us alive?
On a related note, you introduced me to Meg Keene, and I was hoping to follow her again at this time, but it looks like she's left Instagram. I'm sure it's for her mental health. Please let her know she's missed!
Thank you so much for this. Thank you for being one of the few people left on the internet 😜 who is asking thoughtful questions instead of just supplying opinions.
One further thing to throw into the mix, while Iran supports Hamas, Iran is also allies with Russia. It’s to Russia’s benefit for the US to have their aid efforts divided and their attention diverted. Additionally, Hamas knows the government of Israel react disproportionately, so when they waged their attacks they KNEW this would happen. They sacrificed the citizens of Gaza for whatever outcome they were hoping for. It’s all so ugly.
I know.. It's one thing to decide to make yourself a suicide attacker, but another thing to essentially "volunteer" your whole community, because as you said, Hamas knew that Israel was bound to react in this manner.
thanks so much, Gabrielle, for this post and for your thoughtful and considered questions, and guidance. I myself, as a Jewish person, abhor the policies of the Israeli government and have for a long time. I also abhor the recent attack by Hamas. Innocent people on both sides with leadership on both sides that are willing to sacrifice so many innocent people. It's heartbreaking what Hamas and the Israeli government are doing to each other. I hope your post can start a movement of another way to get through all this hatred to some lasting peace. Love, Gayle
There are more questions than answers in this horrific situation and in asking them, in pausing to learn and consider what we don’t know or see immediately--we can create more peaceful unions and understanding for all marginalized people. Thank you for your part in helping some of us to do that. 🤍
I want to express my deep disappointment and hurt though that you manually removed my Palestinian husband as a follower on your instagram after he requested you retract a post you shared via stories that stated blatant misinformation.
We have been followers of yours for a while (I don’t want to say “long time” because I know you have many followers who have been following for longer!), sharing your posts back and forth and discussing your renovations. He has given me more than one gift straight from your gift guides. I know he has had conversations with you “in DMs” in the past, so it clearly wasn’t a new, random follower messaging you.
When he told me, I decided all I could do was unfollow you, as it didn’t seem fair for me, as a white woman, to keep viewing content if you didn’t want my brown husband to be part of it.
But I didn’t think about Substack, so this post still popped up for me.
It hurts for you to publicly post something so thoughtful when your private actions have not aligned.
I don’t know what I want out of this comment, other than to say that actions speak just as loud as words.
Suzanne. Unfortunately, I don't know who your husband is or what this is referring to. I receive hundreds and hundreds of DMs on Instagram every day. I can rarely read and respond to all of them. I have not blocked anyone on Instagram in months, so I'm not sure what this means.
I also want to note, there is nothing I have posted on Instagram that is not consistent with what I've written here, so I'm unclear on what someone would expect me to retract.
I want to acknowledge your hurt, and at the same time, I'm feeling confused at your accusations. You are of course welcome to unfollow me for any reason whatsoever. (Though it's always odd when people feel like they need to announce it.)
Hi Gabrielle, thank you for your response. To clarify, he was not blocked, he was removed as a follower. One minute he was a follower of your account, the next he was not. Any instagram user is able to manually remove followers from their account.
The post he was referring to stated the “40 babies...” allegation that has been unsubstantiated and walked back. Like we saw in the 2016 and 2020 elections, misinformation is incredibly dangerous and we owe it to ourselves and our communities to ensure the information we share is accurate.
I also want to mention that it was not my intention to “announce” my unfollow, just wanted to clarify that the only content I have seen from you in the past day or so is this post. :)
I hate to butt in and I don't want to cause an argument or anything, but only private IG accounts can manually remove a follower without blocking them. Gabrielle's account is public on IG so she would not have been able to manually remove your husband from her followers. Is it possible he "unfollowed" her himself, perhaps by accident? It only takes a quick touch of a button to do so.
Hi Colleen! While I appreciate your input, a quick Google search shows that this feature was rolled out to public accounts a few years ago. I also temporarily switched my account to public to confirm.
Suzanne, when I click on someone's profile and click the 3-dots-icon called Options, I get 3 choices: Restrict, Block, Report. That's it. Maybe it's a geographic thing? I don't have access to the IG captions tool either.
I do find myself irritated at your accusation and that you are hi-jacking this comment section and lecturing me on how I should or shouldn't use my own Instagram page. The idea of "retracting" an Instagram story that expired days ago, of a news story that has been "walked back" but not disproved, is a bizarre suggestion. Wouldn't that just draw more attention to a story that you think is false?
I know parasocial relationships are strange, and it may feel like you know me, or that I'm a friend, but remember, I don't know YOU. I don't know your IG handle and I don't know your husband's IG handle, so I have no idea what, if any, exchanges we've ever had in DMs. If they were meaningful to you, I'm glad to hear it, but that doesn't mean they meant the same to me. There are 182,000 people who follow me on Instagram and many of them send me DMs. Based on your accusations, it sounds like you expect me to know and care personally for every person who has every interacted with me on the internet.
Again, I'm confused and irritated by this whole exchange, and perhaps I should just delete your comments and my responses. I'm irritated enough that if I did know your IG handles, I would definitely block you both.
Colleen, I thought the exact same thing about the accidental unfollow. Or maybe he was never following at all and didn't notice? Following is not required for DMing, lots of people DM me that don't follow me.
I appreciate your questions and the balance you try to bring to this situation. I used to have hope that in my lifetime there would be peace in the middle east. I long ago gave up that hope.
I have no problem with people writing about this horrific sitution and trying to make sense of the horror and so many innocent lives lost.
I do wonder why those who speak about about this conflict -- about this particular horror - don't also speak about the many countries who have a long history of terrorizing and killing their own citizens...and continue to do so today. I don't see articles about those atrocities. Why do so many speak out about Israel and don't also speak out about Myamar or Sudan or what the Chinese have done to the Tibetan community....the list goes on and on?
Thank you for your thoughtful posts. I will share it with family and friends who are also trying to make sense of what is happening and who are frightened by the increase in anti-semitism in the last few years.
I appreciate the well thought out questions. It really helps to see the complexity, and simplicity, of a situation. I try to read and understand more of the history, as I don’t know enough about it. I struggle to read as the news of what is happening is so horrific. I do not understand how any human can do what I have read about.
I think in any war there are more people who don’t like the destruction and killing, then the few in charge of what is unfolding. I want to know how we move forward. How do we stop extremists? How do they gain so much control? How is it that one group of people feel they have more rights to live and push their own beliefs on others? How in this day and age have we not learned to peacefully share?
From the aspect of being pushed out, I feel I have a mere glimpse of what that might be like and it’s utterly painful. I can’t imagine how both Palestinians and Israeli people feel when there are decades and centuries of history.
To give context, I’m an American having to leave the state I was born in, and have lived for almost 40 years, because it is no longer safe for my child due to their gender identity. I feel so sad and angry about it. People around me act like it’s an adventure and I should be happy for the opportunity of where we are going. I might be if I had chose this, but I didn’t, extremists in our government made this my reality.
It is not 2000 years of being persecuted. It is not the struggles of indigenous people. It is not what is happening right now for Palestines or Israeli. It’s just to say, being pushed from a space for an existence that doesn’t perfectly align with others beliefs, and is purely how you were born, where you were born, or who you were born to, is not the way forward for anyone. Extremist views solve no problems, help no humans, and make no peace.
Great thoughts, thank you. My personal belief is that no religious group deserves an ethnic religious state, including Jewish people. Yes, they have been marginalized for almost 2,000 years. So have other groups, like African people, and Romani people. All over the world, no one gets to have a religious state. That's my personal dream. And the Brittish and the US need take the lead on offering peace solutions. You can't just make this mess and then walk away for 75 years. Hold them to account too.
I thought the state of Israel has no official religion? And there are lots of people who are Jewish but not religious. As far as the British and US taking the lead on offering peace solutions, on one hand, I'm all ear for peace solutions from anyone, on the other hand, I'm a thousand times more interested in the peace solutions desired by the people who live there.
As a Jewish person, I can say that this comment really misses the point as to what being Jewish is about. Many (maybe even the majority) of Jews around the world identify as secular. Being Jewish is as much if not more about an ethnic identity and way of life as it is about a religion.
Thank you so much for this. I have been struggling to wrap my head around this conflict and which side I am supporting because it all seems so horrible no matter which way you look at it. There is so much history wrapped up in this situation that I do not know enough about, but I know that killing people is never an answer. Denying people rights and freedoms is never an answer. I just hope that those who have the power to change this will find a pathway out of it where both sides find peace and stability.
Thank you for the questions and the reference. I’ll be reading it. I’ve been in mental bunker mentality with this - listening or reading only to snippets of news because my brain can’t comprehend it all. (And I recognize what an incredible privilege it is that I CAN do that.) Your piece helps me feel both more informed and more compassionate.
If only the whole world could read this! Thank you for being a voice of reason and for always making me dive a bit deeper into my own views with your thought provoking questions. We need more Gabrielle Blairs in the world ❤️
Hi Gabrielle, I always appreciate how thoughful you are. I was wondering if you subscribe to the Making Sense Podcast by Sam Harris? Someone shared his most recent episode with me on the topic of moral equivalence and I would be interested to hear your thoughts if you have listened.
Thank you for the recommendation, Amy. I just listened to it. I appreciated that he introduced another lens for studying the situation. But as it ended, I was disturbed at what I interpreted as his efforts to devalue the loss of civilian Palestinian lives; his insistence that we can't and shouldn't compare the number of deaths of Israelis and Palestinians because of the intentions of the leaders of each group. Perhaps I did not understand his argument, but if I did understand, I did not agree at all.
In your inimitable way, you have framed the situation in such a thoughtful and compassionate way. I agree wholeheartedly with Kaylan!
I feel that it's important to hold the idea that "both things can be true" uppermost with this situation. But that concept doesn't fit on a chyron or headline. The oppression of Palestinians by Israel is wrong, and feeds the terrorists' narrative of grievance. Hama's should be dismantled, and Netanyahu is a crook and a fascist. Jay Kuo had a quote from an Israeli about the consequences of electing a criminal and thinking everything would be just fine. A lesson we need to take to heart here.
"The oppression of Palestinians by Israel is wrong, and feeds the terrorists' narrative of grievance. Hama's should be dismantled, and Netanyahu is a crook and a fascist."
Heartily agree with both sentences.
You forgot one question. You asked: If that were to happen, and Hamas was the government of the country of Palestine, do you believe it would be safe for Jews to live there?
The question you missed is: If that were to happen, and Hamas was the government of the country of Palestine, do you believe it would be safe for *Muslims and Christians* to live there?
Hamas just wants to kill. They have already murdered at least 40 Arab Israelis, including a woman in a hijab and a doctor who started reciting the Quran to the murderers. If they ever actually finished off the Jews, do you think they would then stop?
Also, thank you for pointing out that Americans, Canadians, and Australians do not have a leg to stand on in this argument. Another question: if you're OK with everything that Hamas has done, then would you be OK with Native Americans paragliding off their reservation and into your community, raping your sister, and kidnapping her kids? Because if anyone has a claim to America, it's not you or me; it's them. Is it OK for them to then shoot, rape, torture, and burn us alive?
On a related note, you introduced me to Meg Keene, and I was hoping to follow her again at this time, but it looks like she's left Instagram. I'm sure it's for her mental health. Please let her know she's missed!
I'd like to add, I think that Netanyahu is a criminal and needs to go, along with all of his racist colleagues. It can't happen soon enough.
I don't think Meg is still posting at a Practical Wedding, but you can find her on IG as @megkeene.
Thank you so much for this. Thank you for being one of the few people left on the internet 😜 who is asking thoughtful questions instead of just supplying opinions.
Yes!
Thank you, Gabrielle. Your visions and words are most appreciated.
One further thing to throw into the mix, while Iran supports Hamas, Iran is also allies with Russia. It’s to Russia’s benefit for the US to have their aid efforts divided and their attention diverted. Additionally, Hamas knows the government of Israel react disproportionately, so when they waged their attacks they KNEW this would happen. They sacrificed the citizens of Gaza for whatever outcome they were hoping for. It’s all so ugly.
I know.. It's one thing to decide to make yourself a suicide attacker, but another thing to essentially "volunteer" your whole community, because as you said, Hamas knew that Israel was bound to react in this manner.
thanks so much, Gabrielle, for this post and for your thoughtful and considered questions, and guidance. I myself, as a Jewish person, abhor the policies of the Israeli government and have for a long time. I also abhor the recent attack by Hamas. Innocent people on both sides with leadership on both sides that are willing to sacrifice so many innocent people. It's heartbreaking what Hamas and the Israeli government are doing to each other. I hope your post can start a movement of another way to get through all this hatred to some lasting peace. Love, Gayle
There are more questions than answers in this horrific situation and in asking them, in pausing to learn and consider what we don’t know or see immediately--we can create more peaceful unions and understanding for all marginalized people. Thank you for your part in helping some of us to do that. 🤍
Hi Gabrielle, I appreciate this thoughtful post.
I want to express my deep disappointment and hurt though that you manually removed my Palestinian husband as a follower on your instagram after he requested you retract a post you shared via stories that stated blatant misinformation.
We have been followers of yours for a while (I don’t want to say “long time” because I know you have many followers who have been following for longer!), sharing your posts back and forth and discussing your renovations. He has given me more than one gift straight from your gift guides. I know he has had conversations with you “in DMs” in the past, so it clearly wasn’t a new, random follower messaging you.
When he told me, I decided all I could do was unfollow you, as it didn’t seem fair for me, as a white woman, to keep viewing content if you didn’t want my brown husband to be part of it.
But I didn’t think about Substack, so this post still popped up for me.
It hurts for you to publicly post something so thoughtful when your private actions have not aligned.
I don’t know what I want out of this comment, other than to say that actions speak just as loud as words.
Suzanne. Unfortunately, I don't know who your husband is or what this is referring to. I receive hundreds and hundreds of DMs on Instagram every day. I can rarely read and respond to all of them. I have not blocked anyone on Instagram in months, so I'm not sure what this means.
I also want to note, there is nothing I have posted on Instagram that is not consistent with what I've written here, so I'm unclear on what someone would expect me to retract.
I want to acknowledge your hurt, and at the same time, I'm feeling confused at your accusations. You are of course welcome to unfollow me for any reason whatsoever. (Though it's always odd when people feel like they need to announce it.)
Hi Gabrielle, thank you for your response. To clarify, he was not blocked, he was removed as a follower. One minute he was a follower of your account, the next he was not. Any instagram user is able to manually remove followers from their account.
The post he was referring to stated the “40 babies...” allegation that has been unsubstantiated and walked back. Like we saw in the 2016 and 2020 elections, misinformation is incredibly dangerous and we owe it to ourselves and our communities to ensure the information we share is accurate.
I also want to mention that it was not my intention to “announce” my unfollow, just wanted to clarify that the only content I have seen from you in the past day or so is this post. :)
I'm not getting it. So he's not blocked and he can still see my Instagram page? He can still follow me?
I hate to butt in and I don't want to cause an argument or anything, but only private IG accounts can manually remove a follower without blocking them. Gabrielle's account is public on IG so she would not have been able to manually remove your husband from her followers. Is it possible he "unfollowed" her himself, perhaps by accident? It only takes a quick touch of a button to do so.
Hi Colleen! While I appreciate your input, a quick Google search shows that this feature was rolled out to public accounts a few years ago. I also temporarily switched my account to public to confirm.
Suzanne, when I click on someone's profile and click the 3-dots-icon called Options, I get 3 choices: Restrict, Block, Report. That's it. Maybe it's a geographic thing? I don't have access to the IG captions tool either.
I do find myself irritated at your accusation and that you are hi-jacking this comment section and lecturing me on how I should or shouldn't use my own Instagram page. The idea of "retracting" an Instagram story that expired days ago, of a news story that has been "walked back" but not disproved, is a bizarre suggestion. Wouldn't that just draw more attention to a story that you think is false?
I know parasocial relationships are strange, and it may feel like you know me, or that I'm a friend, but remember, I don't know YOU. I don't know your IG handle and I don't know your husband's IG handle, so I have no idea what, if any, exchanges we've ever had in DMs. If they were meaningful to you, I'm glad to hear it, but that doesn't mean they meant the same to me. There are 182,000 people who follow me on Instagram and many of them send me DMs. Based on your accusations, it sounds like you expect me to know and care personally for every person who has every interacted with me on the internet.
Again, I'm confused and irritated by this whole exchange, and perhaps I should just delete your comments and my responses. I'm irritated enough that if I did know your IG handles, I would definitely block you both.
Colleen, I thought the exact same thing about the accidental unfollow. Or maybe he was never following at all and didn't notice? Following is not required for DMing, lots of people DM me that don't follow me.
I appreciate your questions and the balance you try to bring to this situation. I used to have hope that in my lifetime there would be peace in the middle east. I long ago gave up that hope.
I have no problem with people writing about this horrific sitution and trying to make sense of the horror and so many innocent lives lost.
I do wonder why those who speak about about this conflict -- about this particular horror - don't also speak about the many countries who have a long history of terrorizing and killing their own citizens...and continue to do so today. I don't see articles about those atrocities. Why do so many speak out about Israel and don't also speak out about Myamar or Sudan or what the Chinese have done to the Tibetan community....the list goes on and on?
Thank you for your thoughtful posts. I will share it with family and friends who are also trying to make sense of what is happening and who are frightened by the increase in anti-semitism in the last few years.
I appreciate the well thought out questions. It really helps to see the complexity, and simplicity, of a situation. I try to read and understand more of the history, as I don’t know enough about it. I struggle to read as the news of what is happening is so horrific. I do not understand how any human can do what I have read about.
I think in any war there are more people who don’t like the destruction and killing, then the few in charge of what is unfolding. I want to know how we move forward. How do we stop extremists? How do they gain so much control? How is it that one group of people feel they have more rights to live and push their own beliefs on others? How in this day and age have we not learned to peacefully share?
From the aspect of being pushed out, I feel I have a mere glimpse of what that might be like and it’s utterly painful. I can’t imagine how both Palestinians and Israeli people feel when there are decades and centuries of history.
To give context, I’m an American having to leave the state I was born in, and have lived for almost 40 years, because it is no longer safe for my child due to their gender identity. I feel so sad and angry about it. People around me act like it’s an adventure and I should be happy for the opportunity of where we are going. I might be if I had chose this, but I didn’t, extremists in our government made this my reality.
It is not 2000 years of being persecuted. It is not the struggles of indigenous people. It is not what is happening right now for Palestines or Israeli. It’s just to say, being pushed from a space for an existence that doesn’t perfectly align with others beliefs, and is purely how you were born, where you were born, or who you were born to, is not the way forward for anyone. Extremist views solve no problems, help no humans, and make no peace.
Great thoughts, thank you. My personal belief is that no religious group deserves an ethnic religious state, including Jewish people. Yes, they have been marginalized for almost 2,000 years. So have other groups, like African people, and Romani people. All over the world, no one gets to have a religious state. That's my personal dream. And the Brittish and the US need take the lead on offering peace solutions. You can't just make this mess and then walk away for 75 years. Hold them to account too.
I thought the state of Israel has no official religion? And there are lots of people who are Jewish but not religious. As far as the British and US taking the lead on offering peace solutions, on one hand, I'm all ear for peace solutions from anyone, on the other hand, I'm a thousand times more interested in the peace solutions desired by the people who live there.
As a Jewish person, I can say that this comment really misses the point as to what being Jewish is about. Many (maybe even the majority) of Jews around the world identify as secular. Being Jewish is as much if not more about an ethnic identity and way of life as it is about a religion.
Thank you so much for this. I have been struggling to wrap my head around this conflict and which side I am supporting because it all seems so horrible no matter which way you look at it. There is so much history wrapped up in this situation that I do not know enough about, but I know that killing people is never an answer. Denying people rights and freedoms is never an answer. I just hope that those who have the power to change this will find a pathway out of it where both sides find peace and stability.
Thank you for the questions and the reference. I’ll be reading it. I’ve been in mental bunker mentality with this - listening or reading only to snippets of news because my brain can’t comprehend it all. (And I recognize what an incredible privilege it is that I CAN do that.) Your piece helps me feel both more informed and more compassionate.