I do not cry at funerals (etc.) because I suffer from flattened emotions. I have no ancestral pain, no religious loyalty, no emotional trigger in this war. That does not mean I cannot choose a side. I can. And I do – slightly the Israeli one.
But I do it rationally. I weigh risks, intentions, and outcomes. And I do not care who suffered more. I care who would do more damage if left unchecked. That is why I write this—not to inflame, but to dissect. The best way forward is to suppress emotions. Process the conflict like a logician. Not like a tribesman.
Grieve for the victims—on both sides, or you are dishonest
People choose whose corpse they cry over. That is tribalism. If a bombed Palestinian child breaks your heart, but a murdered Israeli civilian does not, you are not grieving. You are taking sides.
Empathy that only flows in one direction is not empathy. It is political theater. Civilians on both sides have suffered, bled, screamed, died. The only way to be moral is to care for all of them—or for none.
Be outraged—but apply the outrage evenly
You should be outraged. Israel bombs hospitals and refugee camps. Hamas massacres civilians and shoots rockets into neighborhoods. Both violate law. Both inflict terror.
But outrage must be symmetrical. If you shout only when your enemies kill, but make excuses when your side does it, then your outrage is fake. It is just a weapon disguised as morality.
Israelis and Palestinians: Reject the seduction of victimhood
Every side believes its pain is older, deeper, more valid. Jews invoke the Holocaust. Palestinians recall 1948 and exile. But pain does not grant moral permission.
Victimhood is not a blank check. Israel cannot starve a population because it was once starved. Palestinians cannot kill civilians because they were displaced. Memory explains nothing if it justifies more death.
Do not romanticize any resistance
Palestinian resistance is real. So is its violence. Suicide bombings, civilian stabbings, kidnappings, glorification of martyrdom—these are not freedom tools. These are war crimes.
Israel pretends to fight precisely. Yet its drones flatten homes, its jets erase families, its prisons break children. If this is security, it is indistinguishable from vengeance.
Do not cheer for either side’s violence. If you must support resistance, demand it be clean. Otherwise, you are just defending slaughter.
Understand rage—but do not become it
Palestinians are enraged by decades of loss. Israelis are traumatized by centuries of persecution. These emotions shape identity, but they should not shape your thinking.
Do not absorb their rage. Study it. Do not feel their fear. Calculate it. The more you identify with their emotional wounds, the more you become part of the war. Not part of the solution.
Mourn idealism—it was killed too
There were days when peace felt real. Oslo. Camp David. Roadmaps. Leaders shook hands, smiled, signed papers. Then came assassinations, then intifadas. Then rockets and airstrikes.
Both sides sabotaged peace. Both bred extremists. Now, the peace camp is dead. No one negotiates anymore. They threaten, they bomb. They bury.
Stop treating this as identity war—it is a moral one
This is not Jews vs Muslims. Not Arabs vs West. This is a war of competing immorality. One side commits war crimes with tanks. The other commits war crimes with knives and tunnels.
Religion only decorates the violence. Nationalism only fuels it. The real divide is not between peoples. It is between those who justify cruelty and those who condemn it.
Your emotions must obey facts—not replace them
Facts must come first. Emotions must follow. Not the other way around. Most people feel first, then look for facts to support it. That is tribal instinct.
But the facts are brutal. Israel blocks aid, bombs cities, tortures detainees. Hamas kills civilians, radicalizes youth, hides behind innocents. If your heart cannot process both, then your heart is a poor judge.
Why I slightly prefer Israel—rationally, not emotionally
I do not like Israel. I just fear the alternative more.
Benzion Netanyahu once said—roughly—that if the tables were turned, and Palestinians held overwhelming power, Israel would cease to exist. That was not hysteria. It was a cold reading of intent.
Israel has the tools to destroy Gaza completely. It does not. Palestine lacks those tools—but some of its leaders clearly desire that destruction. If power shifted, the result would not be another occupation. It would be obliteration.
Yes, Israel kills. But it does so within a brutal system of control. Not annihilation. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others speak in terms of erasure, not coexistence. That distinction matters.
My rational conclusion: one side is brutal and powerful. The other is weaker but speaks in absolute hatred. Neither is just. But one, if maximally empowered, might end the other forever.
That is not an emotional choice. It is a strategic one.
Isrealis and Palestinians? If you must pick a side, pick justice—not flag
Support those who condemn murder, no matter where it happens, support the civilians. And support restraint. Never support a flag.
Do not defend ideology. Defend human life. Do not excuse rockets or airstrikes. Denounce them both. Pick the side that rejects civilian death. Not the side that explains it away.
Justice has no anthem. It has no martyr. It has no land. But it is the only cause left that deserves loyalty.
The only clarity comes from suppressing emotion
In this war, morality breaks under pressure. Everyone claims it. Everyone bends it. The only way to keep it intact is to remove emotion.
You cannot think clearly while grieving. You cannot see truth while enraged. Suppress feelings. Prioritize logic. Think like someone who wants peace—not like someone who wants revenge.
Objectivity is not cold. It is ethical. In this war, it may be the only moral stance left.
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