I'm depressed as hell..

[albacore]

I read the back-and-forth about Israel/Palestine - here and everywhere - and I get more and more depressed. Not as depressed as the people in that area, of course, but...
I feel helpless. How can I support any group that commits atrocities? How can I hate any group that has suffered so many innocent casualties? Hate.... that's what it's all about, right?
Notice that I'm not naming names.
How can I root for victory in a conflict with no end in sight...ever... until either side wipes out the other?

[scipan]

1. You and me both.

They're both wrong.

I personally am going with the most recent atrocities. Especially because they were so extreme.

So Israel has to respond.

But, how to keep this from being a continuing tit for tat? Maybe if Hamas is destroyed?

Israel is definitely not as barbaric as Hamas.

Otherwise, I have no answers and I am suspicious of anyone who sees this as black and white.

[spanone]

2. K&R

[Calculating]

3. This conflict really sucks

There's no clear right or wrong to support with a clear conscience. I do think Israel is less bad than Hamas, but what they'll need to do to actually end this is pretty bad.

[uppityperson]

4. K&R

[hunter]

5. I really can't do that much about civil wars in distant lands.

And there are many.

Normally our U.S.A. press pays scant attention to any of these wars, except that this is about an important god or something.

The "Holy Lands" are anything but that.

People who worship cruel and capricious gods are the cause of much suffering.

[LeftInTX]

12. The US funds Israel's wars. Israel vs Gaza is unfortunately our war.

There's a joke that Israel is the 51st state.

All decisions that Israel makes is perceived by the world to be the United States' decisions. i wish it wasn't that way.

I wish we could just let them deal with this themselves, because i don't approve of them killing all these civilians.

[Bayard]

6. No one's hands are clean,

And its same as it ever was. I don't think the resolution will be to answer one atrocity with another.

Its time to try something new.

[Basic LA]

7. Many see it as a clear choice.

You're either for the brutal occupation or against it. The rest is sophistry.

[Big Blue Marble]

14. I am not sure many in the US really understand or even care

how brutal this occupation has become before this war started.
How terrible it would be to live under the system.

[Basic LA]

18. Sadly true

Or they suppose it's too complicated to understand & throw up their hands to the suffering. But the tide might be turning. I remember when that happened with Vietnam. Suddenly the anti-war movement grew.

[Laffy Kat]

8. You're not alone.

Look, I DON'T root for any side. I can't. Every day is a new heart-break. I'm avoiding the news when I can. Frankly, I think it would be odd to not feel depressed these days.

Wish I could get off the world.

[lees1975]

9. I'm right there with you.

It didn't start with the Hamas attack, that was a symptom of long-term problems.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/11/some-initiative-can-end-this-tragedy.html

It's not anti-Semitic to want to stop the bombing and the killing.

[ShazzieB]

15. I think I'm probably on the same page, more or less.

It's not anti-Semitic to want to stop the bombing and the killing.

Amen to this. I've been commenting very little since the first week or 2 after the 10/7 attack, because the conversations were getting so heated and I didn't feel like adding to it.

I support Israel for the most part, but I'm having a hard time understanding what seems like a sort of tunnel vision on the part of the country's leaders (especially Netanyahu) when it comes to humanitarian issues. I understand feeling the need to eliminate Hamas, but I don't see why that requires completely ignoring the fact that there are civilians caught in the middle who don't deserve to be collateral damage.

As others have said, though, I realize there's nothing I can do, and I'm avoiding the news from Israel as much as I can, because helplessly watching is just too damned frustrating. In the meantime, the last thing I feel like doing is arguing about it at DU.

[SharonAnn]

17. Golda Meir said "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

"“When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”
― Golda Meir, A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography "

[David__77]

20. That quote is something else.

[Big Blue Marble]

21. There is controversy as to the source of this statement.

Consider that it less than subtlety racist and dehumanizing who ever said.
And I might add arrogant. You are telling the people whose land you have taken to shut up
and go away with a few crumbs.

[BigmanPigman]

10. As a pacifist, an Atheist and a misanthrope

I must agree with you. I know, I know "war is Hell" but it is a Hell of our own making. People suck. It makes me want to puke...

[Skittles]

11. it's all about the hate

when people hate each other so much they pass on the hatred generation after generation, there is NO end in sight

[calimary]

13. I guess the only thing to do is what little things you CAN do

in your own sphere of influence.

Write! A letter to the editor. Comments on a blog if you know the issue or can offer insights. Find a local activist group and get involved. The Democrats might have one. So might Indivisible! When we moved to a new state, that’s what I did -find the local Indivisible group and step up. That’s where I found new friends in an area where I knew nobody.

[Big Blue Marble]

16. I am right there with you.

Really questioning what it means to be a human being. Who are we? Why are we so willing to hate,
to kill each other, to kill children. Why is this acceptable?

I have wanted to believe we are better than this. We have learned from the horrors of the past.
Watching all this play out, it is hard to keep believing we have advanced at all.

I want the killing to stop.

[DemocraticPatriot]

19. I hear you, I feel the same..... I cannot support 100% of

either side....

but I hate them BOTH for what this is doing to the Democratic party in the U.S....

[Dawson Leery]

22. Why do these concerns of violence come about only when Israel strikes?

Why did the squad call for de-escalation only after Hamas (anti-LGBT terrorists) struck? As to imply there is equal blame on both sides where one side are illiberal terrorists?