Who by fast decay?

This war has done too much damage already. Not only is every single life lost, one too many. No, it also does the opposite of unite the people on either side. Right and left are entangled in as much hatred as the IDF and Hamas.
Unity is not about being of the same opinion, so neither right nor left gets to accuse the other of divisiveness just because one disagrees with the war and the other does not. Unity is about sticking together in spite of those differences. Sticking together for the greater goal of peace means to find a way that both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and dignity. For this to happen we must stop putting the sole blame on any faction, be it the Gazans, “leftists”, or however else you wish to label a group in black and white thinking – disregarding that there is no black and white here. There is no “they started it, so we get to totally fuck their shit up”. Maybe “they started” this specific round, but there have been so many rounds in this fight that it has become irrelevant who the initial initiator is. At this point, rather than who started it, we need to focus on how we can stop it. And here, too, we cannot put the responsibility solely on the shoulders of one party. We can’t rest on the convenience of having attempted half, no, quarter-assed outreach to “the enemy”. We must be more proactive, and by that, I don’t mean “drop more bombs”. Because war creates trauma and trauma creates more war. We can’t expect to crush Gazans, have them bury their loved ones, and sit down and say “Yeah well Israel, you’re right, we’re wrong, we’ll leave you alone now”. It is not reasonable. It is against logic and against human nature to expect such a thing to come out of all this violence.

And finally, feeling compassion with the Gazans and mourning their dead, is not anti-Israeli. Israel prides itself with morality and compassion and anti-racism, so how about at this time of all, we put our money where our mouth is and not label people equally mourning the dead on both sides (yes, that is possible) traitors or antisemites? How about we not demand that our morality and compassion be earned, or applicable exclusively to those treating us nicely? We must internalize that Gazans, too, no matter whether they like or hate us, are humans with these basic needs:
-health
-food/water
-shelter
-safety/reliability of the above
-dignity
-hope
-education
-reasonable availability of the above
-family, love, intimacy (not just sexual)
-trust in the preservation thereof
Israel continues to take this away from them, and why is irrelevant. The outcome is what matters, because the outcome are missiles and dead soldiers who are also the sons of weeping mothers, so the soldiers dying to protect civilians doesn’t make their deaths noble, it makes them senseless because when they’re not wearing those uniforms, they, too, are civilians. And even inside of those uniforms, these soldiers, just like the terrorists and their enablers, are human beings with the needs listed above, equal in intensity as any civilian may experience them.

Once this is internalized rather than deciding that we can just bomb people because their lives are worth less than ours (or vice-versa), peace talks will make sense. As long as either side values retaliation and destruction over acknowledging humanity, there can be no valid, reliable peace. Peace and freedom can only be achieved by mutual granting thereof. And one needs to take the first step and be consistent in it. Not pretend to have “tried” while denying “the enemy” either of the things listed above. This goes for Israel and Hamas equally. Whoever fancies himself the morally superior party, will need to take steps that may hurt the ego, but close the rift. And whoever has the power to do so, also has the obligation.

This is not “leftist” talk or any “box” or “group” or “label” talk. This is mere reason. I am painfully aware though, that many are past that.