Politically speaking, I can't in good conscience support either side, but I want to do what I can to bring peace to them and open the way to more authentic and humane arrangements that will respect all person's dignity by valuing their identity as human beings.
If Israeli pressure has indeed been behind rejecting humanitarian appeals, if Hamas really is using it's population as tools for propaganda rather than caring about them, rather than sticking to the tired tradition of blame and judgement in what has to be one of the most seemingly irreconcilable conflicts in the world's history, isn't it time to look afresh? To ask what really is it that drives such inhumanity on the actors of each 'side'. Could it be in reality that there are no sides at all, save in the minds of those caught up in it, concerned onlookers included? Not at all to say we should justify any inhuman actions, whomever tries to make their point through the paralysing and mind-numbing strategy of inducing terror. More that we should stop and breath in and wonder what is actually behind it, we who want a fair peace that will last, as opposed to just another 'cease-fire'.
The real story here is that we are looking in on a level of distrust and animosity reminiscent not of a conflict between nations over particular and soluble issues (though these exist), but a civil war-esque struggle for national legitimacy. In this way of thinking, Israel and Palestine cannot both be right, or one would be wrong- an existential and ideological log-jam that can only be solved by the resolution of opposites and a coming together into an entity greater than the sum of it's parts.
The so-called two state solution, with it's casual acceptance of the outdated presumption that ethnic groups must live separately to be in peace is here revealing it's absurdity. Actually, the groups need one another, their proposed statelets being absurdly compromised left alone. 1948 Israel, the Gaza strip and it's it's geographically separate West Bank being not just indefensible, but ludicrously under-resourced when compared to any decent-sized entity. The intention should be for them to come together, however long it takes.
One hopes that leaders with the vision for such arrangements will come along sooner, rather than later. Such 'multi-ethnic states' are the basis of a sustainable peace. They may end up states within a state, but while the problems fester, so will this horrendous exhibition of humanity's flaws. Think a little deeper and you may get the answers you are looking for.
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