This is one of the best things I’ve read Claire. Thank you. It helps is as well to realize that we can hold both sides of a conflict but we need so much support to hold the feelings and we need humility to realize we can’t be present for all of the suffering at all times t and that we cannot resolve things by intellectually produced declarations and pronouncements
Yes! Deciding not to "take a stand," but work through the problem and sort the facts as they become apparent. I think it has helped me a lot to be off Twitter and Facebook--I realize how much these platforms enable reactiveness and push me to have an opinion.
This is an important, thoughtful, constructive piece and thank you Claire. I am going to copy it to people who may not get it. A small but I think useful quibble. The left in the US (at least from my point of view) is so small and insignificant. the corporate media - NOT YOU CLAIRE - is focusing on a tiny minority within the left, and I should be more accurate , a miniscule minority, in order to shut up people, like you. Whether Jewish Voices for Peace, The NWSA, Brooklyn for Peace, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Democracy NOW, my colleague and comrade Mustafa Bayoumi, for example, most of the left in the US has never supported Hamas (although the Us and Israel once did) and we should spend more time encouraging left voices for peace than denouncing an insignificant, misguided, and perhaps somewhat quasi understandable voice of rage and frustration. I never remember the extra paramilitary IRA (just as violent as Hamas) being demounced as is Hamas (which deserves denounciation not just for their barbaric actions of the past week, but for their corrupt non leadership of Palestinians.)
Thank you for this useful and important comment, Barbara. Of course, you are right. I think it is the most ideologically inflexible sliver of the left. I am reminded of the CPUSA pivoting to support the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, knowing full well what Hitler was doing to the Jews at that moment, since there was a steady stream of refugees coming in from Central Europe at that point.
Thank you so much--I can't tell you how I've needed this. My young-adult children are struggling within their Instagram world and feel like something has shifted under them. I've asked them to read your post. John Ganz has also written with force and clarity, in "The Trap" on his site.
I am so glad you liked it Steven--I was struggling with what to write about this terrible time, and have had bad experiences writing about Israel/Palestine in the past. This one seems to have found its audience. I hope you are well, friend. PItch me if you ever want to publish on the newsletter. I pay (a little.)
Thanks, Claire. I thought Peter Beinart's piece in todays Times was also important. I really hope the 'we' on the left keep posting because from Center (michelle Goldberg for example) to the right, (Bret Stephens and the Paula woman who was once Steven's legal partner, aka wife) are going after academics and students, some of the least powerful people in the US. Keep up the struggle and your terrific writing!
Claire thank you so much
This was a breath of fresh air and much needed honesty and intellectual integrity
Thank you, Anne!
Good piece--thank you for the sanity.
And thank you for taking out a paying subscription!
Very well put, my friend.
Thank you, Brian. Such a hard time.
Thank you Claire.
This is one of the best things I’ve read Claire. Thank you. It helps is as well to realize that we can hold both sides of a conflict but we need so much support to hold the feelings and we need humility to realize we can’t be present for all of the suffering at all times t and that we cannot resolve things by intellectually produced declarations and pronouncements
Yes! Deciding not to "take a stand," but work through the problem and sort the facts as they become apparent. I think it has helped me a lot to be off Twitter and Facebook--I realize how much these platforms enable reactiveness and push me to have an opinion.
I will send you what I wrote about this if you email me your email. It’s too much to post here.
This is an important, thoughtful, constructive piece and thank you Claire. I am going to copy it to people who may not get it. A small but I think useful quibble. The left in the US (at least from my point of view) is so small and insignificant. the corporate media - NOT YOU CLAIRE - is focusing on a tiny minority within the left, and I should be more accurate , a miniscule minority, in order to shut up people, like you. Whether Jewish Voices for Peace, The NWSA, Brooklyn for Peace, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Democracy NOW, my colleague and comrade Mustafa Bayoumi, for example, most of the left in the US has never supported Hamas (although the Us and Israel once did) and we should spend more time encouraging left voices for peace than denouncing an insignificant, misguided, and perhaps somewhat quasi understandable voice of rage and frustration. I never remember the extra paramilitary IRA (just as violent as Hamas) being demounced as is Hamas (which deserves denounciation not just for their barbaric actions of the past week, but for their corrupt non leadership of Palestinians.)
Thank you for this useful and important comment, Barbara. Of course, you are right. I think it is the most ideologically inflexible sliver of the left. I am reminded of the CPUSA pivoting to support the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, knowing full well what Hitler was doing to the Jews at that moment, since there was a steady stream of refugees coming in from Central Europe at that point.
Thank you so much--I can't tell you how I've needed this. My young-adult children are struggling within their Instagram world and feel like something has shifted under them. I've asked them to read your post. John Ganz has also written with force and clarity, in "The Trap" on his site.
I am so glad you liked it Steven--I was struggling with what to write about this terrible time, and have had bad experiences writing about Israel/Palestine in the past. This one seems to have found its audience. I hope you are well, friend. PItch me if you ever want to publish on the newsletter. I pay (a little.)
Thanks, Claire. I thought Peter Beinart's piece in todays Times was also important. I really hope the 'we' on the left keep posting because from Center (michelle Goldberg for example) to the right, (Bret Stephens and the Paula woman who was once Steven's legal partner, aka wife) are going after academics and students, some of the least powerful people in the US. Keep up the struggle and your terrific writing!