Like many people across the Middle East, I've sadly been privy to other horrific conflicts. This one I find particularly difficult and disturbing in ways that go beyond the obvious. (By obvious, I mean the levels of violence, falsehoods, and double standards) 🧵
1. First is the focus on babies and children. They count among those slaughtered or taken hostage by Hamas. Israel turned incubators into propaganda, before leaving premature babies to die. And this war has birthed the haunting acronym WCNSF: wounded child no surviving family.
Wars often target the "womb" of the enemy, whether the actual body of women or, more figuratively, the areas and communities the enemy lives in. Rarely do they home in, so unabashedly, on babies and children: Usually, their innocence simply cannot be denied.
2. Second is the weaponization of survivors, whether rape victims, civilian hostages, or rightless children held prisoners in Israel without charge. Their poignant histories and testimonies are cynically edited, played up, and dismissed at will. They are hijacked again and again.
Survivors of 7 October are both used for propaganda purposes and ignored. Rescued hostages enjoy sympathy only if they act and talk in a certain way. Jailed kids are written off as wannabe terrorists whatever their background. I can't think of a war that so demonized its victims.
3. Third is the decontextualization of everything. It is as if this conflict had no history, no human depth, no political arc, no military doctrine, no relation to land. Nor does anyone seem interested. All that is left is this or that crime and the resulting, selective outrage.
Such oblivion is astonishing, in a conflict that is old and extremely well documented. For the concerned, and for the broader public, emotions may trump all else. But this is a existential war where perspective is everything, yet lacking in pretty much every key fora.
4. Fourth is victimhood as an essence and an end. This applies to both sides in different ways. Israel sees itself as a perpetual victim, regardless of its might... or moves. As such, it doesn't see the need to formulate a vision for the future, beyond repeating its grievances.
Palestinians are forever victims too: In between tragedies, they disappear into an ever shrinking geographic and political space. Both sides' supporters vindicate them, by throwing them back to this essence. Which is also why they forget the conflict when violence abates.
5. Fifth is the grim fate of truth tellers. Journalists in Gaza are, almost inconceivably, dying by the dozens. Far less exposed, Israeli activists face another hostile environment: They are hounded by Israeli hate mail, sometimes threatened, and insufficiently supported abroad.
Moderates on the sidelines are also shouted down. Polarization and radicalization are a feature of any war. But never have I seen such a fragile reservoir of sensible people shaping the middleground. If there is to be any peace, they form a bridge we just can't afford to burn.
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