Empathy is not finite – and facts matter
JVL Introduction
This thoughtful piece seeks to address the way in which many Jews – and their institutions – identify with the Israeli hostages and seem to lack empathy for Palestinians. Targeted at Jews who are observant, we know that for observant Jews in our networks, the emotional reaction outlined here will be all too familiar. For those who support justice for Palestinians, time spent in synagogues can be painful as their hearts are breaking for what is happening to people in Gaza – and the West Bank. We know, for example, of one couple who, after decades of membership, felt compelled to leave their synagogue because the only focus was on the Israelis who had attacked and those who had been captured.
Finlay wants us to try to get past emotional responses, be clear about facts and also better understand Jewish teaching that we are responsible for each other is not the same as “ethno-nationalist solidarity”.
There is much to absorb here including a good deal of factual information about the actions of the IDF, of Netanyahu newly emboldened by Trump’s “plan” and also Israel’s failure to meet the agreed terms of the ceasefire agreement. We need the Jewish Establishment organisations to stand up for this. Condemning Hamas for its actions on October 7th was easy enough for them but continuing to blame them for everything that has happened is a dereliction of duty.
LL
This article was originally published by Torat Albion on Thu 13 Feb 2025. Read the original here.
On Emotion
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I have an ex friend from school, now unswervingly pro Israel, who, among her many tweets to her followers, claims to have ‘screamed’ at a group of pro Palestinian protesters ‘What have you done to our hostages? Where are our babies, the Bibas children, you murderers?’
Had she watched the reading of the names and ages of Palestinian children and babies on Holocaust Memorial day by 231 people, and ‘screamed’ their names for 36 hours, she’d have had no voice left for vitriol. Some seem incapable of making that essential shift.
I must be cursed. The pain in the statistics scream at me.
I posted the following in reply to a comment on a JVL article published on Feb 6 way too late but I’d have done a lot better had I been able to read this so humane, balanced and reasoned article on the same idea before I began tapping. However I’d like to offer the post again, with its faults and similarities. E.D.
14th February 2025 at 16:47: The condition of the 3 hostages returned to Israel, unlike that of the released Palestinians, was commented on extensively throughout the world and showed the kind of condition Gazans (those still alive) would now be in at best, apart from their loss of limbs and other injuries. No one suggests that the hostages have not suffered in these circumstances but it’s no surprise that they did not look as if they had just emerged from a health farm. After 16 months of Israeli bombardment, blockade of food/water/power/medical supplies/destruction of schools/hospitals/universities/mosques/churches it’s no wonder. Most will have seen photos and video of Gazan men stripped to underwear, blindfolded, on their knees with arms tied behind their backs in the desert; self-published video of Israeli snipers triumphantly shooting random Palestinians, all carried out by the ‘most moral army in the world’. A grossly underestimate of 47,000 Palestinian, men, women children and babies have been killed and god alone knows how many injured physically and mentally in those 16 months with most of the rest rendered homeless and forcibly moved continually. Speaking of crimes against humanity Israel has proved itself world class in that particular league. Israel’s dream of expelling all Palestinians from Gaza is now articulated by President Trump, eyeing up its real-estate value, allowing Bibi to dare to extend the dream to encompass the entire Holy Land. Even now the ‘ceasefire’ stage 1 has been violated by Israel by killing more Gazans. The Israelis do not want any form of peace: it wants to “finish the job”.
If there is a god, then he/she/it does not measure suffering by numbers. That we accord a value to deaths by virtue of the fact that they might be measured in millions, or thousands, or tens of thousands makes no difference to god, who sees the suffering, pain, death (and joy) of every single living being as unique. God lives through the totality of each death in every unique detail; whether that death takes place amongst millions of others, or in isolation on some lonely hillside or in some forgotten bedroom, unknown to anyone else on the planet.
I think that it might be worth bearing this thought in mind whenever we start to make comparisons, however worthy we might believe them to be.
We cannot necessarily help making such comparisons; we are limited humans with a limited ability to cope with catastrophes that risk overwhelming us.
Handing my limitations over to god can sometimes help me to gain a perspective which is otherwise beyond my means.
One obvious difference in the fate of the released Israeli hostages and that of the Gazan ‘prisoners’ is that the Israelis, on release, have somewhere to go to that’s not a pile of grey dust; if they are suffering from trauma there will be hospitals that might be able to treat them; if they are amputees, there might be prosthetics available. If they are children, they might still have a family.