Subject: Re: Bill Maher on college
Our daughter said they are both wrong, and they are. Like me, she sympathizes with the innocent civilians.

The Palestinians have endured apartheid-like oppression, but that didn't happen in a vacuum. Blowing up buses and pizza parlors, sending rockets into Israeli cities... One cannot expect the Israelis not to take steps.

Each side can provide a list of atrocities of the other side, and they both are right. And wrong. Trying to determine who started it is probably pointless. It's just a neverending spiral of mayhem.

It is not "woke" to recognize that this situation is very complex. The attack this month was another atrocity, but it didn't happen in a vacuum. I agree that every member of Hamas should be killed. Every last one. But not all, nor even most, Palestinians are Hamas. Again, it is not woke to recognize this.

The primary difference I see is that Hamas does not accept the existence of a Jewish state. As long as they maintain that position, they are arguably more wrong than the Israelis. Neither can expect the other to go quietly into the night. They both have to accept the existence of independent states for the other. We're a long way from that. So a lot of Israelis paid the price, and a lot more Palestinians will also in the coming months. And the list of grievances on both sides will grow.