Pardon me for intruding, but I have been reading this conversation with absorbed interest. I have followed both of your writings on Medium, because I find you both to be cogent and eloquent spokesmen for your respective viewpoints. [Side observation: this is the true meaning of the now much-abused Hebrew word hasbara. It simply means explaining or expounding one’s point of view. Nothing sinister or dishonest about it.]
Anyone reading your exchange must recognize that you both speak sincerely, from the heart, and that you both speak the truth. As Kahlil Gibran—a Lebanese Maronite Christian, the family having converted from Islam several generations back—said:
Say not, “I have found the truth”; say rather, “I have found a truth.”
The Jewish and Palestinian truths are both valid. Both peoples are indigenous to the land. [Just as another side comment à propos of Gibran the Lebanese Christian, I would point out that the state we now know as Lebanon was carved out of former Ottoman Syria precisely to provide a protected homeland for the Maronites, just like Israel for the indigenous Jews of Ottoman Palestine. Yet nobody is calling for the “liberation” of Lebanon, from the Bekaa to the Sea.]
There will be no hope for a decent, peaceful, prosperous life for the people of the region until everyone—everyone—Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Zionists—stops denying each other’s truths and begins acknowledging and accommodating to them.
Gregg, you speak of building bridges. In the current climate, after the recent events, I wish I could be more hopeful. Conversations like this are a start.
