A humble response to a friend who has decided to purge his Facebook following of the “filth” of “Zionist sympathizers”

People are not filth.

Am I a “Zionist sympathizer”? I think not, but you can read my take below and decide for yourself.

However, how do you decide the case of people who were born in Israel? Admittedly, they choose whereand how they act, but not where they were born.

Despite the incredible courage of King Mohammed V in World War II, and despite Jewish advisors in high places, Jews in Morocco were not on an equal footing with Muslims, so they left for a better life. Are they possibly morally compromised for leaving to live on stolen land? Possibly, but then there is certainly debate over the situation of the Saharawi in the Sahara. Not to mention that all but a tiny fraction of the people who live in the United States are the beneficiaries of genocide and settler colonization.

What about people who have been deceived by a false version of history in the United States? What about the women and children who have been slaughtered on both sides? I guess it depends on definitions, but are these people all filth? Are the Jewish people in my family, whose views I do not necessarily agree with, filth for believing that the existence of Israel gives them a refuge their people never had before?

I condemn the war crimes of Israel, the seizure of stolen land, and the hellish conditions in Gaza, but I am not ready to abandon people such as those I describe above, and I guess of if I purged everyone I disagree with, even on pretty fundamental issues, I might find few people left.

I condemn the war crimes of Israel, the seizure of stolen land, and the hellish conditions in Gaza, but I am not ready to abandon people such as those I describe above, and I guess of if I purged everyone I disagree with, even on pretty fundamental issues, I might find few people left.

The Palestinians must have full and equal rights, in two states or one. I believe at this point that history will now dictate the latter.

I hope that viewing the situation today a a complicated and tragic one in which many people are torn and trapped, and in which the slaughter of innocents is indiscriminate, and morality is not always and obviously black and white, does not brand me as a sympathizer and filth. I leave you to judge, although I would regret it if you decided we must part ways.

However, whether or not you view my words as the sincere statement of a friend, I would humbly ask that you do three things 1) read my words below, 2) read the words of Martin Luther King about his enemies and oppressors — before they killed him — in his speech at Drew University, and 3) if you decide after all this that I am giving “aid and comfort” to your enemies, do me the courtesy of sending me a FB message (or I will not otherwise receive your words) explaining your decision, so that I may at least have an opportunity to see the error of my ways. I feel my heart can bleed both for the children in Gaza and the dead in Israel. With my sincere best wishes, Bill Day