This is the middle east, so of course it’s even more complicated than that. I’ll try to give a very compressed answer here, it’s missing a lot of nuance.

First, I’m a humanist, I want no one person to die or suffer. This is not a Utopia so I’d like to have Hamas’ operatives stripped of a few freedoms, i.e. put in jail, for their crimes, However I don’t think their subjects (That’s civilians in dictatorship-speak) should suffer for their wrongdoings.

Once in a while I answer some random person online and it ends up so long it’s worth making a whole post about. This is in response to a Bernie Sanders fanboy that was devastated with his stance on the ceasefire question. Bernie in Jewish, has visited Israel a few times but as far as I gathered, he is not identifying as a Zionist. However he IS a humanist, and therefore his many fans (I suppose mostly self proclaimed young gen Z self-proclaimed socialists) are appalled by his support for the IDF to continue ploughing into Gaza and snuffing out all Ḥamas combatants. The guy actually said Bernie “made him cry” in the replies to this post by Norman Finkelstein, a holocaust survivors’ son who criticizes Israel’s claim for territories. Here’s my answer more or less:

I hope to live a few more years
and find a way to get more healthy.
I don’t regret decades of beers,
but if death comes, I hope it’s stealthy.

I have survived a year of doom,
with cancer, plague, and long work days.
And now I pick an FC Loom,
as evening sets, and vent malaise.

For though our woes seem oversized,
and future questions unsurmised,
I’m calmer, Jack, I got my own;
I rolled my sleeve and got me Pfized.

My Spidey Sense (actually a Google alert) notified me that a photo I took was used and credited with my name. It’s an article talking about African migrants collectively declared criminals by Eli Yishai.

I just had to reply. Sadly the reply was over twice the length limit allowed. Instead of posting it split three ways, I’ll just post it here.

Thanks for the photo credit, but I wish the report was a bit more complete.

A week ago a story broke - RMS would not be talking at Israeli universities while in Israel, since the sponsors of his visit in the West Bank (soon to be a democratic Palestine inshallah) are adamant about this boycott. The odd thing is that the University of Haifa is the Alma Mater of many Arabs, some told me that maybe most of the students currently enrolled are non-Jews. It’s also a pretty petty demand that he is allowed to speak in Israel but not in a university building. It made absolutely no sense to me.