In 30 years at The Age, I never wrote on Israel-Palestine. Now, I must

Sydney Morning Herald

02-08-2025

I began writing for The Age in 1981, and worked there for more than 30 years, the last 12 as religion editor. Among the 3 million or so words of mine the then-Fairfax papers published, none were about Israel/Palestine.
That is partly because the conflict is not primarily religious. But more importantly, as a wise philosopher advised me, when it comes to such controversial and deeply divisive issues, unless you can include every necessary nuance it is better not to write at all. You are more likely to inflame.
So I begin this article with a trigger warning: it is certain to offend almost everyone who is wedded to one side or the other.
If for years I thought, 'how can I write about Israel/Palestine', today I think, 'how can I not?' On October 8, 2023, after the bestial Hamas attack on Israelis, I and millions of others believed Israel had a right to defend itself. Israel's increasingly callous response is steadily eroding that support.
How do we cope with the realisation that the nation that we long saw as a beacon of hope in the Middle East has carried out calculated and unconscionable cruelty? What do we do when our side are the bad guys (or as bad as the other side)?
For decades, Israel was the David facing the Goliath of the Arab world, fighting wars simply to survive in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Today Israel is the Goliath, mercilessly hammering a people who simply cannot resist.
I am half-Jewish (my father's side). Our wider Dutch family was virtually extinguished in World War II: our family book has scores of entries that end 'died: Auschwitz' or Treblinka or Sobibor. I do not claim this gives me an atom of extra moral authority, but it exacerbates my horror.
I ardently support Israel's right to exist. If that makes me a Zionist, then I suggest every decent human being should be. But I simply cannot equate that with today's Israeli government.
Both Israel and Hamas are firing out propaganda as fast as they can, and one has to be wary about accepting claims. Yet the systematic destruction of Gaza and its starving children are clearly not invented, while it is simply unfathomable that Israeli troops are shooting desperate Palestinians as they line up for scarce aid or endorsing awful settler violence on the West Bank. There are claims and counter-claims on these issues, but it is the fact the violence exists that matters.