By José Gandue @spinning zone
Let's clarify things from the beginning: I am what some call a non-practicing Jew. I haven't been to a synagogue for quite some time (the last time, if I remember correctly, was to say Kadish (by my uncle Zusel, more than thirty years ago). I have little to no contact with the community in my city, although a friend who doesn't live in Colombia occasionally tells me about the news happening a few blocks from my house. In my teens, after my bar mitzvah, while I was studying at the Colombo Hebrew School, For several years I resisted the idea of active Zionism that was promoted in my religion and history classes. I came to admire Yasser Arafat, without truly understanding him, and I (unintentionally) made a teacher, a veritable institution at the school, cry and disown me. Ironically, due to various university matters, I ended up living in Israel for a year, in two kibbutzim (one with a socialist ideology and the other more moderate in its stance), all during the war in Lebanon, when the army had crossed the borders to reach Beirut to annihilate the PLO, and then emerged with more enemies than it expected, becoming involved in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and not achieving the pacification results it had hoped for. I understood, living in Hatzor Ashdod and in Hanita (the latter, 40 meters from the northern border), that what was happening there was not a simple confrontation between "good guys and bad guys", that the matter was far more complex than I had thought, and that, being simple in my conclusion, It was better to adhere to the idea of a territory with two states, the Israeli and the Palestinian, living calmly and with respect for its geographical boundaries. I have held onto that desire ever since.
Having said all that, I am making this diatribe against war in a medium traditionally dedicated to writing about Latin American music.. I'm doing this out of a personal need to clear my head and talk to a couple of friends and family members, and maybe hoping that others will read and share it. This is my space, and this time I want to use it to vent and clear some cobwebs from my head. Let's take it one step at a time.
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I cried the day that, while I was working in my family's warehouse, my friend Benny He called me to tell me about the assassination of Isaac Rabin, carried out by an Israeli far-right extremist who was against the peace agreements with the Palestinian Authority. At that moment, as I learned the details, I thought that any attempt at concord was going to be impossible. The moment for extremists, on both sides, was confirmed. Both institutional parties missed the opportunity to overcome the misfortune And thanks to the actions of the fanatics, everything got worse. From there, jihadist groups like Hamas and fascist-leaning Jewish nationalists gained strength. What one side did fueled the barbarity of the other. The chant proclaiming [the cause] grew louder. «"From the river to the sea"»,On one hand, there were calls for the expulsion and annihilation of all Israelis, and on the other, the pronouncements of those who called Arabs cockroaches worthy of extermination. The occupation of territories beyond the 1967 borders intensified. And a despicable wall was built that is a disgrace to humanity.
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It deeply offends me that anyone would defend Hamas and believe that its terrorist methods are appropriate for defending and demanding the Palestinians' rights to their land. What happened on October 7th was disgusting. It looks like it was executed by bloodthirsty wild animals. It is too scathing to realize that many of his victims were people far removed from the authoritarian thinking of Netanyahu and his government partners. And let's not even talk about the number of children who were stabbed in that "operation". Music lovers: imagine you're at a festival, enjoying the dancing, the laughter, and the crowd, and suddenly, out of nowhere, an army of barbarians appears to kill and kidnap you for being there. Remember the Bataclan in Paris? Weren't they outraged when the massacre broke out at the Supernova Festival? Okay, it's the same thing, don't deny the seriousness of this just because it happened in Israel.
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And now? Am I not going to say anything about what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza? Of course I am. I am convinced that Netanyahu dreamed and desired all of this. It is known that the Israeli government was warned from Egypt several days earlier about Hamas's movements. Bibi He ignored them and then made all the killing within his area of control the perfect excuse to perpetrate what we can now openly call a genocide. Did Hamas already count on that, and force the population to assume their role as martyrs for the cause? Do they doubt that the leaders of this organization rejoice as they give the figures of children killed in retaliation? Now, let's turn the tables again: Does that make what Netanyahu assumed any less bloodthirsty? Of course not. Furthermore, his coalition partners, who are even more extremist than he is (it's astonishing that such a thing is possible), are calling for the nuclear bomb to solve the problem (besides being murderers, they're downright brutish). Netanyahu isn't doing much about the rise in antisemitism worldwide due to his decisions either; that's part of his plan. And despite a large portion of the Israeli population clamoring for his resignation, he's turning a deaf ear and adopting a dictatorial attitude, with his hounds already hunting down his internal enemies to silence them by any means necessary. Democracy? Yes, thank you, it's gone for an indefinite walk. Wait sitting down for him to come back.
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My friend Sergio, in our last conversation, told me that the children of some of my schoolmates, who moved to live in Israel some time ago, are in the army reserve and have been called to the front lines. I pray that they will soon return home safe and sound. On the other hand, my niece, who lives in Portland, wants to go out and protest the massacre in Gaza. Some people I know, and I don't doubt their good intentions, proclaim their support for Palestine on social media and fall into the trap of blaming "all Israelis" for the deaths caused by the invasion.. Is there apartheid in Gaza? Obviously. Does it really serve any purpose (and I say this in a rather calculating tone) for the Israeli army to have invaded and bombed the Palestinians in this area? No, obviously not. Do you think the survivors of this self-immolation will remain calm and not think about future revenge, perhaps more bloody and more ruthless in response to what happened on October 7th? No way, José. This is far from over, and there will be more deaths, and we haven't even seen the reaction from Iran, Hezbollah, and others yet. Will my friends and family feel that I, from a position that barely reflects my opinion and doesn't intend to debate beyond those who have chosen to read this note, Would I be betraying them if I naively invoked the need for immediate dialogue and the pursuit of peace, as happened in Oslo in the early 1990s? I insist, I want that small territory to be home to two nations that live together peacefully, respecting their borders and recognizing their differences. I know, some ironically will say that I am too naive, but I prefer that to waiting for the annihilation of any of the parties involved. Now then, let's continue listening to good music.
