I’m a Jewish-American Zionist and support the right of Israel to continue to exist as a Jewish state. However, as an exercise in empathy, I’m moved to wonder what I’d think and do if I were an open-hearted Palestinian longing for peace with Israel and for my own state. My Palestinian incarnation wouldn’t know what to do. Were I living in Israel proper, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, or God help me, Gaza, would I be a Hamas supporter? I’m confident that that wouldn’t be a moral or realistic option.

Would I associate with the sclerotic and corrupt Palestinian Authority? Probably not in its present form, with Abbas in the 17th year of his four-year term. Would I support BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction)? Probably. Remember, I am a Jew trying to channel this Palestinian, but I am not personally endorsing BDS. I’m trying to walk a mile in the sandals of this Palestinian for whom the status quo runs from unsatisfactory to unbearable.

Palestinians, who want change and peace, have faced several conundrums. When they are relatively peaceful, Israel feels no pressing need to change anything. When they rebel, protest, throw rocks, and become violent, then Israel “can’t respond” constructively because that would be “rewarding violence.” So, if I’m a Palestinian interested in peaceful change and co-existence, what is the right tone to take? I don’t know. Please tell me!

After the barbarism of the atrocious Hamas slaughter of so many innocent Israelis, what should I do that doesn’t promote eternal fighting? The Hamas terrorists celebrated joyously while butchering Kibbutzniks, who were the best friends the Gazans had in Israel. Hamas doesn’t advance my Palestinian goals.

If Israelis say that violent acts are totally unacceptable and Hamas must be destroyed, what’s an acceptable path for a humane but unhappy Palestinian? Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular (not to mention Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and Gallant) strive to undermine the PA (Palestinian Authority) and work to keep it weak by imprisoning each new generation of PA leadership. What’s left for me? I could try economic leverage and support the BDS movement. But good-hearted, peace-loving Jewish Zionists like the real me have opposed BDS.

If violence is futile, if political organizing is blocked, and if the most peaceful response of economic leverage in the form of boycotts is unacceptable, what the hell am I supposed to do to change my situation, ameliorate my pain, and create a better future? Speaking now as both a Zionist Jew and trying to channel a well-meaning Palestinian, I don’t know how to proceed. I’m pretty sure that violence can’t succeed. I’m very sure that the implied threat of actual genocide, “Palestine free from the river to the sea,” leaves no place for Jewish me and is counterproductive.

I believe that Israelis should be making common cause with Palestinians. There is a deep social justice impulse in Judaism. Calling on Israelis, Diaspora Jews, and Palestinians, both of their Diaspora and in Palestinian territories, to become allies, not enemies, offers some hope—certainly more hope than hostility and violence offer.

Jews share so much history with Palestinians. We have both been abandoned and betrayed by people we thought were our friends. We both have been stateless for most of history. Israel did not invade a Palestinian State but was partitioned from a British mandate that had taken over from centuries-long Turkish rule.

In a larger sense, recent history doesn’t matter much except as a trap, a prison of mutual pain. Israel, like virtually every modern state, was founded on the blood of indigenous people (e.g., Native Americans, First Peoples, Aboriginals, etc.). Just like Britain, the USA, Canada, and Australia, Israel will not go out of business. Jews will not accept the choice of swimming back to Germany and Poland or drowning. Nor will Palestinians go out of business or lose their ambition for a state of their own. Israel cannot squeeze Palestinian souls dry without diminishing their own. We’re both condemned (and maybe someday blessed) to share the land.

Violence and hatred are getting us blood, death, and generational anger. Working for a two-state solution and giving Palestinians legitimate ways to petition and protest are necessary to avoid otherwise inevitable violence. No legitimate way of protesting promotes and sustains Hamas.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid that neither Abbas nor Netanyahu can deliver peace or a two-state solution. We must seek out and build a new generation of leadership committed to solving a problem that is soluble and building a structure for lasting peace in the interests of both peoples and the region. Far-fetched? Maybe in the near term. However, not impossible. Remember that many Israeli and American Jews vacation in Germany, and some Israelis have applied for EU citizenship through Germany. Hate, fear, and revenge can be traded for hope, reconciliation, and peace. Inshallah w Halevai.