by Zaharia “Harry” Stahl ’27
November 18, 2024
Advisor’s Note: The October edition of the paper included a story headlined “USN Students Seek Middle Ground on Palestine/Israel Conflict,” which accidentally omitted the disclaimer “The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the students and sources interviewed and do not reflect the University School of Nashville or the Peabody Press.” Below is a letter written in response to the story. The original story is accessible here.
The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the writer and do not reflect the views of University School of Nashville or the Peabody Press.
I was upset. I was offended. Many other students were too. I thought, “this is not what USN is about; this is not what’s expected of us as future leaders.”
More than anything, when I read the article entitled “USN Students Seek Middle Ground on Palestine/Israel Conflict” and published on October 2, I resolved to set the record straight and offer the USN community a more positive frame from which to view this part of the world.
To start, the article couldn’t be further from what its headline projects; it exhibits no middle ground. Rather, it presents a biased, narrow view of an intricate history while materially misinforming regarding today’s complex set of current events. It also uses inflammatory language that serves no other purpose than to disparage and to degrade. Finally it traffics in well-worn antisemitic tropes that endanger our Jewish community.
Let’s note and correct a few specifics. The article:
1. Gives a platform to a speaker who expresses “respect, love, and affection for Hamas.” This is a particularly repugnant description for a terrorist organization (so designated by the US State Department) that seized autocratic power in Gaza in a brutal 2007 civil war, bans same-sex relationships, represses women, desires to maximize the number of casualties among its own citizens, and openly espouses the killing of all Jews.
2. Paints all of Israel as having an “apartheid mindset” by telling an unsubstantiated story quoting Yusuf Mansur, Jordan’s former minister of economic affairs, who “talked to an Israeli professor.” It seems particularly bigoted to smear a whole country based on a supposed discussion with one person. Far from being an apartheid nation, as the Middle East’s only multicultural democracy, 21% of Israeli citizens are Arabs; they vote, pray, and live as they choose while many of them serve in Parliament, the Supreme Court, and in the Israeli Defense Forces.
3. Describes the displacement of Palestinians in Israel’s 1948 War for independence but fails to provide the context that the war commenced when five Arab countries invaded Jewish territory, nor that 900,000 Jews were also displaced from Muslim territories at the same time, nor that Egypt and Jordan chose to keep land that they conquered in the West Bank and Gaza for themselves after that war rather than berth a Palestinian nation as UN Resolution 181 required.
4. Flippantly accuses Israel of incendiary terms such as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.” Let’s be clear, only Hamas holds as its founding creed the elimination of an entire people. In contrast, Israel has defended its Arab citizens who have been bombed by Hezbollah and rescued its Muslims citizens taken hostage by Hamas. Amid great suffering, it is important to note that Palestinian populations have persistently grown since 1950 from less than 1 million to 5.5 million today whereas the world Jewish population is still smaller than it was before a true genocide, the Holocaust.
5. Gives a platform to Mansur’s insinuation that Jews and Israel are unduly controlling the U.S. Government with money, a particularly vile antisemitic assertion.
In the end, the article not only villifies Jews and Israel but serves to undermine the Palestinian position it seems designed to support by not reckoning with the true complexity required to help lift the Palestinians and give them a better future.
We would all do well to heed the words of Jon Polin, father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage who was murdered by Hamas after 11 months in captivity: “There is a surplus of agony on all sides; and in a competition of pain, there are no winners.”
As such, and in contrast to the article’s perspective, I would assert an alternative worldview:
1. Jews have a strong connection to Israel: the only country on Earth whose name, people and religion are the same as three thousand years ago. Accordingly, Israel has the right to exist and to defend itself. The existential threats to this small country from terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah as well as Iran are real and cannot be ignored.
2. Palestinians have a strong connection to Palestine. They deserve leadership that puts their safety and prosperity first, and they deserve the support of Israel and other regional Arab countries to build a positive future for themselves. Israel’s long-lasting peace with neighbors Jordan and Egypt after previous years of war should be held as examples of what is possible when leaders prioritize peace.
3. In America, Jews and Muslims alike deserve to be respected in their faiths and in their histories and not subject to anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hate. Their overlapping histories and shared Abrahamic ancestry should be used to build bridges through their common humanity.
Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote last year in The Atlantic in the aftermath of October 7 that “in the wider span of history, sometimes terrible events can shake fortified positions.” In that spirit, I can only hope that peace and a better life can come for all — both Israelis and Palestinians.
And, as for our USN home, I also hope that this article comes as a wake-up call of the need to strengthen the bonds within our community, to redouble our efforts to improve our education about complex world issues, and to provide a greater consideration for our shared humanity.
This article does not reflect who USN aspires to be, and we will not let it define who we are.
Five questions to ponder when considering Israel’s conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran:
1. How do you think the United States should react if Mexico regularly launched missiles across the border into Texas, raided the homes and killed thousands of civilians in San Diego, and held hundreds of Americans hostage in Tijuana?
2. How do you feel that Hamas holds a number of Americans hostage right now? How do you feel about other hostages with British, Argentine, Serbian, and Thai citizenship? How do you feel that some of the hostages have been Arab?
3. How do you consider the fact that Egypt shares a border with Gaza and that they, too, have and continue to impose a blockade on the Strip for fear of a weaponized Hamas?
4. How do you weigh the fact that leaders in Egypt and Jordan have been able to sign and maintain peace treaties with Israel for decades after previous wars and territory disputes? What consideration does this provide to the importance of Palestinian leadership in creating an environment conducive to peace?
5. How do you consider the risk of Iran: their support of terrorist organizations at Israel’s border; their attempt to develop nuclear weapons; and their stated antagonistic policies towards America and Israel?
