War Thoughts, November 29th, 2023

 Some messy thoughts I've had in no particular order:

- I just want this war to be over and for Yossi to come home. That's really all. I know that we need to get rid of Hamas so they never terrorize us again, but the price of losing soldiers now feels too great. I *know* I'm wrong, and that if we don't fight now we'll lose even more lives later, but it's just like in economics: losing soldiers I know now feels like a greater cost than losing some random Israelis later. I don't want to say it out loud because it's horrible, but that's how I feel.

- I keep reading about Israelis (my friends on Facebook) trying to do "hasbara," right? And the reason we think that's important is because we're all convinced that if only the world saw the truth they would know that Israel is the good guy. Of course I can't stand behind that sentence, right? "Truth?" There's no truth, only perspectives and narratives. "Good Guy?" There's no good guy, just a very complicated situation and a bunch of people who want to stay alive. But we're so convinced that hasbara is important.

Anyway I realized why it's important to me. It's because I need for people to see the complexity. I don't need people to think that Israel can do no wrong, I just can't stand it when people are so biased and don't see it: like when one woman writes that Hamas kidnapping children is "debatable" but Israel helping to bring incubators into Shifa hospital is "propaganda." Like, if Hamas do horrible things it's somehow excusable but if Israel does something good it probably has bad intentions. I mean, I get it. We all do the same thing with people we like or dislike. But it's actually not ok.

- Two things that I actually do believe to be true:
1. If a situation looks black and white, like there's an obvious right and wrong, then you're probably not seeing the whole picture. (The only situation I can think of that's only wrong is domestic violence.)
2. People see themselves as victims. Individuals and groups.