American conversations about Israel-Palestine are rife w/ confusion and various bigotries. Sometimes they veer into anti-semitism. Almost universally they reflect a lack of understanding of Palestinian politics, such as the frequent equation of Hamas w/ all of Palestine.
Unfortunately, all of this renders the conversations counter-productive, w/ many Americans being performative and/or un-nuanced. Others then hide from the convo and we don't develop a productive set of messages for what we want our leadership to do.
This all ends up being worse for the Palestinian people, b/c we don't have a coherent campaign to help them. It would be good for us to try to improve this convo. I think one way to change this situation is to focus on narrow concerns in specific cases of violence/tension. . . .
This way we can determine what the specific situation actually is & what we want the U.S. & others to do about it. Once we move beyond narrow considerations arising from the specific situations, we can then discuss larger goals, such as a two-state solution or other options
Here is the current situation. It's of course difficult to identify a specific chain of events, as the longer chain of events is generational. But, narrowly, here's what's happening now, as I understand it.
The Israeli government raided a mosque in East Jerusalem. 300+ Palestinians were wounded. This is against a backdrop of increasing oppression in East Jerusalem, where many Palestinians risk losing their homes. A blockade in Gaza has also caused grave economic damage.
Hamas, which, again, is not representative of all Palestinian political power, responded by firing over 100 rockets into Israel, killing 2 civilians. Israel responded by launching airstrikes over Gaza, killing 28 Palestinians, including 9 children
(#'s could be updated)
(#'s could be updated)
So, First, there needs to be de-escalation. Second, there needs to be pressure on Israel to *stop* their actions in East Jerusalem. The U.S. has been working on this & we should encourage them to maintain a strong hand here. news.yahoo.com/jake-sullivan-…
Israel should be pressured to account for the disproportionate number of Palestinian civilian casualties. This does not appear to be a proportional response in any way, even if you believe that Israel had a "right" to strike back (which is a different convo).
Hamas should be pressured to move military sites *away* from civilian areas. This is one area of small pressure where, if future exchanges of fire happen, civilians will be safer. Israel, in the meantime, should consider *not* using force against any site in a civilian area.
Finally, again, Hamas is not the equivalent of all of Palestine or Palestinian political power. Far from it. I see people saying all the time, "Palestinians are just fighting back." Maybe some are, but many do not approve of Hamas's use of rockets or Hamas more broadly.
If you truly care about the Palestinian people, you will *stop* just equating them w/ Hamas. And, in terms of Israeli actions, remember to be specific that we're talking about the right-wing Israeli government. Leave all anti-semitism out of it.
Lemme say that I also find this difficult to talk about. I've tried my best to be objective here. I may have made errors. But I think it's really important that we all put the work into try to change this convo.
I'll also note that it's especially important that Americans stop equating *all Palestinians* w/ Hamas, given Hamas has been accused of human rights abuses against other Palestinians, including murder & torture. Fatah is the party of Mahmoud Abbas, for the record 
Since this is twitter, I should give the caveat: I'm not defending Fatah. That is a different convo. I *am* saying that people should not think Hamas stands for all Palestinian people, that Palestinian politics are complex, & that Hamas is not necessarily morally valorous
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