I hate talking about Israel-Palestine on twitter. It seems hopeless. You make enemies. But it also feels cowardly to say nothing. I’ve been trying to work out what I could say about the situation that won’t immediately be processed along partisan lines. [thread]
Many Americans worry that any criticism of the occupation is either inherently antisemitic or gives comfort to anti-Semites. Here’s a picture that may complicate that. I took it in Hebron in 2016. 
Three Jewish men walking through the ‘sterile zone’ in the center of Hebron on the West Bank, a place where no Palestinians can go, but settlers can move freely.
The man on the left is called Ofer, a settler from Qiryat Arba, just outside Hebron. The other man is Baruch Marzel, a follower of Meir Kahane and proud friend of a mass shooter who killed 29 and injured 125 men and boys as they prayed at a Hebron mosque in 1994.
The man in the middle is Achiya Schatz, a former combat soldier in the IDF who was working with Breaking the Silence, an NGO formed by former IDF soldiers who want people to understand the reality of the occupation.
The two far right settlers are abusing Schatz, calling him a traitor and a liar for bringing a group of writers (including me) to the West Bank. I spoke to all three men. Part of my conversation with Marzel made it into a segment on Israel’s Channel 2.
Marzel told me that Hebron belonged to his ancestors, so he had more right to live there than Palestinians. I asked him where he grew up. Brookline Massachusetts, he said
Schatz told me it was his patriotic duty to try to end the occupation, because he wanted his country to be ethical and democratic.
“Israel” is not monolithic. Many Israelis like Schatz oppose the occupation, In the US, ‘support for Israel’ is usually assumed to look like this.
US aid to Israel is unconditional. The Israeli right knows the US will give cover at UN for anything the IDF does. There are no consequences for criminality or human rights abuses, and this gives enormous power to the Marzels, and makes it hard for people like Schatz to be heard
I oppose the occupation and I think Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. At a *minimum* US aid should be conditional on an end to such crimes. Not to punish ordinary Israelis, but to give more power to decent people trying to find solution, and less to would-be genocidaires.
The flashpoint for the current conflict was the evictions in #SheikhJarrah. I wrote at length about another East Jerusalem neighborhood called Silwan. The essay may help to understand why this is not an anodyne 'property dispute' guernicamag.com/architecture-o…
My essay is one of many contributions to this book, edited by @ayeletw and @michaelchabon ayeletwaldman.com/kingdom-of-oli…
And a link to @BtSIsrael. Along with @btselem they endure enormous pressure and hostility, as they try to bring about a just peace breakingthesilence.org.il
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