Arab Views and Sympathies, Empathies

    I recently attended a class at work that posited that empathy is better than sympathy when we are trying to help someone who is struggling to stay whole, to be healthy.

    So, I wish to empathize with the Arabs who are suffering, and have suffered a lot. Not to take anything away from Israeli or other Jews or Christians who have suffered violence and terror from Arab militants.

    The Arab people, of which there are millions upon millions in many countries in multiple continents, have gone through a lot. The millions of Christian and even Jewish Arabs have suffered too. Most are Muslim, and this is part of the main identity of the majority of the Arab people.

    They have gone through more than most in the last 75 years, some would argue.

    This past week has been a dewzy. A doozie.  A very hard week since October 7, 2023. And it will continue to be very tough and gut wrenching. Now more than a thousand killed between the Israelis and the Hamas and Gazan citizens, on both sides within a week.

    I have been observing things for a while. The memories and feelings and impressions go back decades, generations. I lived with some Arabs in the 1990s; I visited the Holy Land, both Muslim and the Jewish holy sites, plus most of the Christian ones. It was reverential and humbling. Serene and sublime, and thought provoking, spiritually thrilling and awe-inspiring.

    History and beliefs are heavy there.

    From a smart Palestinian from Jerusalem, who felt that his people had gone through much injustice, around 1994:

"It is not our fault that Adoplh Hitler in Europe killed the Jews! (They have taken our lands. They were in Europe.)"

    True. The Palestinians did not foment nor promote the hatred of the Jews and eventual extermination of them. This awful Holocaust expedited the regathering of the people of Judah into the Arab lands.

    1948. Arabs of the Holy Land forcibly lost their lands.

    A graduate professor of mine, who happened to be Jewish, claimed in the early 2000s that the Palestinian people were an artificial construct.

    How true is that? Politics and culture create who we are over time.

    I think it is safe to say that Palestine has become a thing, organic or not.

    Each Arab sovereign nation is a thing. 

    But Palestine is not a state yet.

    We have to recognize Israel. But we do not have to accept occupation and severe over-control of their neighbors. They need security. Everyone deserves safety and assurance of life and well being.

    Not just some. All. Of all backgrounds.

    And, there are many other thoughts and phrases that come to mind over the years.

    We all seek to be free and have power to do things.

    This is our dilemma.