Former President Barack Obama cautioned against ignoring the complexities of the Israel-Hamas war, warning that “all of us are complicit.”
“If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree,” he said in an excerpted interview with Pod Save America released Saturday.
Right. People like simple narratives: “A is the Good Side. They don’t do anything bad. If A does something that looks bad, it’s because Evil B made them. Everyone within A are saints. B is that Evil Side. Everything they do is evil. If B does something that looks good, it’s either propaganda or a trick. Everyone in B are devils and deserve to be wiped out!”
In truth, both sides in this conflict have done horrible things (and, no, committing atrocities “because you had a good reason” doesn’t absolve the atrocities). In addition, there are foreign elements tossing gas on the fire. Iran on the Hamas side, giving them resources to kill Jews. Evangelical Christians on the Israeli side, supporting settlers and right wing politicians in the hopes that a big attack will happen and get Jesus to come back.
The whole region is a Gordian Knot, but too many people just want simple answers. If the answer was simple, we’d have peace there by now.