The need for compassion in a cold, dispassionate world

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This past week, President Barack Hussein Obama joined several of his former staffers on the "Pod Save America" podcast and weighed in with his thoughts about the latest crisis in the Middle East, one that erupted last month when Hamas attacked Israel—killing or kidnapping over 1,400 Israeli soldiers and civilians, and the ensuing Israeli counter-attack that according to the Associated Press (AP), has left over 9,000 Palestinians—mostly civilian men, women, and children—dead.

The 44th POTUS, acknowledging that he tried his best to broker peace in the region during his two terms in office, recognizes quite clearly that he fell short of that mark, much like his predecessors in the Oval Office dating back to Harry S. Truman, and his two successors, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, fell (or are falling) short of lasting peace.

“I look at this, and I think back, ‘What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward, as hard as I tried?’ But there’s a part of me that’s still saying, ‘Well, was there something else I could have done,’ adding, "What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it, and what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.” B. Obama, November 3, 2023

Just a few weeks ago in this blog space, I expressed similar sentiments to the former president, writing:

"...one can logically criticize Hamas for terror attacks on Israeli and American civilians last week, while at the same time believing that Palestinians have gotten a raw deal for nearly 80 years and deserve their OWN autonomous homeland! One can also believe that modern Israel has a right to defend itself, while logically criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military for its disproportionate response to the Hamas terror attacks—a response that has killed thousands of Palestinians civilians, including those that the United Nations and “Doctors without Borders” have condemned for targeting Palestinian medical centers, ambulances, and civilian centers." C. Hobbs, October 18, 2023

Mr. Obama also expressed concern that social media memes and posts about the Israel-Hamas War are mere “sloganeering” that further mislead many who are already misinformed. I, too, share this concern that such a complex issue has been watered down—like so much in our modern world—that people are choosing sides without fully understanding the history in a land that less than 100 years ago, was not known as Israel, but Palestine.

Palestine circa 1946

Israel circa 2023

And while Americans just love to boast about our “Freedom of Speech” that's codified in the First Amendment of the Constitution, there is more than a notion of cancel culture that has journalists, lawyers, educators, and the like frightened to acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians and their desire for a homeland once more, lest they find themselves unemployed and unemployable by bosses who haven't the slightest clue as to the sordid colonial history of the Middle East in general, and in Palestine/Israel, specifically.

Such leads to the heart of today's blog, which is that the very social media dissonance that Mr. Obama mentioned, and traditional media dissonance, too, really boils down to the lack of compassion for those suffering from Israeli military attacks in Palestine—all the while compassion seems readily evident among the same media venues for those who have suffered catastrophic losses in Israel due to Hamas. 

Israeli troops massing tanks near Gaza on October 14th

Could it be color, what with many Palestinians being of a darker hue than their Israeli neighbors of European descent? (Distinction made because there are many Israelis of darker hues who were living in "Palestine" long before the mass European migration after World War II).

Funeral rites for Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist killed by Israeli forces in May of 2022.

Could the disparate treatment be due to religion, particularly in an era in which the mainstream media routinely note "Radical Islamic Terrorists" on the one hand, while never writing or saying "Radical Christian Terrorists” whenever some American or European idiot with an AR-15 and a grudge shoots up a church, school, mall, or grocery store?

I don't know, but what I do know is what I read, hear, and see, and that is an utter lack of compassion for those suffering in Gaza right now during a humanitarian crisis that's showing no sign of abating in the immediate future. And as a Democrat, what's even more disturbing is that many Palestinian and Muslim Americans who have voted heavily Democratic in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other states in recent elections, are planning to abstain from voting for president next year to protest what they lament has been President Joe Biden's utter lack of compassion for their religious kinsmen in Gaza. While you may shrug your shoulders and ask, “who cares,” I submit that a great many Democrats will care a great deal if those states are carried by the Republican presidential nominee due to the Palestinian/Muslim American boycott!

Sadly, the western world’s lack of compassion does not surprise me because the older I get, the more that I realize that so many people fail to evince even the slightest bit of concern about anything that doesn't impact them on a personal level via social media.

While I, too, use social and traditional media as means to relax and enjoy life, I also remain keenly aware (and vocal) about flash points in Ukraine, the Pacific Rim, and the Middle East—knowing fully well how close the world is to global nuclear war if, say, China decides to invade Taiwan? Or, by my asking if Russia decides to launch missiles into NATO territory to draw out a U.S. response, will the nukes fly? Or, my public wondering if Iran and other Islamic nations attack Israeli or U.S. military targets—moves that could drag Russia and potentially China into a standoff with America—would the world as we know it come to a fiery end? Possibly! Which is why watching and understanding the news—and pressuring political leaders across the ideological divide to have compassion for all disconsolate people without special regards to race or religion—while taking affirmative steps towards peace—is as critically necessary now as it has ever been in the history of the world. 

Lest we forget...