The Hostages are Home

It’s a time of joy and sadness

Joy for the hostages who have made it back alive, their parents, friends, and loved ones.

Joy for the Palestinians left alive, crawling out of the rubble.

Sadness for those Israelis who will not see their abducted loves returned home.

Sadness for the Palestinians killed in genocide.

The Israel-Gaza War (2023-2025) is not the moral crisis of the twenty-first century. It is only the most publicised, most news-heavy, most divisive and button-pushing one. There have been other genocides, which are still going on, and which have even greater numbers(in Sudan and Ethiopia, to name but two). But on both the Right and Left of the political spectrum, this was the dominant issue for two years.

I’d like to extend a hand of friendship and empathy to those in the Jewish community who, while this was all going on, while this remained in the news, did not feel safe. They will always find a friend in me.

I’d also like to condemn the extreme rhetoric on both sides.

Now that this horrid conflict is over, let us come together again as brothers and sisters, put aside our differences and, for once, as Rodney King said, “get along”.

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