Israel was plunked down in Palestine, officially created in 1948 after the Holocaust and the annihilation of six million Jews. Fast forward to the present day as Netanyahu’s right-wing government promotes a policy of appropriating Palestinian land to expand Jewish settlements. Hamas takes a complacent Netanyahu completely by surprise, attacking Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 240 hostages. The Hamas attacks were heinous and any goal they seek is unrealizable. Yet Netanyahu and his government, having been caught asleep at the switch, are responding with overwhelming and indiscriminate force, with upwards of 24,000 Palestinians killed and 33% of buildings in Gaza destroyed. What is the target? Hamas or Palestine? Israel has a right to defend itself, but not at the expense of obliterating an entire Palestinian population who are largely pawns of Hamas and now victims of the Netanyahu right wing government’s overcompensating for being caught off guard. Before 1948, the British controlled what was then Palestine. In 1917 Arthur Balfour, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in writing to Walter Rothschild, declared sympathy “for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” but with “it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” Lip service? Maybe. But the words matter. After the Second World War and the atrocities of the Holocaust, the state of Israel was created in 1948. But where is that 1917 commitment to the non-Jewish people of the region? Hamas’ actions are inexcusable, Israel’s defense is warranted, but to this extent? The Israeli government has launched crushing attacks against Palestinians, women and children often bearing the brunt, instead of strategic targeted attacks against Hamas. It’s overkill and again it begs the question: Is the intent to wipe out Hamas or Palestinians in general? Will it bring the hostages home? Israel has a right to exist. So does a Palestinian state. It is time to weed out the extremists and to seek a peaceful solution, a two state solution, an idea that has been batted around since 1947. It’s 2024. It’s time. It’s time to plunk down a free, independent and economically viable Palestine that can peacefully coexist with a free, independent and economically viable Israel. It’s time to figure out how to get along. Only then is there a shred of hope that this conflict can come to a peaceful, hopeful end.