The cruel murder of five members of the same family in Israel this past week put me in mind of a similar event in the 1970s and my consequent discussion with a Palestinian in college.
Then, a family were murdered and the children taken out and swung against stones until their heads were smashed to pieces. The Israeli’s killed the assailants and saw the aftermath, I do not know if photographs were taken as they have been with the Fogel family who were slain this week. What struck me about the conversation I had was that the Palestinian man, who was an idealist about his nation as we all are at eighteen, did not, could not believe, his own people would kill children. He said and he believed the Israeli soldiers killed them in this horrifying manner and blamed the Palestinians.
It is never difficult, it seems to me, to understand one’s human enemy. All one has to understand is oneself. To comprehend how humans think and how they set the foundations of reason for why they think the way they do because fundamentally none of us wants to be lesser than anyone else whether ethically, socially or intellectually.
When we find we are enmity walks through the door.