Words of the Week, IV

From “The Current Conflict Between Israel and Hamas and Moving Forward,” by the leadership of Ameinu:
“While horror and moral complexity of the fighting are evident, we still are encouraged by a number of civil society responses to the conflict. Examples include the Jewish-Arab collaborative events of Givat Haviva and the Bereaved Family Forum use of social media to connect Jews, Arabs and others through their commitment to coexistence and empathy, direct services for victims and the vulnerable provided by Ameinu’s strategic partners including Habonim Dror, Dror Israel and AJEEC-NISPED….Other notable examples include the Israeli field hospital at the Erez Crossing for injured Gazans and heart surgery provided to a Palestinian child by Save a Child’s Heart at the Wolfson Medical Center. All of these cases, and many more, not only demonstrate a continuing commitment to peace, reconciliation, democracy and justice by Ameinu and our Israeli colleagues, but offer a hopeful basis for building the future of Israel and Palestine after this conflict is over.”

From Stephen G. Donshik’s “A Text for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, JCRCs, and Israel Advocacy Organizations,” eJewishPhilanthropy:
“If there had been proper oversight and better accountability of the use of their funds, the countries donating to UNWRA might have either ceased funding programs that incite terror or initiated social welfare programs that truly met the welfare needs of the Palestinian refugees and improved their lives. That, unfortunately, has not been done.”

From Sam Harris’s “Why I Don’t Criticize Israel,” republished by Tablet:
“It is clear that Israel is losing the PR war and has been for years now. One of the most galling things for outside observers about the current war in Gaza is the disproportionate loss of life on the Palestinian side. This doesn’t make a lot of moral sense. Israel built bomb shelters to protect its citizens. The Palestinians built tunnels through which they could carry out terror attacks and kidnap Israelis. Should Israel be blamed for successfully protecting its population in a defensive war? I don’t think so. [Note: I was not suggesting that the deaths of Palestinian noncombatants are anything less than tragic. But if retaliating against Hamas is bound to get innocents killed, and the Israelis manage to protect their own civilians in the meantime, the loss of innocent life on the Palestinian side is guaranteed to be disproportionate.]”

And in case you’re still laboring under the misapprehension that the mainstream media is “pro-Israel”: