CLINTON SCROGGINSI haven’t been explicitly told this. But implicitly I have. I’ve called for prayer for Israel and the question then comes up, “what about the Palestinians?” I’ve used my social media platform to highlight the October 7th attack, only to be responded with “FREE PALESTINE,” as if calling to attention the atrocity against Israel somehow means that Palestinians don’t matter.
After taking the course, I think the zooming out view of the Freidman article is helpful in recognizing that this conflict is much bigger than the Palestinians and Israelis but is a Jewish-Muslim one, a complex, multi-faceted war with civil wars between Arabs/Muslims. The statement “The Jews deserve a state where they can be free…” that the state of Israel existing as a moral project of national survival corrects an epic injustice is huge. Supporting the right of Israel to exist does not mean that Palestinians can’t also have a form of self-determination. Efforts like the Abraham accords with normalization of Arab countries’ relations with Israel make a Palestinian agreement more possible.
