My thoughts are with those killed on both sides. Violence will beget violence will beget violence.
It will only get worse, I am afraid, as extremists take hold of both sides (with the biggest recent shift happening in the Israeli government), with rational actors being completely pushed out and replaced with zealots yet again.
I think it’s important to note that in addition to the obviously sorted (to put it mildly) Isreal-Palestine history, the Great Recession (which was a Great Depression deferred) and the global pandemic has played a part in this, the Russian war in the Ukraine, and many conflicts to come. The seeds for another cycle of global unrest and conflict were planted well before recent events. There is a reason popular support for fascist solutions is sadly surging (Isreal being one of the many places where that rise in support has translated in to a political power shift).
In many ways we have been living on borrowed time when it comes to relative political and economic stability. We’ve enjoyed one of the most peaceful periods in human history, and it was always going to be impossible to sustain it indefinitely, especially given the sort of comprises and concessions that were necessary to do it.
My only hope is that we are able to push through this period of conflict much quicker and less destructively than previous ones, changing cultures and governance to help sustain the next relatively peaceful period longer.
I harbour no delusion that unrest can be avoided entirely, though. We’ve made our bed and we are now going to piss it.
