Pierz Newton-John
1 min readNov 13, 2024

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You walk into a minefield with this topic. I have also written on the mob psychology around this subject:

https://pierz-newton-john.medium.com/stand-up-against-the-internet-mobs-1042e5c8cc5f

Ultimately there is only one side I am on: the side of humanity. I oppose violence, cruelty and injustice, which means I utterly condemn the Israeli genocide, and the hideous Hamas attacks that preceded it, which were quite consciously modeled on 9/11. Some people are completely unable to transcend the tribal mentality which forces them to define one side as all “bad guys” and the other as all “good guys”. This even forces them into mealy mouthed apologetics for the savagery of the Hamas October 7 attacks. The Palestinian people have suffered and continue to suffer oppression and dispossession and deserve our support in achieving true independence and freedom. Right now we should be full-throatedly condemning Israel’s actions. But then I read articles saying that Israelis are “actually worse than Nazis” and you can see the othering and tribalism that causes these conflicts to cycle endlessly. Only in understanding Jewish history and perspective, as well as the Palestinian one, can we hope to find any lasting solution.
Thanks for your courage in saying this. I wouldn’t engage the frothy mouthed attackers. I’ve been down this path and in the end just decided to stop reading the comments.

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Pierz Newton-John
Pierz Newton-John

Written by Pierz Newton-John

Writer, coder, former psychotherapist, founding member of The School Of Life Melbourne. Essayist for Dumbo Feather magazine, author of Fault Lines (fiction).

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