Many of the world's great democracies are going through difficult, divisive times, with a majority or near-majority of citizens worrying about how well their current or future elected political leaders represent them. Israel is no exception, with the additional agony of war.
In today's Haaretz (an Israeli newspaper which reads a lot like the New York Times in terms of its political views), Motty Perry and Ariel Rubinstein, two veteran peace activists (who both happen to be among the great game theorists of my generation) write about their worries, and what they know and don't know about the long war in Gaza that began over a year ago with the Oct 7, 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas. and the war of attrition initiated by Hezbollah immediately afterwards.
Opinion | It's Impossible Not to Know What's Going on in Gaza, by Motty Perry and Ariel Rubinstein, Haaretz, Dec 24, 2024
"We don't purport to say anything here that hasn't already appeared in this newspaper. But someday our grandchildren will ask us about this dreadful period, and we looked for a way to voice our thoughts during these days of turmoil and confusion.
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“ We are expressing our view because we know. Not because we were there or because of evidence that can be presented in a criminal proceeding. But because it's impossible not to know, unless we don't want to know.
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“ We also know because of what we don't know.
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“ How many Hamas personnel are being held in prison facilities? We don't know.”
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“ Everything we don't know can be known but is being kept from us. And when the things that we don't know pile up, we can't help but turn to the collective human memory about other times when things were silenced."
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