As we, in this very local area of Beacon, and those reading it from afar, watch the news and scroll through social media, we are watching what is happening in Israel and Palestine through different lenses. Those lenses are framing thick histories with years of knowledge of killing Israelites and Palestinians, as well as antisemitism against Jews (some would say against Arabs also since the word “semite” included Hebrew and Arab speaking cultures), and Islamaphobia.

Here in Beacon, NY, as in every city right now in America, people are having feelings. Some are expressing them, in the form of blog posts on town blogs that get deleted, through artistic expressions, through vigils, and possibly through street rallies. A march has not yet happened in Beacon that we know about, but other events are starting to percolate up.

Every word matters in this situation. Words will be used to name events, and those words will sting one group of people. So the publishing about an event will trigger some people, which may result in comment battles, and spill over into the streets between friends or customers.

During this time, we must do our best not to let that happen. It will be hard, since there are ways of thinking that are new to many people. As rocks are lifted to reveal these ways of thinkings, when they are spoken by our friends and neighbors or people on TV or in our social media, we are left looking like the Wide-Eyed Emoji Face. No words left to respond, just incomprehension.

Ever since Hamas strategized, attacked and killed over 1,400 Israelis, some video footage of the music festival you can see here at CNN, people mourned and feared for the hostages taken, and grieved for the Jewish families who lost loved ones. According to NBC: "At least 32 of those killed in Israel are Americans, according to the U.S. State Department." NPR reported that the Kibbutz Kfar Aza "was one of the hardest-hit Israeli communities along the Gaza border," with 58 residents killed by Hamas, out of the community's approximately 1,000 residents. In addition, 17 from the community were kidnapped.

Two American hostages from Chicago have been released, of the 200 taken, if all are still alive. According to NBC: “Two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan, were released by Hamas. Israel confirmed the release of the mother and daughter, who are from Illinois and family members of former NBC News correspondent Martin Fletcher. President Joe Biden thanked the government of Qatar for helping secure their release, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the two were receiving ‘necessary medical treatment.’" According to that report, 3,500 Israelis have been wounded so far.

The Hamas fighters threw bombs into the bomb shelters that Israeli young adults gathered into to run away from the gunshots. The fact that there are bomb shelters as a regular thing in a field for a music shelter is surprising in and of itself, and illustrates how afraid Israelis are of being attacked. In America, we are more used to tornado shelters.

Ever since Israel responded, at least 3,700 Palestinian people have been killed, or are in the process of dying, crushed between the rubble of numerous buildings, schools, mosques, and hospitals that have been bombed by Israel. At least 13,000 Palestinians have been injured, according to NBC. The Israeli military has told Gazans to evacuate the hospitals, but they have nowhere to go. Some buildings are given a warning by Israel to evacuate the people who have already evacuated there, and then it is bombed, like the second hospital, to which the Pope responded. Food, water, electricity and fuel has been cut off for a week already. Toilets don’t work. There is nowhere for the dead Palestinian bodies to go and the stench is increasing, as are the flies. President Joe Biden was proud of the fact that some water on relief trucks got in, but one begs the question, why not just turn the water back on instead of carting in all of this donated water?

The reason for all of these words is to say that ALBB is going to be publishing about when some events happen is because context matters. We are learning about different perspectives. Some perspectives of those wanting Israel believe that Hamas should be destroyed, and that if official Hamas fighters use Palestinians as human shields, well, that is just a part of war, as this elderly man stated. As justification for killing innocents including children. And he’s not the only one.

Even knowing what to call this most recent extreme trauma - a conflict; a war; an extermination; a genocide - is not collective by all. The AP has started calling it the Israel-Hamas War. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the bombing of so many residential buildings, killing Palestinians, that the “Israel-Hamas War” name can erase Palestinians from even their own extinction that is happening in real time, our time.

Media publications like the Washington Post are wildly publishing explainers of why refugee camps exist in Gaza (because one of them, the largest one, Jabalya, just got destroyed yesterday by bombs). Most people who weren’t following the 75 years of the occupation of Gaza and the trades of violence inside of Israel and inside the walls and borders of Gaza and Palestine are just waking up to what many have been watching for a long time. Ideologies are being spoken that were only heard under rocks, and now all of the guts are being typed and published online of our own dear friends and clients.

It’s like talking in a divorce process. The soon to be former couple says things to each other, and their families shut their ears, not wanting to hear the violence in their voices, knowing they are in the heat of the divorce process, and that everything will smooth over later.

And so, here we go. For those of you who are new readers here, Welcome. Coverage began to get deeper here at A Little Beacon Blog when COVID happened, and Black Lives Matter marched down Main Street. At that time, the term “All Lives Matter” meant something very different than what is being implored now, as people compare which death matters more. It’s all surreal. But our faith lies in our friendships, knowing that none of us are Jewphobic antisemetic or Islamaphobic. So as we express our opinion, we must look at ourselves to listen to what we are saying. Knowing that sometimes, we will need to rush to the protection for our Jewish friends, and protection of our Muslim and Arab friends from Islamaphobia.

Thank you for being here, and for contributing your voice.