The Davis City Council is poised to pass a resolution this Tuesday night (12/12) on Israel-Palestine.
Last Tuesday a couple of dozen people spoke during general public comment regarding this upcoming resolution. About 95% spoke in favor of a ‘cease fire’ by Israel. The speakers appeared to be organized by Jewish Voices for Peace who had “Not in Our Name” t-shirts, along with several persons of Palestinian lineage. One Jewish man, not from Jewish Voices for Peace, spoke of Hamas as a dangerous organization.
Most who spoke asked for the resolution by the City of Davis to include a demand a ‘cease fire’. There were several who spoke of the genocide against the Palestinians. This word is a matter of intense debate and emotional weight. Others argue instead that Hamas had ‘genocidal intentions’ on October 7th but lacked the means to carry it out. While word definitions hold no inherent truth, groups of people define words to hold an agreed-upon meaning, and certain words and phrases invoke intense emotional reactions in regard to this conflict.
I had a clear message for the City Council last week: “Don’t Do It”. As some may know, I stand firm in the belief that cities should only conduct city business and not get involved in national or global issues, no matter how seemingly righteous or important. But the potential repercussions from this resolution goes so far beyond that. This resolution has the potential to damage Davis both within and from without . . . and needlessly. We all remember the long and tortured tale of the Davis Ghandi statue, another dip of the Davis toe into international waters. What could go wrong displaying a depiction of ‘a man of peace’? What could go wrong with supporting a declaration ‘for peace’?
The Jewish congregation in Davis, the only major Jewish gathering place in Yolo County, along with numerous Jews in town and at the college who do not attend the congregation, have extremely varied views on Israel and the current state of the Israel-Palestine conflict. There are conservative Zionists, progressive peace pilgrims, and every stripe in between.
Surprising to many non-Jews is discovering that some of their Jewish friends who are seemingly liberal/progressive suddenly appear to be staunch conservatives when it comes to what may be an existential threat to Israel — to their people — to their tribe. Friendships (and the less-important ‘friend on Facebook’) have been strained and/or ended over this in the last two months.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been watching interviews with witnesses to the Hamas attack of October 7th. I’ve also been watching interviews with women who volunteered to prepare the bodies of Jewish woman for burial — those killed in the October 7th massacre. Details of each body — of each unique, depraved atrocity. I forced myself to watch these videos. I haven’t been OK since.
Jewish burial requires that all parts of the body, including every drop of blood, be buried together in the burial shroud. One woman said that repeatedly they found bodies shot once in the torso and then shot multiple times in the head to mutilate and spray bone and blood. They did the best they could to match body parts, but often were not able to do so. There were also piles of human ashes and bone fragments purposefully stirred after burning (some forensically-proven alive when burned) in order to make burying of an individual impossible. I will spare you the descriptions of the described sexual trauma to the bodies and what that meant for those women so victimized.
Some have called Hamas ‘animals’ for what was perpetrated, and others have been critical of the use of that emotional and literally dehumanizing term. The most terrifying reality is: human beings did this. What broke in these people that they found glee and pride in such depravity? Was it revenge on losing land or homeland? Was it religious fervor? Was it revenge for a friend or relative killed? Was it tribalism? Were they amped up on drugs? Was it group-think under authoritarian rule? Was it deeply-implanted Jew hatred? Look online and all these theories have been theorized, proven and disproven. The truth one chooses, and the algorithm one is fed, is relative to one’s tribal affiliation and one’s beliefs.
I fully admit to bias. I’m not going to try to fool you that I’m such an evolved human being that I feel for Palestinians and Israelis equally. My tribe was hit, and I feel that. I knew I had distant relatives, 2nd cousins-ish in Israel, but I didn’t know their names or anything about them. I have since learned that one distant cousin helped establish Kibbutz Urim in southern Israel, less than 10 miles further from Gaza than Kibbutz Be’eri, and Re’im where the Nova Music Festival was held. Urim was spared, although a handful of Hamas were killed in the driveway to the Kibbutz by kitat konenut — tiny, partially-armed units of resident volunteers.
Much worse, another distant cousin’s wife’s family-of-origin lived in the country amidst the kibbutz’s and worked on these cooperative farms, an area I imagine to be somewhat similar to Full Belly Farm and the Capay Valley. Her entire family, parents and siblings, were slaughtered as Hamas stopped at her family's house to kill on their way deeper into Israel, to kill more. I didn’t know these people, but they are family, and that makes it more personal. I can only imagine how it feels to live in Israel where nearly everyone lost people they knew and loved.
Another sobering fact I discovered about Kibbutz Urim it that it was built very near the Palestinian village site of Al-Imara — a village ‘depopulated’ during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
At last week’s City council meeting, I was impressed overall with the tone and respect of the comments. I tend to listen more to the personal stories of those actually affected (rather than allies). One Palestinian woman told of a friend who lost 20 family members. Hearing such stories got to me. That’s someone who lost members of their tribe, their family. They don’t want to lose anyone else. The prospect of a ‘cease fire’ may seem a way to spare the lives of persons they know and love. And, feeling powerless to stop the killings, maybe this blue-city council meeting is the only place they feel they can be heard.
The unfortunate reality is that war is defined by the aggressor. And in Israel-Palestine, ‘who is the aggressor’ depends on your tribe and your beliefs. If you draw any starting line, someone will say, “yeah, but no . . .” and draw a different starting line. For every ‘truth’ found on the internet on this subject, there is an equal and opposite video with the ‘opposite truth’. Israel may represent the most successful mass reintroduction of a ‘people’ to their native lands in world history. Or . . . Israel may represent a cruel relocation of a ‘people’ from their native lands and into an inhumane, isolated/walled-in refugee strip. Two truths and two lies, in harmony and in eternal conflict. All one, all none.
My relatives came to America to escape oppression and death. My Jewish relatives were escaping the pogroms of far-eastern Europe and Russia. My German relatives left to avoid having their sons being drafted into a war they did not believe in. They didn’t come to conquer and oppress Native Americans. I know of no family stories of direct conflict with Native Americans, though certainly all of us reading this have . . . #ahem# . . . ‘benefited’ from the spoils of that oppression and killing, because we live and play where once they did. Ironically this ‘stolen benefit’ applies across the board to American Jews, American Europeans and American Palestinians.
Israel was created by a very large mass of Jewish people in a return to the place these people consider to be their homeland. A place the Jewish people could finally be ‘safe’, soon after the Holocaust and mostly still not welcome in Europe, and with the mass expulsion of Jews from many countries of the Middle East and northern Africa. From the ‘safety’ perspective, Israel may be considered a horrible failure. A woman I know in Israel told me years ago you live life differently in Israel, because you wake up knowing this may be the day that you die. Despite occasional acts of terrorism, which seemingly had died down in recent years, I had always thought she was being over-dramatic. As of October 7th I realized I don’t know shit about what life is like in Israel, and I sure as hell don’t know shit about what life is like in Gaza.
Years ago I heard a comedian do a very entertaining bit about giving the Jewish people Baja California as a solution to the Middle East crisis. In searching for a YouTube video of this bit, I instead found that this idea had been in serious consideration as a location for Jewish refugees to settle after World War II. What that would have looked like and how that would come about I have no idea. How different would the world be today? How safe would the Jewish refugees and immigrants be? How would things be today for the native Baja Californians?
Something in the recent 60-Minutes segment on protests on college campuses got to me. They interviewed a Palestinian protest leader who seemed to condone the Hamas attacks on Israel. He described how at age 10 his friend was killed next to him by an Israeli soldier, how he held the body wanting his friend to come back to life. He clarified that he did not condone the killings in southern Israel, but rather he empathized with those breaking free of the walls surrounding Gaza, and returning, however fleetingly, to the lands they considered theirs.
What captivated me wasn't his exact words, but a look in his eye: a rapid flashing between deep-seated anger and unfathomable pain. I’d seen that look before, in the eyes of some Native Americans I’ve met. I suspect those who’s families have stories of murder, relocation and other atrocities committed against them when America expanded west and conquered their people. Such ancestral pain doesn’t go away in 75 years, or 150 years.
I have tried in my head to localize October 7th, to create a scenario in my head to make sense of the conflict under local circumstances. What if the anger of all the native Americans, like what I believe I saw in that Palestinian’s eyes, led them on a righteous quest to reclaim America. They came to northern California, slowly at first, and after a few decades there were millions. They secretly armed Cache Creek Casino with rockets, grenades and machine guns, first taking over the Capay Valley, and eventually Clear Lake, Ukiah and Willits, and reaching the sea at Fort Bragg. California didn’t dare use military force to push them into the Pacific and be accused of another annihilation of its native people. After minor but mounting attacks on Woodland and nearby farms, California built a wall around the area. California mostly controlled the goods movement into the area, and the millions of people lived in squalor.
The anger and isolation and righteousness of their cause turned into religious fervor and hatred of those outside the wall. A leader emerged, living a billionaire’s life in a luxury hotel in Toronto (somehow in this fictional world Canada is our arch enemy). A large number of the people, living in these horrible conditions, turned to the angry militia as their leaders, as their hope. The children were taught to hate those outside the wall. Monetary support from Toronto and clandestine arms shipments from North Korea prepared for the inevitable rebellion.
Rockets were fired into Woodland, and occasionally one would reach Davis or West Sacramento, but rarely was anyone killed as they lacked targeting technology. Bomb shelters were built in response. Then one day in early May rocket trails filled the sky while thousands broke through the wall. There was a mass slaughter of residents in Esparto and Winters. A large contingent marched down Putah Creek and emerged at the Whole Earth Festival, machine-gunning dancing festival-goers, gang-raping women, then killing them and mutilating their bodies. Setting some on fire, burning them alive. All ages, all genders, anyone who resided beyond the wall. You knew personally some of the victims. One was your close friend.
Local police responded but were overwhelmed. Travis Air Force base couldn’t get its shit together, but troops showed up the next day. Rogue agents were eventually rounded up. The US army built up a massive invading force in Healdsburg and Esparto. World opinion weighed down upon California. The troops were ready to invade, and . . .
What did we do? Did we target only leaders? Did we retaliate out of anger? Was everyone inside the wall a enemy in support of the killings? Did we listen to world opinion? Who’s land was it? Who’s land is it? Did those killed outside the wall ‘deserve it’ ? Will those killed inside the wall ‘deserve it’ ? Can they have all their land back? Can we turn back time? What was the original sin? . . . and who are the sinners?
I’ll leave it to you to ponder how you react to each question, and if you can, try to see it from the other side as well. This is a horribly imperfect metaphor quickly crafted and full of holes, and probably stupid. My point is trying to bring the horror and conflict here to our far-too-easy lives in California, also built on the oppression of a people.
We here in Davis cannot possibly make a difference from a simple declaration of ‘cease fire’ or ‘world peace’ from this far away, nor should we have the hubris to think we understand the situation and can bring peace where numerous world leaders have tried and failed. Most of us have little real sense of what it is like to experience an existential threat to you and everyone you know and love.
Many Jewish people I have spoken to since October 7th have a mood about them. I’d call it ‘grim’, even ‘grave’. “There is no good solution” one told me. Solution. There’s that word again. The Holocaust: The Final Solution. Eliminate the enemy. Drive them into the sea. All of them.
Anyone from either side believing in their tribe’s absolute right to the land and the eradication of the ‘other’— they are the problem. Because what is not acceptable is any final solution, any genocide, whichever way that goes. While it may appear that Gaza could not possibly wipe out Israel on its own, all of Israels enemies working together certainly could this time around. Or if someone gets ahold of an anti-aircraft weapon and shoots down a 767 and starts World War III. Or if someone gets ahold of a tactical nuke and floats it in on a raft offshore of Tel Aviv.
The horrible reality is that none of these scenarios are impossible. All it takes is one moment for Israel to again fuck up as they did on October 7th and interpret the intelligence tea leaves through a lens of hubris, and its all over. Somehow, on that day, Israel’s chain-of-command didn’t protect its population from an invasion because they couldn’t believe what their own operatives were telling them — that Hamas did indeed have the ability to pull this off.
At last week’s City Council meeting there was only one person who spoke who could be considered as on the ‘other side’ of those calling for a cease fire. I do not expect this to be the case this Tuesday night. Word will get out, and those representing more perspectives will want to be heard. Emotions run high on this issue, and City Chambers may well become a shit show. The anger created from this meeting may spill out into the community. TV cameras may come to once again view the Davis Spectacle, and as with the recent Oakland city council meeting, the most outrageous/demented speakers will be broadcast nationally, making Davis look foolish. First the snoring ban, then the hubris to believe we can make a difference in solving conflict in the middle east.
And what will ‘we’, Davis, have accomplished? As I said last Tuesday, we all know that the resolution produced will be a watered-down statement that says more nothing than it says something — one that offends both sides in its attempt to offend no one. Already the crowd that dominated last week’s meeting is upset because the two words they wanted in there, ‘cease fire’, is nowhere to be found. We could have hours of discussion on that point alone.
It’s gonna get down to words — including/excluding, the proper buzz words that one tribe uses and the other tribe is triggered by. But what better place than Davis, where we are blessed with the five council members who have each served, hand-picked by US presidents, as international ambassadors to foreign lands, all regular party-goers at Henry Kissinger’s house 😐
While I don’t believe the Council should ever pass a resolution on non-city business, I do believe that general public comment is a place to be heard. By anyone, about anything. Anyone who wasn’t moved by the testimony of the Palestinian speakers last week doesn’t have a soul. Perhaps the City could invite people to speak and assure them a safe place to speak on their views and how they have been affected by the conflict.
But wait! . . . I take back my condemnation of City involvement in international affairs. Perhaps there is a resolution we as a City could pass that damn near everyone could get behind:
“The City of Davis declares that Bibi Netanyahu is an asshole.”
There may be one or two Davis Jews who are still Bibi supporters, but with one pole in Israel giving the Beebes an 8% popularity rating, I doubt there would be much dissension. So, City Council, how about this as an alternate resolution that most everyone in Davis can stand behind?
But seriously, stop taking on global issues and repair the massive linear cracks in the pavement on J Street. Thank you.
Davisite 
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