My heart is breaking from the horrible massacres conducted by Hamas in Israel and now yet another arial massacre by Israel in Gaza. The jailbreak by Hamas from the Gaza prison camp was conducted in an appalling manner. But the cycle of violence, originating with the Zionist attack on the Palestinians in 1948 and the violent expulsion from their homes and lands will not be broken by yet another slaughter of innocent Palestinians from the air. Peace can only be achieved by redressing the theft of Palestinian lands and granting full equality to all residents of Israel/Palestine

In Gaza, 70% of the two million residents are refugees or descendants of refugees ethnically cleansed from their lands by Zionist militias in 1948. For 75 years they have been denied their right of return guaranteed all refugees by the Geneva Convention. [Portion removed.]

Yes, I am mourning the hundreds of senseless Israeli deaths and hope none of my friends are among them. But I do not stand with [portion removed] Israel as it, yet again, rains terror, death and destruction upon two million essentially defenseless Palestinian men, women and children trapped in the world’s largest open air prison built by Israel.

@Noel

Never gonna happen. Israel is trying to write history in real time, and history is written by the victors. [Portion removed.]

It is so good to see that turnout. Many of us are still reeling from the horrific attacks on citizens in their houses and at the music festival in Israel. Will never forget the images on TV and in the news--nor should any of us do so. I pray for the Jewish people in Israel, around the world, at home, and all the innocents in the region who will suffer in the aftermath.

@Noel Your post contains misinformation

You got history wrong. In 1948 after the Brits retracted, the new Jewish state of Israel wanted piece. The declaration of independence called for equal rights to all religions, ethnicities, genders. But the Arabs in Israel and around it came to slaughter the Jews. Fortunately, Israel prevailed. Some Palestinians escaped because they feared the Jews would do to them what they planned to do to the Jews. Those that remained did very well and became contributing citizens in a flourishing liberal democracy.

Hamas had been controlling Gaza since 2005. Gaza is a beautiful piece of land with a long beach. Hamas could have turned Gaza into Singapore (or Tel Aviv) and borders would open into Egypt and Israel. But instead, they turned it into a terror hub. Hamas gained power in an election (by plurality not majority) in 2005, and that was the last election since. Their platform is to kill all Jews, eradicate Israel, and put extreme ISIS-style "Islamic Law." They do not care about own citizens. LGBTQ people in Gaza are being murdered and seek asylum in Israel.

The situation now is very delicate. My heart explodes with grief and also goes out to the civilians at Gaza. Israel has the right to defend itself against ISIS/Hamas. Containment had failed and Hamas must be disarmed and eradicated. Imagine San Jose was ISIS! Firing missiles and roaming home to home murdering families, raping, kidnapping. Would you tolerate that? Israel follows the exact same protocols of war as other western democracies: Every single operation is carefully vetted for (1) need and (2) proportionality and BOTH must be satisfied. Israel will not risk harming civilians to damage a store of hand guns. But they would to destroy a store of missiles to be directed at Israeli towns. Hamas cowards are hiding behind civilians.

I mostly concur with "Greene and Paly Parent" but let's not completely whitewash Israel's responsibilities and failures.

Not directly related to this meeting, but I do have concerns about what is being discussed in our school classrooms about this. Social studies, history, current affairs, what is being taught about this in schools and how are our teachers coping with the questions asked by the students? Are these topics allowed to be discussed and is accurate information being taught?

@EADGBE
Indeed, Israel is far from perfect, but so is the (current) US. There is work to do. What I described is the high level picture -- that the antisemitic disinformation campaigns that infiltrated both the extreme right and extreme left in the US, including schools and universities, completely lost sight of.

There is no equivalency. If Israel disarms, the Jews in Israel will be slaughtered. If Hamas (or anyone that attacked Israel) will disarm and commit to peace, everyone will thrive. This had been the situation for 75+ years and did not change.

Another misinformation is on displacement. Correct that some Palestinians left the teritory that became the Jewish state. But there was even more "displacement" the other way in the middle east of Jews from Arab-controlled areas into the Jewish state. The majority of Israel's 7M Jews have ancestry that mostly never ever left the Middle East (Those from Europe also originated from the land).

@Bystander As for PAUSD: An antisemitic "ethnic studies" curriculum was close to being adopted in the past. Students report that teachers sometimes express deeply misguided views as facts in class or avoid accurate teaching on historic and current events. The Superintendent messaging this week with many families in trauma was delayed and lacked empathy and substance. In contrast to neighboring MVLA, who echoed the President of the US. PAUSD needs to work on accurate matter-of-fact teaching of history and current events and creating an environment were all our students, including Jews and Muslim and everyone else, feel safe and supported.

To Greene & Paly Parent

You clearly have not read any comprehensive histories of Israel/Palestine. At the beginning, Zionist leaders wanted as much land as possible with as few indigenous people as possible. They had been arming themselves for years and executed terror attacks against the British, notably blowing up the King David Hotel and against Palestinians, blowing up apartment buildings. When independence was declared they went on the offensive to grab more land and to scare off and/or drive out indigenous people. The Palestinians had no say whatsoever in the founding of a Jewish state in their midsts and they were well aware of the Zionist terror attacks and the rhetoric of Zionist leaders about not wanting non-Jews in the mix. But the Palestinians were largely unarmed and not organized so they were driven off their lands or the fled in the wake of the Deir Yassin massacre.

How can you be so naive as to believe that every Israeli bombing mission is "carefully vetted?" Israel was taken totally by surprise yet they started bombing right away. Their politicians were streaming for blood and the IDF delivered blood promptly. Have you read a single account of any of Israel's past attacks on Gaza written by people in Gaza at the time?

I strongly recommend you and everyone else on this stream subscribe to and actually read Haaretz to get a more complete picture of what is actually going on in Israel/Palestine. As Israel's enabler, there will not be peace until Americans who care about Israel know the truth about both sides of the story.

I'm praying for both the people of Israel and the Palestinians. However, the Palestinians of Gaza need to stop supporting and defending Hamas terrorists who initiate conflict with atrocities. While various activists can complain about "Zionists" (and even use that word as a slur), I'd rather support those "Zionists" over those groups who either proactively massacre innocent civilians -- including babies, children and the elderly -- or support those who do.

I'll never forget seeing footage of Hamas supporters celebrating in the streets of Gaza when the twin towers of the World Trade Center fell in 2001. The footage of the celebrations is still available online. As a freshman in college, I found the celebration of the deaths of thousands of civilians to be grotesque and unconscionable. Yet, I've seen similar footage this week in marches around the world that support Hamas. It leaves that same sickening feeling in my stomach.

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure."
- Psalm 122:6

@Noel

It is true that some Jewish resistance movements in Israel before the establishment of the state in 1948 tried to push the British out. This was at the time that Jews were slaughtered in Europe and the Brits were turning away fragile boats loaded with Jewish refugees and sending them back to their death by the Nazis. These non-main stream groups engaged in some limited violence ONLY against British soldiers NEVER against civilians.

During the same period, in the Middle East, many Palestinians and Arabs engaged in terrible violence against Jews. I know that. My own parents were Jewish children in Baghdad at the time. They were nearly slaughtered by a mob. BTW, both were saved by Muslim neighbors. Fortunately, the Jews in Israel had the means to protect themselves from similar attackes. Again, since biblical times, Jews never initiate terror against civilians. Never took any piece of land (purchased perhaps) before 1948. In 1948 and 1967 there were brutal attacks aimed to eliminate Israel and the Jews. As a consquence, Israel expanded territorially. Most of that land is now part of the Palestinian autonomy or back to Egypt, including much of what used to be Jewish populated land for millenia.

The value system starts with what school children are taught. I was educated in Israeli schools, and we were taught to value peace, co-existence, life. That we take THE HIGH ROAD on the face of the most atrocious terrorism against children, as we were learning to be alert of bombs and terrorists. In contrast, children in the Palestinian autonomies schools, in Hamas-controlled Gaza but even in the West Bank autonomy, are taught to hate, endorse the slaughter of civilians, martrydom by slaughter and death, and alternative history.