Thank you for reminding us of Israel’s ongoing brutality and dehumanizing of Palestinians. The dilemma is that the religiously sanctioned fear, hatred, and contempt that both sides have internalized is self-perpetuating. Israelis fear that if they let up on their brutal oppression of Palestinians, the latter will seek bloody vengeance on them for all these years of dehumanization. And so the horrible stalemate persists.

I wish I had a solution. I don’t. Even though it would make perfect sense for both sides to abandon the notion of “us against them” and that God is their own tribal king, while the other’s god is the devil incarnate — and to recognize instead their common humanity and inherent rights and act accordingly — I don’t see this happening any time soon.