Advent Thoughts About Gaza and Israel, From a Muslim Who Became Catholic, by Zubair Simonson

I was about 5 years old when I saw the image of an Israeli soldier on the news on television. He was firing a tear-gas canister during the First Intifada (1987-93). It was then explained to me that the Israeli soldiers had tanks and guns with which to fight, whereas all that the Palestinians could do in exchange was to hurl rocks at them. It seemed so unfair. That was my introduction to a narrative of good and evil, a conflict between an “oppressor” who was entirely at fault, and the “oppressed” who did no wrong.

I figured that this narrative surely must have been true over the years that followed. I’d heard it reinforced, time and again, at the mosque. I’d heard it reinforced, time and again, in the houses of family and friends. The suspicion that the “Jewish media” dominated news coverage, thus brainwashing the American public at large, even instilled a particular pride in many of us Muslims for having known that which most of our neighbors had failed to grasp. ….

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