I briefly attended the tail end of the demonstration organized by the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights on Sacramento's K Street Mall. I missed seeing special guest Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
I'm of divided mind regarding Palestinian rights in the current circumstances. I sympathize with Palestinians concerning their displacement and having their rights stripped away. Still, I also sympathize with the Israeli Jews in their effort to build a homeland. Unfortunately, this conflict is partly a legacy of colonial intervention in the Middle East, and I don't know how we'll ever set things right. "From the River to the Sea" - if it were only that simple!
Genocide or ethnic cleansing by one party or the other is never far from the agenda. Back around 1977, for about two weeks, I had a college roommate who was Palestinian. He told me his favorite fantasy was to have a loaded AK-47 and ten minutes alone in an Israeli nursery. I never forgot that. And that was 46 years ago. Feelings have only hardened since then.
For all the ways that it's been undermined over the years, no one has come up with anything better than a Two-State solution. It's time to start that process again.
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