Vermont voices on the Israel-Hamas war

The war raging between Israel and Hamas continues to take a staggering toll. About 1,200 Israelis were killed and 230 were taken hostage on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. In response, Israel has mounted a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that has claimed the lives of 1 of every 200 Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and displaced two-thirds of the population.U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has called for a cease-fire and said that Gaza was becoming a “graveyard for children.” Gazan health officials report that 4,600 children have already been killed in the war.   This conflict has reverberated around the world and throughout the Green Mountains of Vermont. Rallies, marches and vigils have taken place around the state, some that are pro-Israel, others that are pro-Palestinian or that simply call for a cease-fire. Protesters recently disrupted a Burlington fundraiser for Rep. Becca Balint, demanding that she back a cease-fire.On this Vermont Conversation, we hear the voices of Vermonters speaking out about the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Host David Goodman spoke with Rabbi David Edleson of Temple Sinai in South Burlington who just returned from Washington, D.C., where he joined a national rally supporting Israel; Wafic Faour, a Palestinian who is a member of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine; Grace Oedel, a rabbinical student who works with the American Jewish organization IfNotNow that is calling for a ceasefire; and Faud Al-Amoody, vice president of the Islamic Society of Vermont, about the impact of the conflict on Vermont’s Muslim community and rising Islamophobia.Faour said of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, “I wasn't surprised that something (was) going to happen at one point or another. Gaza (has) been living under a complete siege and (been) an open air prison for the last 17 years.” Faour said he had a “conflicting feeling” about current events. “I had the sadness (about) what's happening over there and my opposing any kind of violence in general, but in another hand, a hope that something better will come out of it.”Edleson said that Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 11,000 Palestinians according to Gazan health officials, “at least in the near run, it makes Israeli civilians safer. I'm very concerned in the long run that you're just creating more extremism and that that does not make Israel safer.”More than two-thirds of Americans support calls for a cease-fire, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week. Edleson dismissed talk of a cease-fire. “I think it's ridiculous,” he said. “I think a cease-fire right now is like calling for a cease-fire on D-Day in World War II. You know, war is tragic. But sometimes you have to take the momentum while you have it. It's a terrorist organization. It moves around very quickly. I don't think a cease-fire would do anything.”Oedel disagreed. “I am calling for a cease-fire unequivocally right now. I believe that we have a moral and ethical obligation to try to do whatever we can to protect human life.”“I cannot and will not abide immoral violence being done, which is overwhelmingly affecting children and innocent civilians in the name of keeping Jewish people safe,” she said.Al-Amoody said many Vermont Muslims are refugees from war-torn countries and are afraid to speak out about the war. He said there is a double standard, where expressing sympathy for Palestinians means "you are supporting the terrorists.""I cannot even talk about humanity, our moral compass," he said. "I can't even come out and say: this is wrong. People getting killed is wrong on both sides."Oedel said that people caught up in the conflict are desperately searching for safety. “I believe that safety can look like solidarity,” she said of why she stands with those calling for a cease-fire. “We are all safe when we are all safe.”