Discussion on Innocence in Gaza Conflict

Do you think there are innocent people in Gaza?

Yes.

Who?

I think there are children born in Gaza this morning.

Okay, and—

Okay, and what?

This morning, fine. Starting tomorrow, they teach them how

to hate us, how to murder us, and that’s all they think about until they

grow

up and become kidnappers.

I’m with you.

Okay.

And for the sake of our conversation, I’ll assume you’re right. So what do you want to do about it?

Okay, they were born today,

but tomorrow they’ll already be taught,

and then tomorrow they’re already,

uh, still innocent?

I’m telling you, I’m with you.

Okay.

I know there are textbooks, there are religious

institutions that incite—incite very strongly against you

and against me in Gaza right now. For the sake of argument, let’s say from one day old.

Um.

And?

Not “and.”

Because you asked whether there are innocent people in Gaza. So what’s the conclusion, that we should

kill them all? That it’s okay to kill them all?

I think the question was more whether you think we’re committing genocide in Gaza?

I don’t think we’re committing genocide in Gaza.

First of all, I don't want to evade her question, and now the film, the invective

and everyone. I don't think we're committing genocide,

genocide. It's systematic, it's deliberate. We know it from history, we

know it from our own history. I don't think we're committing genocide in Gaza.

Do you think it should be done?

I don't want there to be even— What's that?

Do you think it should be done?

I'm genuinely asking. I really, really am asking.

No, no, it's a serious question.

I'll answer you seriously.

No, following Sharon's question.

I know what your first friend's question was, and I know

how your second friend tried to sugarcoat things, and here you are

giving me the opportunity to say what I think.

The noise you just heard here was a lot of people

who were astonished, or a little uncomfortable,

or objected to my question.

Amazing.

I, I

understand why you asked what you asked. I understand why you

ask me with a half-smile whether I think there's

one innocent baby from Gaz— in Gaza.

Of course.

I understand.

How old are you girls, seventeen?

Seventeen.

Meaning, you got this government at age three

teen, and October seventh at age fourteen.

Okay.

I understand. You had a government minister who proposed dropping a nuclear bomb—

He said that it was

an option to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza. You had ministers

in the government and people in the media and on social media

who explained to you that there isn't a single innocent person in Gaza

They all deserve to die, and we need to kill them all.

These voices turn us into them.

Everything you 17-year-olds here at this school in Tel

Aviv are saying about them now is

a path to transformation, to our moral decline, to this thing

that you all fear so much and hate.

We are not Hamas. We are a

democratic, law-abiding Jewish state,

we cannot use the same methods, or we will have nothing

left.