One day last week, the New York Times printed two separate articles describing Israeli and Palestinian reactions to the ongoing war that, together, paint a disturbing portrait of where we are three months after October 7th.

The piece about Israelis was headlined “Oct. 7 Is Forcing Israelis to Rethink Their Identity,” with the subhead “Attack has Shaken Belief in a Sanctuary, but Also Unified a Divided People.” The Palestinian article, datelined “Jenin Camp,” was titled “Facing Israeli Troops and Destruction, Yet Vowing to Survive” and featured a pullout quote, “‘The killing, the invasion, the raids—it will all fuel even more resistance.’”

Much of the Israeli article focuses on a few data points about Ultra-Orthodox Jews now expressing interest in serving in the military—something they have always resisted—and Palestinian citizens of Israel saying that, despite their feelings of fraternity with their people in Gaza, they would prefer to live under Israeli rule than to be governed by Hamas. None of this should be surprising, as it resembles the initial unity experienced by Americans after 9/11. But it is important to recall that emotional responses only temporarily bridge fault lines that if unaddressed will reemerge in the future.

As the article makes clear, the fault lines remain. While the idea of Israel as a sanctuary that can protect Jews has been shaken, the sense of unity and identity now shared by most Israeli Jews is in their Jewishness and their feeling of distrust for Palestinians and any peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They may still dislike their prime minister, but they remain supportive of the slaughter in Gaza and silent about the ongoing violence perpetrated by police raids and settlers in the West Bank.

If the Israelis thought that their massive assault on Gaza and their intensified repression in the West Bank would succeed in subduing Palestinians, the other Times article and a poll of Palestinian attitudes covered a week earlier, establish that the opposite has happened. Seventy percent (70%) of Palestinians support the attack launched by Hamas on October 7th. And opinion in the West Bank and Gaza now favors Hamas’ leadership over that of the Palestinian Authority.

While the numbers of dead and wounded in Gaza have been publicized—21,000 killed, over 55,000 wounded—the impact of the Israeli raids across the West Bank are less well known. In the Jenin camp, the Israelis have subjected its residents to a Gaza-like assault. Here’s the Times description of the situation:

“Electricity lines have been damaged, water tanks punctured, and paved roads turned into little more than pebbles and dirt. The stench of sewage hangs thick in the air. Over the past two months around 80% of the roughly 17,000 have temporarily moved…” And during that short span, 330 Jenin residents have been arrested and 67 have been killed.

In the face of this, one resident is quoted saying, “What the Israelis are trying to do with all this destruction is create a state of despair and drive a wedge between the people in the camp and the resistance—so people blame the resistance. What they don’t realize is that our biggest strength is our unity.”

Three months ago, when this horrific conflict was just beginning, I wrote an article lamenting that neither Israelis nor........

© Common Dreams