JORDAN REID:

This week, the United Nations confirmed a fact about the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that, frankly, we already knew: that sexual violence, including gang rape, sexualized torture and genital mutilation, it wasn’t an outlier event, it was part of the strategy. Notably, similar attacks occurred at multiple locations in a manner that suggested collusion and intent. The accounts I’ve read are too horrifying to repeat here. They will give you nightmares. They should.

You know, when this conflict began, I came out in full force as a supporter of Israel. I still support the Israeli people. I’m Jewish, and I can understand (to whatever extent a person who hasn’t lived through it can) that their retaliation isn’t about the October 7 attack in a vacuum. It’s about centuries of degradation, enslavement, displacement, centuries of fear.

But I read the stories coming out of Gaza, follow the journalists documenting the atrocities taking place there. In five months, more than 30,000 Palestinians killed, a vast number of them children. And while I can support the Israeli citizens, and do, I can’t support their leadership.

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his plan for peace, basically [the] total demilitarization of Gaza, with Israel controlling all entry and exit points to the strip. The problem is, [as] I see it, destroying Gaza, militarizing the peace solution, it just creates additional incentives for radicalization. They’re trying to rid Gaza of Hamas, but in the process, aren’t they creating more potential followers? If I was living in a war zone and watching my civilian friends and family dying every day at the hands of Israeli troops, I can imagine all of a sudden finding Hamas’ position, as horrifying and inhumane as it is, far more appealing than the alternative.

Oh, and speaking of Hamas, their solution for ending the war?

GHAZI HAMAD:

Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country…

JORDAN REID:
So, on the one hand, we have Israel, unwilling to make any concessions, operating under the goal of total elimination of Hamas. And on the other hand, we have the same. I have to say, it feels to me like it’s time for the U.S. to, well, A) to stop providing Israel with munitions, given how said munitions are being used, and B) just cut it out with the hemming and hawing. And though you know, Israel should really be more careful in their approach. This is not a situation where care is being demonstrated in any direction.

You know who I think may have come up with a solution? None other than Jon Stewart.

JON STEWART:

Starting now, no preconditions, no earned trust, no partners for peace. Israel stops bombing. Hamas releases the hostages. The Arab countries, who claim Palestine is their top priority, come in and form a demilitarized zone between Israel and a free Palestinian state.

JORDAN REID:

Imagine: collaboration with a shared goal of peace. It is beyond time for the global community to step in.