If we can’t talk to each other, how can we ever find a way forward? Illustration by Forward Illustration/Canva
Columnist
Dan Perry
January 7, 2025
I’ve appeared regularly on both Israeli and Arab media throughout the current war, but rarely have I experienced such complete whiplash as I did from two recent appearances on Qatar’s Al Jazeera and Israel’s I24 in Hebrew. The degree to which the perspectives I encountered during those spots clash beggars belief, even in our polarized and radicalized times. Their absolute disparity made me wonder where all this goes from here — and, unless we learn to see things from the other’s point of view, I’m sure the answer is “nowhere good.”
In one appearance, I was painted as a villain and apologist for mass Palestinian suffering; in the other, as an unrealistic and unpatriotic defender of those same Palestinians against righteous Israeli tactics. How I came, strangely, to embody two diametrically opposite opinions — neither of which fully represented me — is a story of how impossible it is to escape the constant narrative-twisting that has come to define this war.
It begins on Jan. 2, when I was interviewed twice on Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news channel that has now been banned not only by Israel, but also by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Host Sami Zeidan opened by citing an array of global organizations, including Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council, that have accused Israel of obstructing aid to Gaza. “Are they right to be concerned about the siege and disruption of aid at a time when people are facing a cold, wet winter?”
“I think they’re absolutely right to be concerned,” I replied. “We are clearly witnessing a major humanitarian drama — probably a catastrophe.” However, I noted that much of the aid sent into Gaza is hijacked by Hamas and sold on the black market, a claim supported by numerous reports. Plus, drivers of trucks have been attacked, leading some to be unwilling to enter the strip.
“The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices stated on Nov. 14 that Israel’s obstruction of humanitarian aid through its siege on Gaza is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, and is using starvation as a method of war,” Zeidan persisted. “Are they wrong?”
“I can’t read minds, and neither can the UN Special Committee,” I said. “I strongly doubt Israel’s intent is to cause starvation or death. Their intent is to get back the hostages and remove Hamas.”
On a second appearance a few hours later, Zeidan once more grilled me about my claim. “You made it very clear that you don’t think there is starvation in Gaza. We’ve now heard from an Oxfam official who said, very clearly, that there is. Having heard that, are you willing to concede that maybe you didn’t present the right reality of what’s happening in Gaza?”
“What I said was that, as far as I knew, there was no widespread death by starvation. There is great hunger, great suffering, and a completely inhuman situation that any of us should bemoan,” I said. “Rather than getting stuck on semantics about the definition of starvation, let’s agree that the Palestinians in Gaza are suffering monumentally. We should all hope that 2025 brings an end to the war as quickly as possible.”
But my attempt to shift the conversation toward how the crisis might be resolved was drowned out.
I maintain that appearances on Al Jazeera are important for creating understanding across a cultural divide — and, indeed, I applaud the channel, which is no admirer of Israel, for even inviting me on. The comments about my experience on its YouTube channel were interesting: Quite a few were on my side — but the vast majority expressed incredulity at what they viewed as my shameless evil. One argued that my “white face, yellow hair, blue eyes and perfect English” proved Zionists don’t belong in the Middle East.
That evening, I was copied on an email from an individual in Australia identifying as a “Gay Christian for Palestine.” It was addressed to the United Nations but included a host of potentially interested parties, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and media personality Piers Morgan, and read: “Dan Perry as an American Zionist hitler (sic) like person is a racist fascist prick and I pray to god someone wipes his family off just like the Jews are ripping out families in Gaza.” The cost of doing business, I suppose.
The very next day, I appeared on the weekend news panel on Israel’s I24, this time in Hebrew. (The multilingual broadcaster has recently expanded to the local market.) The channel purports to take no explicit political position in the Israeli context — but let’s just say that its tone and content couldn’t have been more different than those on Al Jazeera.
During my appearance, Israeli reserve Lt. Colonel Shosh Raban advocated for halting humanitarian aid into Gaza altogether.
“Under every version of international law, it is illegal to knowingly starve a civilian population,” I responded. “The whole world would be against you. Even Trump would have to be against you. You cannot harm the innocent on purpose.”
The panel positively exploded, with Raban and others accusing me of dangerous naivety. Eli Stivi, the normally sympathetic and soft-spoken father of a hostage held in Gaza, argued that “on Oct. 7, everyone there was involved.”
“What about a 2-year-old?” I countered. “Women and children!” he insisted, referencing videos of Gaza mobs attacking hostages on Oct.7. “Babies?” I asked. “Okay, maybe not babies,” Stivi conceded grudgingly.
I tried to argue that denying aid to civilians was “not moral, not Jewish, and not smart. Israelis should not be dragged down to Hamas’s level and become inhuman.” But even I could barely hear what I was saying, because of the vitriolic shouting I met in response. Raban called me “delusional” and “detached” and said she could “hardly believe what I’m hearing.”
Only one panelist supported me fully: Lt. Col. Doron Avital, a former centrist Knesset member and ex-commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit. “I want to back up what Dan said,” Avital said. “We cannot play games with humanitarian aid.”
In a striking irony of today’s Israel, it is often figures like Avital, who is steeped in Israel’s military and security establishment, who are the most liberal and moderate voices — contrary to what many abroad might suppose. This puts them at odds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has alienated the military, Mossad and Shin Bet leadership. These institutions, deeply invested in Israel’s long-term stability, represent hope for something better.
That nuance wouldn’t impress my troll from Australia. For him, Israel is uniformly villainous, of course. But in many corners of Israel, he’d find his mirror image; just as he is unable to recognize the humanity of Israelis, there are many, in this country, who are unable to recognize the humanity of Gaza’s civilians.
So very far apart — and yet so very much alike.
When each side sees itself fully as the victim, with the other as completely the aggressor, there is little room for shared truths or reconciliation. So how can we go forward?
I find some hope, ironically, in a major cultural difference: Israel’s society, for all the far-right radicals it has, is deeply attuned to Western sensibilities. Jewish values are intertwined with those of the Enlightenment, and consequently, Israeli culture is generally prone to more introspection and self-questioning than it has, of late, tended to display. So despite the warning signs of increasing rigidity, I think Israel must make the first move. Otherwise, we are looking at a perpetual cycle of mistrust and violence.
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