Philip J. Kinsler lives in Lyme.

Rashomon’s elephant teaches us that what we perceive depends on the part of the animal (phenomenon) we are touching. Thus, the Israel-Palestine situation. Recent news coverage has been deeply critical of Israel. Let me describe some other parts of the elephant.

The Jewish people’s historical residence and government of the area is clear. Anthropological evidence includes the Temple Mount, Hebrew inscribed coins excavated from ruins in Jerusalem, the synagogue in Gaza dated from the 500s with a mosaic of King David playing the harp, his name in Hebrew above, and the Arch of Titus in Rome depicting the Roman sack of Jerusalem. The Jews were then scattered to the corners of the Roman world.

Military conflict in Israel/Palestine has existed for millennia — Jews, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Christians, Turks fought over this territory. Unfortunately, the boundaries of nations are almost always the end result of armed conflict, whether in Europe, Asia, North America or the Middle East. The United States does not own Ontario because Washington’s invasion failed, not for any ‘rational’ reason.

The last conqueror of vast swaths of the Middle East was the Ottoman Empire. They had a huge province called Palestine consisting of today’s countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel.

Zionism, a movement to restore Jewish settlement to their historical residence, developed in Europe in the late 1890s for historical attachment, and escape from persecution reasons. Jews have prayed “next year in Jerusalem” for two thousand years.

During WWI the government of Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, supporting a “national homeland” for the Jewish people in Palestine. The declaration was issued for empathetic and great power considerations. Its genesis fills twenty-two volumes of documents. There is no one proper explanation for its issue.

Post-WWI boundaries of the defeated Ottoman Empire were decided by the victors, primarily Britain and France. Boundaries were determined by great power sphere of influence needs, and warfare between clan/religion-based leaders. Saudi Arabia was created when Ibn Saud and his followers militarily defeated King Hussein.

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Britain was given a mandate to govern much of the former province of Palestine. Jewish re-settlement of the area increased, often by kibbutz’s buying land from absentee Arab owners. Arab in-migration to the area also increased, as Jewish people planted trees, reclaimed desert. There were Arab rebellions against the growing Jewish population.

Between WWI and WWII, the Jewish population grew. The Holocaust demonstrated the need for a safe place for the remnants of the Jewish people. Their historical homeland was the place. The U.N. decided that partition of the territory was the proper solution.

The original UN partition plan gave the Arabs the Galilee, the West Bank, and Gaza, leaving a small territory to the Jewish people. Rather than accepting this, multiple Arab armies invaded. During this invasion, Arab governments encouraged their citizens to evacuate and return after the Jews were defeated. When the Arab armies were defeated, no Arab country offered these evacuees entry or a future with them. They and their descendants are the current Palestinian people.

Multiple attempts have been made to establish a two-state solution — the 1947 partition proposals, the Camp David Accords, the Oslo Accords, each of which led not to peace, but to Arab violence.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, dismantled settlements, and supported the formation of a Palestinian government. Elections took place between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Hamas won and initiated a civil war, driving the Palestinian Authority out. The Hamas constitution explicitly calls for the genocide of Jews. Rather than develop the Gaza economy, Hamas used billions of dollars and tons of concrete that should have gone into schools, hospitals, and industry to build a tunnel system under Gaza bigger than the London subway system.

On Oct. 7, Hamas used this system to break into Israel, kill 1,200 people, take 250 hostages, and commit rape as an instrument of war. The UN has investigated this charge and found evidence for it.

Israel’s response was war against Hamas, with the goal of eliminating it and preventing another Oct. 7. Their response is not genocide, it is self-defense. There is no desire to eliminate another ethnic group. The death toll in Gaza is horrible. No one wants to see women and children killed. But, when an enemy has embedded itself in civil institutions, hospitals, schools, with an interconnected tunnel system, it becomes very difficult to prevent civilian casualties. In WWII, allied forces killed approximately 500,000 to 600,000 French and German civilians, slave laborers, and POWs, while destroying the Nazi war machine.

Israel’s response exhibits emotional outrage, and its tactics must become more discriminating. Large portions of the citizens of Israel support this. Senator Schumer called for replacing the Netanyahu government in pursuit of this, a stance I agree with. But let’s not forget this is a war Hamas started, knowing full well that the response would kill women and children, fully intending to use these deaths to influence world opinion.

There are two indigenous peoples here, with competing claims to the land. Perhaps someday the leaders on both sides will say “enough,” refuse to send their sons and daughters to die, and forge a compromise solution. Let’s hope.