Bob Schwartz

When students protested the U.S. war in Vietnam, our elders told us, condescendingly, that we were too young to understand the big picture, but we would when we were older. (Understanding wasn’t helped by chronic government lies, but that’s another story.) It may seem, they said, that supporting a corrupt and autocratic regime in South Vietnam, conducting a war for them and sending our young men to kill and die, is not a good idea. But trust us, they said, it is what the people of Vietnam want, what the world needs, and it is for the best. Someday you’ll understand.

The war in Gaza is complicated. But something seems simple to the protestors. There is a level of aggression against innocent people that exceeds appropriate response, that is not justified, and that should not be enabled and supported. There is a lifetime to learn that relativism, equivocation and compromise have their place. Young as the protestors are, they know that Gaza is not it.