I was at the municipal building the night of the October 17 meeting. At first I was outside as I watched a peaceful line of Jews and Muslims devolve into a two-sided protest with Muslims yelling “From the river to the sea.” The hate was pure and honest. At the end of the evening, after most Jewish supporters left, with just a few remaining, you could see some from the Muslim side running their fingers across their necks as they faced off with the Jewish protestors. The Muslim side eventually left as I could hear one apparent leader mention they shouldn’t worry. There would be more protests.

Eventually I went inside where I sat behind two Muslim women, mother and daughter, who spoke. As they waited for their turn, they reacted in jest to statements made by others. They laughed at the concept that the hospital in Gaza was bombed by someone other than Israel. The mother gestured with her hand as if the bomb would have had to circle back to hit the hospital. Ridiculous.

They reacted with disgust at the mention of beheaded babies. [They believed it] never happened.

At least one speaker mentioned how he cares for Jews but has a problem with Zionists.

At least the crowd outside was honest. We all knew where they stood. I think inside they were fooling themselves. The people of Teaneck want to feel we are a diverse community and as long as Middle East issues stay in the Middle East, we can still be good neighbors.

I feel we are at a turning point. As Jews, we can not act based on public opinion. As long as otherwise reasonable people cannot see the evil of Hamas and the like and are not willing to consider evidence that is counter to their preferred narrative, there will not be a common ground. Perhaps once Hamas is no more and the people of Gaza can live in peace and prosperity, they will only hate Jews and Zionists but won’t feel compelled to kill them.

Perhaps.

Although it didn’t work in 2005 when Israel turned over Gaza, free of Jews and restrictions, we can hope they will have learned their lesson.

What else can we do? Hope has been our currency for 2,000 years.

David Siegel
Teaneck