If Everyone's a Victim, Maybe *Nobody* Is

I just watched the first part of a very interesting BBC documentary about the birth of Israel, which showed the various perspectives of the descendants of both Jewish and Palestinian people who were fighting on either side of the conflict in 1948, and both sets of people were clearly proud of their ancestors, and aggrieved at their struggles and/or tragedies.

But how can *both* sides be right? Or maybe both sides *are* right, but why then is the default assumption that both sides are victims/blameless/martyrs?

What if *both* sides are villains (and yes, I realise that all of this started because of the fucking Nazis, who we all, rightly despise, but they've been gone for nearly 80 years now)? How long do we keep attributing human rights violations, acts of terrorism and murder to a German-Austrian despot *before* we ask people to start taking fucking responsibility for their *own *actions*?

My instinctive sense is to feel bad for both sides and their competing claim to the West Bank, and of course the British are originally responsible for this mess, as were the Nazis, but, once again, how long do we continue blaming people who wiped their hands of Gaza 75 years ago?

Three generations or so later, don't the Israelis and Palestinians need to take responsibility? And that being the case, how can they *all* be victims? What if they're *all* in the wrong? Am I supposed to shed a tear for all sides? Anyone ever heard of COMPASSION FATIGUE? Or are you all a bit dense? 🤷‍♂️

Maybe that's not what the makers of this programme wanted me to feel, but they can't accuse me of 'not showing an interest', or 'not doing my research', or being 'ignorant'. I'm a well-informed intellectual who does my research...So, sorry that I don't always come out with the 'right' emotional response...