Felling The Pull

"The Israel-Hamas war is creating tensions at work" is a reasonable enough headline. It gets to the point, and deals with the subject at hand. Well, actually, part of the subject at hand. It might not be readily apparent, but the current fighting in Gaza is not the only conflict going on in the world. Humanity has always been something of a combative bunch, and there are fights going on across the globe. What differentiates the current fighting between Israel and Hamas from the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Somali Civil War or the border dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan is twofold, a) the current level of attention paid to it by media outlets here in the United States (and elsewhere for that matter) and b) the lack of agreement on who is the aggressor and who is the victim. Although there is a third point, that lines up with both a) and b), both sides have large domestic constituencies who are making the case that they are in the right, and are deserving of support from both the public and the government of the United States. In the section of the Puget Sound region where I reside, backers of Israel have been making their case. Signs and flyers calling on people to call politicians on behalf of Israel or to donate money to Israeli causes or organizations have popped up in several areas. If there are people doing the same thing for the Palestinians, I haven't come across any yet. (Although it's possible that I've simply been unable to pick them out of the campaign signs as easily.)

Backers of both sides feel that each party has the right to be acknowledged as the single wronged party in this case, and for their own feelings as to who is correct to be validated by those around them. This isn't something that is unique to this particular conflict. What makes it different is the fact that the fighting between Israel and Hamas is happening overseas. There are any number of domestic disagreements that cause workplace (and other place) tensions, because the backers of various sides feel a sense of entitlement to the support of people who would rather be doing something else. It's one of the main drivers of what is now called "cancel culture," which goes way back in American history. The tendency is unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon, but if it is going to be addressed, it's likely better to deal with the phenomenon as a whole, rather than speaking of each of its discreet incarnations as if they were unrelated to one another.