Unlike others here, many of whom lost friends/acquaintences/family on 9/11, my reaction was a sense that we were about to lose our ability to think clearly without hatred. My first reaction was, “we’re about to become Israel and Palestine, and we will become lost in an endless cycle of revenge and counter-revenge, with no way out, and it doesn’t matter which side we think we’re on, because we will not be able to see that our first, most powerful instinct will be our worst.”

In the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, the side you think most justified in its actions depends on which event you think is the start of history. For Americans, too much of our thinking begins on 9/11 or some similar event in which we were attacked. And in this we’re not different from others; it is always hard for any people to view their own sense of justification and history in any other way, but almost impossible for the other side to see it the way we do. 9/11 rememberances are inevitable, but I’m afraid they’re only helpful if we try to view it from another’s perspective.

If we as “outsiders” can see that the Israelis and Palestinians must speak with each other to escape the cycle of violence, why cannot we see that we also have to speak with those we perceive as nothing but evil (and who see us exactly the same way). And if someone has a better plan for how humanity gets out this endless cycle, I’d like to hear it, cause so far, the conventional wisdom is not working.