The Gaza War should not frame how you view Muslims or Jews | Opinion

As longtime friends and leaders in our respective Jewish and Islamic communities, we are writing to express our concern about the escalating Islamophobia and antisemitism that is too often wrongly expressed as a legitimate reaction to the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine.

While we both see the war in Gaza as a moral and humanitarian tragedy, we are also deeply wary of those who are transplanting that conflagration to our American soil.

We support the work of peacemakers and we jointly affirm the free-speech rights of our fellow Idahoans of all political stripes to organize, demonstrate, lobby and vote for change in the Middle East. We also acknowledge that both between — and perhaps more significantly, within — our communities, there are real differences of opinion on these matters. We would not begin to claim to speak for all Jews or Muslims, for our traditions are rich and diverse. Such is the nature of democracy which, for all its challenges, we fully celebrate.

But we worry about and unequivocally reject the kind of rhetoric around the Mideast that effectively incites violence against American Jews and Muslims, whether it comes from within our own communities or, far more often, from the wider body politic.

While anger at the Netanyahu administration and/or Hamas is completely understandable, taking that rage out on one’s fellow Americans is tragic.

It’s bad enough that Israel-Palestine is wracked by a devastating war; the importation of that conflict to our own country — which has more than enough of its own, homegrown problems — ultimately serves no one but bellicose fanatics.

To blame American Muslims and/or Jews for the policies of foreign governments and organizations is purely and simply bigotry. Such expressions of antisemitism and Islamophobia in our state, local or national politics serve only to divide and hurt us, whether from left, right or center.

Our capacity to impact events abroad is profoundly limited. By contrast, our ability to choose how we relate to one another within our own neighborhoods, schools and workplaces is entirely within our hands. In that spirit, we urge our fellow Idahoans, of all faiths and of none, to reach out to one another with compassion, to listen and learn respectfully even — or especially — with those with whom we may markedly disagree.

While we, alas, cannot end the war in Palestine-Israel, we may be able to exert some measure of positive influence by doing everything within our power to keep the peace here at home. Division and vilification exacerbate; respectful cooperation ameliorates.