Thanks for the mention AK.

adamkatz:

Fred - I think the point wasn’t to pull you into the debate on Gaza (I agree it’s a no win proposition) but rather to suggest that the conflict’s lack of clarity makes it all the more important to avoid the easy tropes “I’m not on either side,” etc. I think someone like Jeffrey Goldberg nails how, I imagine, many of us are feeling:

Gaza is where dreams of reconciliation go to die. Gaza is where the dream of Palestinian statehood goes to die; Gaza is where the Zionist dream might yet die. Or, more to the point, might be murdered. I’m not a J Street moral-equivalence sort of guy. Yes, Israel makes constant mistakes, which I note rather frequently, but this conflict reminds me once again that Israel is up against an implacable force, namely, an interpretation of Islam that disallows the idea of Jewish national equality.

My paralysis isn’t an analytical paralysis. It’s the paralysis that comes from thinking that maybe there’s no way out. Not out of Gaza, out of the whole thing.

What’s happening is Gaza is a tragedy that is difficult to understand and on which it is an enormous challenge to form any sort of real opinion. I read your blog and find it informative and insightful. “Intellectually dishonest” and “frighteningly unsophisticated,” might have been a bit harsh, but I just thought the post was a bit too breezy on a subject that cannot (should not?) be so easily addressed.

fred-wilson:

I am not going to get pulled into a debate about what’s going on in Gaza. That’s a no win proposition. But Adam, let me be clear, I do know what’s going on, I’ve read those two links and about everything else that I’ve come across on the topic. How can you not pay attention to what’s going on in Gaza? It’s a terrible tragedy on many levels for both sides. And it’s not as crystal clear as you paint it. That’s as far as I am going to go on this topic.