I am more despondent.

With 12 years of frontline reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict – in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan – and friends in all these places, as well as family and friends in the Negev, opposite the October 7 slaughter, my views haven’t changed much.
Hope of a resolution is further away than ever, since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and the end of the Oslo agreements, which were supported by 75% of both sides.
For the first time, Australia has witnessed the morphing from criticism of Israel to real antisemitism and I have blocked quite a few Facebook ‘friends’ for spouting idiocy.
I have kept quiet about similarly stupid things on Jewish sites.
That said I have, again, copped criticism from my pro-Palestine contacts for being a colonial, Zionist apologist and my Zionist friends for being a traitor. I must be doing something right, again.
On the Friday night after October 7 (or maybe the week after) I went to my Shul to show solidarity, which was different (I’m a devout Orthodox atheist).
I don’t fear any antisemitism, but I am bored having to explain that Zionism is not inherently colonial or racist. The current Government of Israel may be, but “original” Zionism was communist (Hashomer Hatzayir) and socialist (Habonim). Jews migrating (or returning) to Israel is a bit more nuanced than Britain taking India, North America or Australia, the Spanish and Portuguese taking South America or the Dutch taking Indonesia.
But barracking for either “side” helps no one on the ground. Peace for Israelis and Palestinians won’t happen in my lifetime.
I am more despondent.