Interfaith Action of Southwest Michigan (swmichinterfaith.org) launched a six-part series earlier this month. Its purpose is to provide insight and perspective into the situation in Palestine and Israel to a mostly US audience, with a focus on the realities of the Gaza war. Held every Thursday, the virtual series is open to anyone anywhere in the world, and the first episode took place on 3 November, titled "Gaza Now".

"This is a very emotional issue," said guest speaker David Dumke, executive director of University of Central Florida’s Centre of Global Perspectives & International Initiatives. "Both sides feel they are the victim, [but] the situation in Gaza is grim."

Dumke criticised Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying that his priority is to protect his own interests, and cautioned that international law must be adhered to. "There is a difference between state actions, and the actions of terrorists."

While condemning the attack by Hamas, Dumke noted that there is a context to these events. He listed causes that included the fact that the situation in Gaza had been ignored for a long time, Netanyahu's fanatical right-wing government that includes cabinet members who openly support "population transfer, which is a euphemism for cleansing the West Bank of the Palestinian population", and what appeared to be an imminent Israeli-Saudi peace agreement. "There were many [factors] lying below the surface... it was bound to blow up," he said.

Sid Mohn, the coordinator of inter-religious relations, said the series aims to counter much of the misinformation and polarisation taking place both in the US and around the world. Mohn explained that Interfaith Action is sponsoring these discussions because "our faith traditions inspire us to promote peace and to work for the dignity of human rights of all of humanity." This is also because Palestine and Israel are holy lands for the three major faith traditions in Interfaith Action.

Dumke stated that there is an awareness in Washington that the longer this conflict goes on, the more damage it does to the US's prestige on the global stage. "The US is seen as the only player that has any ability to influence Israel," he explained. "It has not been an honest broker, and the Arab states know that Israel will always enjoy the strongest level of US support. This is accepted, so long as the US uses its best efforts to broker a peace agreement."

However, this has not happened for many years. "The core of the problem is that there has not been a viable effort to broker Palestinian-Israeli peace for 70 years, and no serious efforts in at least 10 years," he added.

Dumke continued that ensuring Israel's security is a priority for the US, and it is doing that by sponsoring the peace process and aiming to finalise a nuclear deal with Iran. Nonetheless, he cautioned against unconditional support for Israel, especially when it is taking actions that are not in its long-term interests or those of the US.

He was also critical of comparisons between the attacks on 7 October in Israel and the 9/11 attacks in the US. "It's very detrimental to the conversation and policy process to make this comparison," Dumke explained. "These are not the same events, and Israel is not the US." He elaborated: "Israel is a regional power and the US is a superpower. That distinction dictates very much what the response is and what the expectations are."

The second programme of the Interfaith Action series on 9 November will discuss US media coverage of the conflict, and the speaker is Rummana Hussain, member of the Editorial Board of the Chicago Sun-Times. All discussions are available as Apple podcasts and on the YouTube channel of Interfaith Action of Southwest Michigan.