Davka, in spite of the ‘Weather’
“Life is absurdist,” one of my old college buddies once told me. It becomes genuinely wild when your life turns into weather reports of rockets, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles that you now must watch out for nearly every day. It happens more often depending on where in the country you live and if you are in an area that Hamas more easily targets, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIL), Hizbullah, or another hostile force of religious fanatics.
When your 6-year-old asks if today is a “Siren Day,” meaning will we need to run from rockets, missiles, or their shrapnel, there is nothing but heartache and heartbreak there. It hits especially hard when you are trained to help others make peace. Still, you have only a few good ideas for obtaining a collaborative, respectful peace in this region.
The mentality completely differs from where I grew up or the values I was taught to hold tightly to. I may have changed some of those values and ideals through the act of conversion, of joining the tribe of the most hated people on Earth. Here, you have to contend not only with Middle Eastern/Oriental values and accepted ways of living but also with others who have fled from fascist regimes or, worse, those who just hoped for a better life. How can one have a better life with peace so far from any of our regional leaders’ minds or hearts?
Yet still, every day, someone else asks me why we’re here, and “Isn’t it better in America?” but my answer is a solid “No, here I can have a life, even davka with rocket-fire and ballistic missiles that fall too close to where we live. Here, I can raise my children without the threat of mass school shootings or people committing hate-filled crimes (at least where I live).” Yet here, we must also contend with the real danger of death from people who live far away and don’t even know us. What a life! I may not love it, but it’s better than life in the US and allows handling complex health issues.
Despite the constant worries of our parents, friends, and others abroad, it is strange to say it, but it is true. “You don’t understand antisemitism until you experience it yourself.” What privileges you had become very clear once you don’t have them. Then you feel it. Privilege exists, and we must acknowledge it to make any process on more challenging issues seem impossible.
What else can we do to promote peace? We must acknowledge daily that our neighbors, coworkers, teachers, and others struggle and need our help and privilege so they can share the same level of health, well-being, and quality of life. I know we are unequal, and I have seen it firsthand. Share the funding from our municipal taxes so that we all may have safe roads, maintained bike paths, a clean city, and a communal sense of spirit and belonging. It is a privilege to have a town that keeps its pathways clean and clear and to be able to live there.
Our parliament (the Knesset) holds hostage our Arab brothers, sisters, cousins, and neighbors and refuses to allow them a more comfortable, safe life. Our leaders, the Prime Minister, and his ultra-orthodox, fascist, and apologist cronies choose to ignore suffering in favor of their precious privileges by holding on to power at all costs, including the costs of our lives and our well-being, collective and individual.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time for you to hand over the reins of control by calling for elections and actually giving your opponents a viable chance. Whenever you finally call for elections, the public will watch what you do and judge you for it. This current situation is unsustainable and highly unhealthy. Bring the rest of our hostages home to their families. Quit making excuses and allow yourself and your colleagues to be held accountable.
Yes, we need our state to be secure, safe, and protected. Please don’t do it for the sake of revenge. Revenge doesn’t end this war or this ongoing conflict. It does create more. Creation of new generations of terrorists who feel wrong. Is that really what you want your legacy to be?
