Inconceivable numbers

Seven hundred days. I find it difficult to even write that number on the page. I find the number inconceivable. Seven hundred days locked in tunnels, shackled and starved.

Nine hundred. Nine hundred soldiers killed since the beginning of the war. Nine hundred men and women who had so much to give, so much life left. Except they didn’t. Nine hundred grieving families.

It is inconceivable to me that our government is willing to accept those numbers without the tiniest blink of an attenuated eyelash; they continue with this war, adding to the numbers day by day, hostage by hostage, soldier by soldier. It is willing to add to those numbers despite opposition from our former friends in the world, opposition from a majority of the country, opposition from the army’s major general.

Seventy thousand – out of over one million. Seventy thousand have evacuated Gaza city, as the army continues with its unofficial “preparation” for occupying the city. But many more, we are told, refuse to leave, either due to threats from Hamas, or from the fear that once we occupy a part of Gaza, it will be nearly impossible to get us to leave. How many will be killed because they were “in the way?”

How many innocent civilians – women and children – have perished in Gaza either due to direct Israeli fire or due to lack of safe nutrition and medical care? The exact numbers may be in dispute, but it is certainly in the tens of thousands. We can blather on about Hamas’ use of human shields, hospitals and schools to protect themselves, but ultimately, it is the Israeli military that caused their deaths.

Around 31.5 million shekels. That is the price we have paid for security for Bibi, Sarah, Avner and even Yair Netanyahu, in Miami, from 2018 to 2024. Think what our schools could have done with that money. The school system is missing 1,539 teachers, not including kindergarten, special education or counselors. That is not counting teachers who have been called up to reserve duty for the sixth time. I find this number inconceivable as well, as it reflects on Bibi’s real priorities. A hint: They do not include the safety of the soldiers or hostages – people for whom he bears direct responsibility.

As we come up upon the High Holidays, in the period of Slichot – asking for forgiveness for our collective sins, I ponder these numbers and the people behind them. It is nearly two years since this devastating war began, since 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered and hundreds kidnapped from their homes, from a music party, from their army bases and tanks.

That is over two years of protesting this government and its anti-democratic decisions, of its refusal to make returning hostages its first priority and to even envision an end to the war. Two years of asking for forgiveness for our part in allowing this to happen.

One man. One man can put an end to the killing and suffering. One man holds the fate of so many in his hands. And we, the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who show up to protest weekly, beat our breasts, ask for forgiveness and pray that that one man will hear our plea.