Letter to a baby about to be born (2)

My dear grandchild to be born,

Two and half years ago, in May 2021, your cousin E. was about to be born. At that time, I imagined that the world he was about to discover was uncommon and therefore, I addressed him a warning letter[1]. When your cousin was born, we were in the middle of the Covid pandemic and our country was in the middle of a military operation in Gaza. I would not have suspected that I would have to, one day, tip off another one of my grandchildren, about even more difficult circumstances.

But here we are, on the eve of your birth, so let’s be positive. Let’s avoid any hesitation you could have about coming to this world. And if, for that cause, I must tell white lies, so be it.

A white lie’s goal is to be kind with the one who hears it. How could I turn it down from you? It will even allow us to dream a little. So, let’s dream!

1 truth and 7 white lies  

Truth number 1: you are going to encounter a united Israeli society, very united, much more united than it was less than 2 months ago. No need for more details now, since it is behind us. Just know this: the first words you could have heard were potentially: “democracy, reasonableness, judges’ nomination, Supreme Court…”. I will explain later if you insist.

White lie number 1: the world you are entering endured a serious crisis, when you were busy with your gestation. I will not go into details about this crisis, you will learn about it once a teenager. This crisis induced a benefic shock for the whole world. Many Muslim populations and even some pro-Palestinian activists realized that this crisis carried too much violence. They dissociated themselves from the October 7^th, 2023, crimes.

White lie number 2: at the same time, the left-wing societies, and political parties in the world, realized that the groups defending Palestinians which they were supporting, were endangering women’s rights, LGBTIQA+’s rights and basic democratic values, all of which were part of the free world. A general trend of cutting ties with what appeared to be totalitarian movements has been initiated. This will probably be beneficial for all the Middle East. Specifically, after having realized that Jew-hatred had been the driving-force of these pro-Palestinian movements for decades, hunting down this nuisance has been widespread. For example, American universities, and the Ivy League ones specifically, have dissolved any student society which did not adopt the IHRA-International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism[2].

White lie number 3: Israeli Arab citizens have dissociated themselves massively from Hamas. They reckoned that, if the choice offered to them is between a Muslim Brotherhood ideologically inspired totalitarian movement, and Israel, a democratic state in which, though making up a minority, they enjoy full civic rights, equality, and upward mobility potential, they’d better choose freedom. This is even more relevant considering that it has become clear to all, that these conditions cannot be met in any other Muslim or Arab country. This revolution of minds has even started to within the Arab population of Judea-Samaria (see White lie number 7 hereunder).

White lie number 4: the support for Israel is widespread throughout the world. From October 7^th, mainly non-Jewish populations have demonstrated and supported Jews condemning the extreme violence which had taken place. And since then, in many world capital cities, weekly rallies take place composed of Jews and non-Jews altogether, people from all political sides, from all religions. Muslim citizens have shown up in numbers with support. Political parties and even some democratic state leaders have joined these events with the same regularity.

White lie number 5: Qatar has been condemned by the whole world for having historically supported Hamas. Considering the worldwide pressure for Hamas to be eradicated in Gaza, and threatened with being banished from the international community, Qatar forced 30,000 Hamas terrorists to be exfiltrated from Gaza. They have been handed over to an international coalition to be tried for crimes against humanity.

This exfiltration took place to the boos of the Gazan population. At the same time, all weapons and missiles have been assembled and destroyed by Israel.

Consequently, the war between Israel and Gaza which was unavoidable, has, in fact, been avoided. Many civilians would have been innocent and collateral victims among the population which, up to October 7^th, supported Hamas. This widespread reversal of opinion combined with the Hamas operatives’ exfiltration, allowed the liberation of all Israeli hostages who had been taken by Hamas and some Gaza civilians.

White lie number 6: in the wake of world pressure on Qatar and Hamas, the Iranian regime had to undergo the same kind of international coercion. With its public Jew-hatred displays to which everybody had wrongfully gotten used to in the last decades, the Iranian regime endeavored to acquire nuclear power and eventually exhausted international tolerance. A group of American citizens from Iranian descent, former dissidents, and activist against the Mullahs’ regime, succeeded in forming a conference gathering all countries who had taken part to the nuclear agreement with Iran in 2015. All of them attended this conference, especially after they found out that Iran had not only contributed to the financing power of the October 7^th massacres, but also instructed the missile shooting on Israel from Hezbollah and Houthis, following these massacres.

Trapped between the international community and its population mostly opposed to the Mullahs, the Iranian regime is about to fall, which could help us to catch a glimpse of appeasement in the Middle East.

White lie number 7: in Judea and Samaria, some protests took place in the Palestinian Authority controlled cities, in favor of the October 7^th massacres. But these were very quickly condemned and even prevented by the local Arab population who had been disgusted by the Hamas barbarisms. At the same time, an uprising started by the Arab population, protesting the Palestinian Authority government for being corrupted and completely delegitimized from a democratic point of view. This rebellion labelled itself “Intrafada”, thereby showing that their target was the ones who were due to represent them. A committee of public safety has been established by Arab citizens of Judea- Samaria, with the goal of negotiating a regional autonomy status with Israel.

This committee considers that this is the best way for them to benefit from the Israeli democratic values alongside the creation of some sort of regional independence. This breaking point was achieved thanks to the fact that these citizens had sworn to get rid of any Jew-hatred in their narrative and their ideology. They hope that this way of thinking will spread in all the Muslim world.

Post-strictum to read only on the day of your Bar/Bat Mizwa: of course, you know now that these 7 white lies were the wishes I had for the world you arrived in. More than a decade later, I deeply hope, that, at least, part of these 7 white lies became true.

[1] https://frblogs.timesofisrael.com/mises-en-garde-pour-bebe-sur-le-point-de-naitre/

[2] https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism