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The War: Despair and Longing for Hope
We are almost two weeks into the war, and there seems to be no end in sight. On the contrary, it feels like the worst has yet to come.
Are we to believe the IDF and various experts, we can at best expect week, or even months, of fighting in Gaza from the moment the IDF decides to enter the strip. But this might be a war, which will go on for much longer for that.
Sitting here, on the one side of the war, I’m worried and fearful for what will come. It’s hard to stomach that the best case scenario means the killing of hundreds, probably thousands of Palestinian civilians more, the loss of most if not all the Israeli and foreign hostages, and hundreds of Israeli soldiers. Of course, for many the latter might not be significant, but for me that means family, friends, family of friends, or other close connections. It will be felt and it will hurt. And this is the “best” case scenario. This is if we’re “lucky”.
It’s very likely that it will get worse, and maybe even much worse. The border to Lebanon looks more and more like a new front, with only the insistence on this not being so preventing us from admitting the unavoidable. Missiles have been fired from Yemen, probably to hit targets in Israel, but fortunately (and I’m grateful for this) prevented by an American warship. US bases in Syria have been targeted by Iran-aligned Shia militia.
Even the West Bank, or maybe in particular, is about to explode, and are we to trust reports from various sources, it isn’t just because of angry Palestinians, but also extremist Jewish settlers apparently wanting to open a new front. One might suspect that they feel that the army should only be engaged at one place at a time, but apparently not.
And yet, at this specific moments, while constantly being interrupted by notifications about rocket attacks, I can take a look at my two kids, playing as if this is just another day. And I can’t help feeling a deep despair, thinking about all the kids that should be playing, having just another day, not being suffering from a war they had no choice in. I know that our generation won’t be the last to experience these endless wars, to be part of the suffering of countless of innocent people, who just want to be able to live a life without worries and with dignity. I know that our generation won’t be the last to suffer from the fanatic extremism of the ideologically blinded “righteous” beings, convinced that hatred is the basic approach to others not like them, and causing suffering is the way to deal with the world as they see it.
I know that our generation won’t be the last to deal with all this, because we decide not to deal with the root of it. But I hope our children will be the last generation, and that their children only will experience war and suffering in the history books.
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