Until there is life there is hope

We live in a time of war. Brutal terrorism against innocent civilians in the name of the one and only God. Economic war, tariffs, duties, mine and yours. We live in a time of violence, violence of thought, violence of words and violence of actions. 

Ancient Hindu philosophy believes that violence starts in the mind. Once a violent thought has formed, it is only time before it comes out as words. Words are like arrows, once they have left your tongue, like an arrow which leaves the bow, they can never be taken back. Once violence passes from thought to words it is only time before it translates into actions. 

October 7th for me was that day when years and decades of violent thought and words against Israel translated into action. I’m still not sure whether what I feel is impotence at not having been able to prevent it or sadness that humanity crossed a historic line again that we all said it would never again cross. Never again!

But it happened and the response was anything but proportional. I never expected or supported a proportional response because “what is the virtue of a proportional response?”, I asked myself.

It has been 551 days since that black day in history. 59 hostages are still in the clutches of terrorist groups, the 24 of them, thought to be alive, are still in hell. Bibi Netanyahu’s government has bombed every square inch of Gaza, but failed to secure and protect every Jewish life. The conflict has put Israel, a country we all love, into limbo. The government cannot change, men whose mistakes allowed October 7th to happen are still in power due to an age-old Israeli unwritten rule of not changing leadership during a war. The conflict is tearing Israel apart, socially, morally and politically. It will not let the country grieve, communities come together and start the healing process.

There is no light at the end of this tunnel. For the Palestinians it is worse. Hamas still exists, in a way it has become more powerful despite losing leaders and men for Palestinians. There is no escape, there is no solution. Ever so often they hear of another bizarre idea of being expelled to Egypt or Somalia. What is the virtue of a proportional response?

If this is the time for war, when is the time for peace? It is a question I have no answer to. In the past decades of my life I have worked with men of war and worked with men of peace. The men of war eventually tired. War is a tiring business for state and non-state actors– who are just people, people who mostly tire eventually of death, destruction, loss and grief. Vengeance is a tiring business. That is why it should be eventually left to The Lord.

Men of peace went on working, no matter how many times they failed, they kept at it slowly like a sherpa climbing Mount Everest. Every failure made them more determined to succeed.

So I ask myself a question, as Shimon Peres once said, “When you have two alternatives, the first thing you have to do is to look for the third that you didn’t think about, that doesn’t exist.” So what are we not looking at? A new national unity government in Israel under a new leader? A new Palestinian leader with Mahmoud Abbas finally ending his endless failure of a rule? To me both Abbas and Netanyahu have failed their own people. Failed to protect them, failed to nurture them and failed to safeguard their future. 

Two new leaders to find one solution for the violence, Hamas, Islamic Jihad. Two new leaders to find one solution to the return of the hostages. Two new leaders to work for peace, because as Rabin had said, “You make peace with your enemies and not with your friends”. Two leaders who agree that Hamas and its band of Muslim brothers are the enemy of all in the holy land and must be disbanded. 

War has failed. The men of war have tired. The terrorists are still terrorizing us and their own. It is time for us to find an unknown we do not know. Look deep inside and try to find that corner of our heart which has not been soiled by terror, that can still see peace. Until there is life there is hope. We are alive, we must not give up hope. This is the only way we can survive.