I was in Shul on Yom Kippur when the news came that Israel had been attacked. It was years ago. But I remember the palpable shock in the building.
All at once, we knew that Israel was in a war, Holy Day or not. And we knew that the people who attacked Israel did so not just knowing that today was the holiest day of the year, but because it was.
And that boggled our mind... the astounding lack of simple humanity simply and utterly dumbfounded us.
I don't like war, and I don't support Israel's actions. BUT. I know Israelis personally, and they have become cold and embittered and angry and have become very much of the shoot-first-ask-questions-later school of thought. I could share some emails where they sound downright barbaric. Because they are.
And here's what I have learned:
- I do not speak or email those people anymore; our life experiences are so different that we no longer have any common ground whatsoever.
- This is exactly what the militants wanted: to attack the large portion of people on both sides who didn't want war until they finally broke.
- When they finally did break, they became the very people they didn't want to be... they became monsters.
- In a war of martyr versus martyr, there simply are no losers: everyone gets to paradise.
- In a war of martyr versus martyr, there are no civilians: only infidels.
- That the militants' true enemies are not the militant on the other side, but the huge majority of people in the middle on both sides who just want to live their lives.
This is why the Palestinian/Lebanese/Iranian militants' bombs where aimed at school buses and discos and open-air markets instead of at munitions factories and airports.
And this is why Israel is finally responding in turn.
And, right there... that's the whole truth of the situation. The Palestinian militants have attacked Israeli civilians for so long that they finally have removed Israeli civilians from the equation. Now, every Israeli is a soldier.
And soon, every Gazan will be, too. And then every Palestinian. And then every Semite regardless of nationality or religion.
And then the martyrs will have their day, and they will see: will Israel exist, or will it cease to?
And they will all win.