This week has been one of the hardest in my life. I had traveled to New York to visit a dear friend who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was staying with other dear friends a little north of the city. Then the war broke out, and some of the most horrendous atrocities at least since 1948 were committed in the country. We are physically okay but emotionally wracked. My son Noad had to go to a funeral this week for his friend Gili, who was murdered at the music festival. We are changed forever.
There is a time to analyze and a time to theorize, but this isn’t the time. I can only share my profound sadness but also the sparks of humanity I have witnessed this week.
I am sad for humanity. I am sad for people who have become so trapped in their paradigms that they believe that the brutal murder of hundreds of innocent men, women, children and babies is legitimate. I am sad for the suffering people feel and the suffering they will cause. I am sad for leaders who keep thinking that violence will solve their people’s problems or that it will “restore deterrence” – when all it does is motivate the other side to find a more innovative way of responding with even deadlier violence. It feels like we are caught in a downward spiral of violence.
Yet I am also encouraged by some glimmers of hope, the good that seems to be emerging from all this death and destruction.
I am encouraged that 600 Bedouin in southern Israel, mostly living in unrecognized villages, joined an organize effort to help the victims of the deadly assault. Some of them searched for missing people, some saved people who were hiding in homes or fields. Some evacuated the wounded to hospital, some administered first aid. Others provided psychological care to trauma victims. Some even volunteered to join the police or the army. And all this from people who have been mistreated by a government that tries to evict them from the only places they’ve lived for decades, all because they believe in defending the State of Israel as their country.
I am encouraged that 1,000 Jews and Arabs volunteered within a matter of hours to participated in joint patrol groups in Tel Aviv-Jaffa to keep the peace and calm down any possible interethnic tension. I am encouraged that 600 Jewish and Arab residents of Haifa volunteered to clean up and get into working shape dozens of bomb shelters in the city for the benefit of all residents regardless of ethnicity or creed.
I have written about fierce compassion, which is about acting in the world to alleviate suffering but drawing the line at causing further suffering in order to alleviate one’s own suffering. The 1,500+ terrorists who perpetrated the atrocities of Saturday are all dead. There remain others in Gaza who would do the same if we could, but they haven’t yet. And there are younger ones who have not been socialized yet to want to brutalized others, but will become more vulnerable to adopting this mentality if they experience the traumas of war that are sure to come.
What can be done to end this cycle of violence? It feels like we ordinary citizens don’t have much say, and many of us don’t want to think about the suffering of others when our own suffering is so fresh and raw.
Perhaps all we can do is pray, but I do believe that it is not enough to pray for our side to prevail but for all sides to turn away from violence. I received many messages of encourage and concern from friends and family, near and far, from many countries and many religions, but one stood out that I relate to in particular. My wife Rivka’s distant cousin Esther wrote me: “I pray for the innocent who are hurt… And for the not so innocent who might have been hurt before…” [1]
Just a couple of thoughts: Which would we rather see, for our enemies to feel the pain that we feel, or for our enemies to change their ways? And if the latter, do we have any agency in realizing that change?
[1] The full message read: I pray for the innocent who are hurt… And for the not so innocent who might have been hurt before… No one in their right mind would………… at least… I can’t and won’t believe that… call it naive… But this, if you hurt people like this, there’s something seriously wrong with you…
Therefore all are in my prayers…
I hope this stops soon. But I know it won’t. I hope the world tells itself to stop it too, getting crazy and crazier. I don’t like these shifts one bit.
Heartlessness. Means to an end. Should be impossible. We should have been better than this… Dear humanity.
Thank you Steve. I share your views wholeheartedly. I am sad for humanity and also enlightened by the few shining stars who emerge in times of tragedy.
Thank you very much Steven for this new take. I expected that you would write this time about the atrocities of last Saturday. I am also sad like you and there are millions of people sad from different countries, religions and ethnicities. Terrorists only understand one language, which is violence. Therefore, I do not blame leaders when they use violence to deter terrorists, despite my deep sadness for innocent people, especially children and women.