My heart breaks for Gaza; the displaced, the injured, the dead. Many innocent lives lost and the tragedy continues to inflict an everlasting trauma.
How can a child grow up undamaged by the horrors of war and the loss of his whole family? How can a father continue to live with the loss of his wife and children?
Gaza has become a land of suffering, above the ashes of destruction, leaving everlasting memories of pain and agony. Only a heartless being feels not the breaking of their heart for the innocent children who have endured a lifetime of suffering in a mere three months of war.
In the past three months, I’ve talked to so many Jews and Israelis and in every conversation, I continue to hear the echoing of pain within them for their suffering. As my heart breaks for my people, it breaks with agony also for Israel and her losses.
Only a heartless being feels not for every innocent Israeli life lost.
A human balances the feelings of hurt and doesn’t see color or creed, but rather sees human beings suffering. But we must be fair, honest and truthful with ourselves and remember who started the war, and who’s truly responsible for the suffering.
There are no excuses for terror; those were not the acts of resistance but rather the barbarism of terror that invaded a sovereign land with mayhem, killing even animals. Hamas killed children, raped women, slaughtered whole families and kidnapped, children, women and elderly. Hamas started this war, used their own people as human shields, built massive tunnels, and operated within hospitals, schools, and mosques, choosing to build a terror network over improving the lives of their people, or to build shelters for times of war.
Hamas, even in war, continue to impose more suffering on their people in Gaza, stealing their aid and killing or arresting those who dare to speak out against them. Hamas could have asked for a complete safe area for their people that saw all aid come to them in exchange for the release of all civilian hostages, but instead they have left the people to suffer.
Yes, my heart breaks for my own people, but I know to be fair and just and aware of who’s responsible for their suffering, and that is Hamas.
Israel has to ensure that their people never suffer such atrocities again, and their safety can never be threatened ever again. In the same way, my heart breaks for Israel, who continue to endure trauma and suffering while their soldiers continue to die in battlefields to defend their people. My heart breaks for the kidnapped and their families who lie sleepless nights, crying themselves to sleep to only be awakened with the horrors of nightmare. The families who have to sit at Shabbat dinner with empty chairs of loved ones killed by Hamas terrorist.
We must balance our feelings accordingly – you can’t feel for one, but not the other. In the end, while I see and recognize the horrors of war, it remains a necessary evil. To those who call for a ceasefire, while I understand the bloodshed must come to an end, the war can’t stop without the return of the kidnapped and the full destruction of Hamas. Once that is achieved, life can begin to return and the people of Gaza will see their lives have the meaningful change they never had under Hamas. But only if they do not repeat the mistakes of the past and seek life not death. Only through peace with Israel the land and people can finally prosper.
