Saturday morning, beautiful day. I take Yanel, my two-year-old son, to kindergarten.
On the way, he tries to sort out his thoughts for the weekend, but hears on the news about a "big event" in the south. I thought it was another infiltration from Gaza, another security incident.
I sat down in my office and started following the reports. As time passed, I came to see and become acquainted with the horrors and horrors that took place in the south. Hundreds of victims, some of them Arabs, were murdered and massacred and paid the heaviest price.
All weekend I followed every media outlet and social media, and every time I watched the pictures on the screens, I saw Yanel's picture in front of me.
In every report and picture I see - yes, I admit - I have seen my son. I developed paranoia, I didn't want him to leave me even for a minute, I was afraid and terrified, and fear has accompanied me until now. With the beginning of the offensive on Gaza and the warming of the northern sector, which is only a few kilometers away from my home, my fear grew and my fear for my son crossed every boundary.
On Sunday, I decided to stop watching TV reports. Not Al Jazeera, not Channel 12 or Channel 14, because all the reports dealt with blood, atrocities, death and killing. I felt like it was at my doorstep, in a minute someone came knocking on the door and tried to hurt my son and family.
At night, all kinds of fear and terror ran through my mind: What would I do if someone, no matter who, came and tried to hurt me? What kind of father will I be if I can't protect my baby son, and do I even have a chance to escape somewhere?
Yes, I know that quite a few readers of my articles write inflammatory comments about them, certainly now about this article. Perhaps most of the complaints will be against those who allow me to write here, and some will suggest that I leave Israel because it is not mine.
The clearer the picture of the horror left by Hamas, especially towards the families, the more shocked I was. Because children and babies are not supposed to pay the price.
And no, I don't care who started or who made the decision.
Children and babies are beyond any red line in any conflict. In order to deter Hamas, it is necessary to damage the infrastructure, the heads of the organization who trained and raised a generation of murderers.
At night, all kinds of fear and terror ran through my mind: What would I do if someone, no matter who, came and tried to hurt me? What kind of father will I be if I can't protect my baby son, and do I even have a chance to escape somewhere?
The pictures of the babies with blood are not erased from my consciousness and remind me of ISIS. The atrocities in the south are a formative event in Jewish-Arab relations, and in my view, it is precisely now that we need to see what we have in common and understand how we will allow future generations to live in peace, or at least without hatred, in mutual recognition, in order to reach the desired reconciliation.
This is the time for leaders to decide: sanctification of life, not sanctification of death.
It's time to think differently, to think about the future, to think about the children.
The word peace is not rude, and the word reconciliation is not derogatory. Every child, every person, deserves to love life and live life.
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