I've been writing this weekly column for years.
Every time I debate the subject. This week the dilemma was not the topic, but the article itself. Do I want to write? And if I write, and it is interpreted, erroneously, as identification or empathy with Gaza, will the police rush to arrest me and issue a press release? That is, if I dare in any way to express empathy and solidarity with the vulnerable victims, children, women and the elderly, even though I blame Hamas for everything all the time.
The first reason I debated whether to write is that I feel that anyone who empathizes with a Palestinian fatality is labeled a "terrorist supporter" – a label that is interpreted as subversion of Israel, reminiscent of military rule, not democracy. I, like the vast majority of Arabs, identify with the pain of the Jewish and Arab-Israeli families murdered in the south. No one imagines that the terror perpetrated by Hamas respects the Palestinian national struggle.
The second reason I debated whether to write this week was the particularly upsetting personal event I went through with my family. Following the firing of an anti-tank missile from Lebanon by Hezbollah operatives towards Moshav Shtula, four workers were injured: one was killed instantly, and three others – my uncle and his two sons – were seriously wounded. One lost his hearing and underwent back and neck surgery, the other underwent surgery on his legs and the third was lightly injured, suffering from anxiety, is hospitalized and cries like a child. Their world has been destroyed, and they will have to undergo a long rehabilitation process.
I live a few kilometers from the Lebanese border, in the village of Yasif. Since the beginning of the war, the tanks and armored personnel carriers have been passing through the village toward the border, and we constantly hear the planes and helicopters circling the area, and how not – the missiles that shake the whole house and sow fear and anxiety in us, especially when there is not a single public shelter in any Arab town.
In the past two weeks, most of what I've been doing – besides looking after my family – has been sending messages to friends, Jews and Arabs, asking for their well-being, trying to help and reaching out.
Over the past two weeks, I've been sending messages to friends, Jews and Arabs, asking for their safety and trying to help. But I feel distrust and an atmosphere of fear from old friends
But everyone who gets a message from me barely writes and replies. There is an atmosphere of fear. I feel distrusted by people I have been used to talking to and corresponding with for many years, almost every day.
By choice, I stopped watching the news and listening to the radio, because I can no longer see the horrors that took place in the southern settlements, as well as the children killed in Gaza. I find it hard to see the destruction and killing, especially of the children.
In the meantime, the war continues, with all its might. Not only to defeat Hamas, but to restore Israel's honor. It's only a matter of time before it's over, because power also has its limits. And until then, in the hope that a northern front will not be opened, quite a few people will still lose their lives. This is to be greatly regretted, no matter who was killed.
Therefore, revenge, assault and assassinations are not a plan. Need a plan.
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