If you’re like me, watching the news and reading the newspaper, the events of the past summer are disturbing to say the least. Even shocking. Some commentators have evoked the Sarajevo assassinations, which led to World War I.
In Israel civilians remain on alert to duck-and-cover from Hamas rockets should a cease-fire fail. In Gaza our mass media were filled with photos and texts of dead and wounded civilians and soldiers. In Ukraine and in its separatist provinces, the bodies of innocent airline passengers are testimony to the madness of rivalries.
As always, mutual hate and demonization abound, followed inevitably by death and suffering. Some may think me naïve but I see myself as a realist. I suggest we need to try to coexist. Modern warfare does not bring genuine peace. It rarely if ever has.
Several months ago, in a most unprecedented and unexpected act, just before the outbreak of the Gaza War, the uncle of slain Israeli teenager Naftali Fraenkel called Hussein Abu Khdeir, father of a slain Palestinian teenager and offered his condolences. Imagine. An Israeli and a Palestinian sharing their grief over losing their children. What could be more universal: two families who understand the heartbreak of the other.
This miserable cycle needs to be broken if peace is ever to have a chance. There are precious souls on all sides who seek and pursue peace. The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine could become a perfect model of people-power overcoming the inflexible ideological goals of those who rule.
It happened in the Philippines. It happened in Northern Ireland. It happened in South Africa. Is it not too much to hope that someday Israelis, Palestinians, Ukrainians and the people of its disputed eastern sector can accomplish the same?
A Healthy, Happy and Peaceful New Year from the JPF.