The Day I Finally Cried about the War

The weather was perfect — warm and sunny, with just enough breeze to shoo away the smog and reveal the perfect azure sky above.

I gathered with another 400 people from our neighborhood to give support to the family of Itay Saadon, who died a few days ago at age 21.

Itay’s family live a block and half away. We all came out. Neighbors, family friends, the baristas from the coffee shop next door, people I see at the corner store and recognize from my jogs in the park.

We watched Itay’s family leave their apartment and walk slowly up the street toward the cars waiting to take them to bury his body. A makeshift funeral procession all there to mourn the loss of life. Silent and despondent under the perfect azure sky.

Itay would still be alive if it wasn’t for Hamas.

Over 1500 hundred other civilians would still be alive if it wasn’t for Hamas.

Nearly 250 others would be at home, and not shackled to a drain pipe in a dungeon underneath Gaza.

Over 9500 people in Gaza would still be alive as well if it wasn’t for Hamas. Palestinian mothers wouldn’t be weeping right now if Hamas terrorists had decided to just stay home on the 7th of October.

And while we were grieving the loss of life, I couldn’t help but think about all of the alarming images we are all seeing from all corners of the globe that are celebrating death. Reveling in more death and destruction and exalting pure hatred. Calling out to kill Jews, even though they don’t live in Israel and have nothing to do with the situation.

But I fear it could be something darker… I see Americans reveling in the death of other Americans. I see Brits rejoicing in the destruction of Britain.

And the hypocrisy speaks volumes. And I don’t just mean those who gush vitriol on my Medium posts but refuse to spend half an hour trying to understand context or history. Or those who spout off easily debunked misinformation they gleaned from a Hamas-bot on TikTok.

I mean the hypocrisy of protesters in France who burn the French flag. Or the protesters in Germany who burned down Berlin last week. These protesters live in countries that have given them a solid educational system and universal healthcare, employment and opportunities.

These countries give the protestors protection of individual civil liberties.

As Bill Maher pointed out very recently, the Western countries give protesters protection of civil liberties in a way that is non-existent in pretty much everywhere else but Israel across the Middle East.

Maybe Samuel Huntington was right all along, and that the fundamental differences in the Clash of Civilizations are just too big to overcome when one side mourns the loss of life, the other side advocates for more death.

But neo-conservatism is a hard pill to swallow. It shuns all personal and emotional aspects aside and looks at the cold hard facts. Facts like Hamas using their own civilians as human shields. Facts like Hamas hoarding critical supplies from the population. Facts like Hamas murdering women and children just for the sake of clickbait so the world hates Jews more.

Or facts like Syria has had 77 years of independence to build a functioning country, but instead has spent the last decade slaughtering over 500,000 people and forcibly displacing nearly 15 million (many of which are Palestinians).

Or facts like the vast overwhelming number of Islamic terrorist incidents are either against Christians in Africa or against other Muslims in places like Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, etc...

The liberal in me has a difficult time with these neo-conservative inclinations because I want to believe that most people prefer life and liberty over death and destruction.

The liberal in me also see that co-existence is possible. The saddest irony of this entire situation is that Israel seems to be the one place where Jews, Muslims, and Christians can live together. Even with all of the glaring issues in the country, Israel is the only place in the greater MENA region where a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish woman can vote, drive a car, go alone wherever she wants, get a divorce, run for public office, and speak her mind. All because the country protects civil liberties.

So I returned home from the funeral procession and wept. Alone in the bathroom so my kids wouldn’t see.

I wept for Itay and his parents, and the countless other parents in Israel who are burying their children.

I wept for all Israelis, who suffer because Netanyahu and his right wing cronies have fanned the flames of hatred over recent years, have eliminated any option for peace in the West Bank with their horrible Settler policy, and have eroded trust between the citizens of Israel (of all religions).

I wept for the the mothers (and fathers) in Gaza, who live under the tyranny of Hamas, and whose children will grow up without options for a better world.

But mostly I wept for my children, who are sadly realizing that many people in the world advocate for more death, specifically Jewish death. And the many more people in the world who are standing by silently.