JULIAN RESNICK writes from Israel
I want to share one of the many online conversations I am presently involved in with those from outside our Jewish communities. This conversation – with a Christian friend in America – is, I believe, crucial for both Israel and the Jewish People.
Dear Julian
This nightmare has me at once befuddled, angry, sad, and hopeless. I feel very strongly for the hostages (assuming there are any left alive) and their families, while also distressed about the innocents in Gaza, as there are surely many who, while they can’t say so, are in opposition to Hamas, and many more who are totally disillusioned by Hamas leadership. Are Netanyahu and his ilk more worried about the hostages or the destruction of Hamas? Is it even possible to wipe them out?
I have been taken aback by an insensitive view of Israel when I listen to NPR (National Public Radio) lately. Many of my Jewish friends really feel hated and scared right now.
Is it inconsiderate of my Jewish friends to say that I’m praying for peace?
I know that, if my heart hurts right now, yours must be harder to console. At a macro level, I’m struggling to find much hope for the world these days with so
much hate.”
Dear …,
I am responding to the thoughtful, empathic and caring response from you.
Firstly, thank you for caring about our pain. I am aware that there are many folks out there – decent, caring folks – who feel our pain, but do not respond. This, to be honest, often leaves us feeling very alone these days. It is an enormously important act, the act of not only feeling another person’s pain, but in addition, crucially, reaching out to the other person.
Secondly, thank you for making sure, every step of the way, with each sentence, that you are not causing us more pain, in addition to the great pain we are feeling right now. We are sensitive, possibly even over-sensitive to the many words being written out there about what is happening to us; a very natural response when one is confronting, daily, tremendous loss. Your awareness of this and your checking in with us, as you write, again means a lot to us, and I, as a Jewish friend, thank you for this sensitivity.
Thirdly, yes, and yes again, pray for peace. Pray for the loss of life, not only on our side, but also on the Palestinian side. War is an ugly thing. Once the dogs of war are unleashed, there is an inevitability in the loss of innocent lives; an inevitability when it comes to collateral damage. Children die. Innocents get caught up in the crossfire. War is messy. One-third – let me say this again: one-third – of the Israeli soldiers who have lost their lives were killed by friendly fire.
I am furious (an understatement) with Hamas for two reasons. The obvious one: because they raped, brutalised and murdered our women, girls, children, babies, elderly, in a savage orgy of genocidal violence on October 7th. Secondly – and here I stand with not only you, but also many decent American and Israeli Jews – I am angry and mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives because of what Hamas unleashed on October 7th. This too is Hamas’s responsibility.
I want to state it as plainly as I can: Hamas knew that the outcome of the dastardly attack on Israel would be the loss of countless Palestinian lives. Hamas also knew that we would be involved in this conversation. Hamas knows that we care for human lives and that decent people like you and many of your friends would be devastated – AND RIGHTLY SO – by the deaths of innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire as they are used as human shields by the cynical fighters of Hamas.
This is who we are and who we have to continue to be. Categorical in our ability and need to destroy those who would murder, God forbid, my children and grandchildren, and, at the same time, to work and pray with those who work and pray for peace.
Thank you again for your friendship and words of caring.
Julian”
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