The Pain of War

I am walking around angry and sad, there are times in the past 24 hours that I cannot keep the tears from my eyes. I have not felt this way in 33 years since the Yom Kippur War. Then I was a young man of 18 and those who died were my age some my friends. Today, I cry for the mothers and fathers for the wives and in one case husband who have lost those dearest to them- and of course the children- most of whom are too young to appreciate today what they have lost. I spent two weeks of the war in Israel, and for the last two week I have been back in the US spending most of the day glued to Israeli TV or listening to Israeli radio. I have alternately been angry with the government, the Arabs and the world. Why did we wait? Why did we not send in ground troops earlier? Why can’t they stop hating us? Is this any way to treat the people of the North? On and on the questions continue.

For the last few days I have been particularly angry with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert- why did he keep hesitating to send in the massive ground troops what were needed to secure Southern Lebanon? I knew it would be costly but some things had to done. Today I understand, my daughter called me from Israel when she awoke to the news that I had known for a few hours that Israel lost 24 soldiers yesterday- how could it be she demanded what happened? I tired to comfort her that this was to be expected, I put on my hat as an historian saying during both the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War we lost over 100 soldiers a day, it was a cold comfort to a 25 year old. I had expected the casualties, I was not surprised, and at first I was comforted by the fact we had finally acted even if it was late in the game. By the end of the day I understood only too well why Prime Minister Olmert hesitated so long- the images of the soldiers who were lost- the interviews with their love ones- the pain.

How long will the pain have to continue? How many Haman’s do we have to endure? The head of Israeli military intelligence said today at the cabinet meeting that the likelihood of another war with Hezbollah was very high. Somehow in the past decade despite the bombings of the Intifadah- it somehow seemed that the fight for our survival was over, Israel was a wealthy western state with many challenges, but they were mostly about defining what it means to be Jewish state. Unfortunately it seems that resurgence of militant Islam whether its Sunni or Shiite incarnation have returned us to the most basics of what it means to be a Jewish state- and that is one where Jews can once again be safe. I fear for the future, but while I will allow sadness to envelop me, I like the rest of Jewish people, both in Israel and abroad must not allow that fear to shape our lives. Rather it must galvanize us to make plans and find the solutions that will bring us to a better day. For we are one people with one state and one destiny.