As 2019 is here, I choose to look ahead and not reflect to
the past.
This past weekend I was talking to a group of tourists
visiting our village. After them hearing
from me about the tension we are living under, not knowing from one moment to
the next what to expect, we went to an overlook to see how close we are to our
neighbors in Gaza. While standing there we suddenly focused on a balloon in the
sky. What do you think of when you see a balloon? You think, I am sure. of a
birthday party or some other celebration. You think of the poor child who let
go of his or her balloon and it went higher and higher in the sky but not here,
not us. We immediately think of an explosive attached to it and wonder
fearfully where it will fall. We call security right away. They start following
up on the situation and we prefer to just get on our way. This specific story
does have a happy ending and as any normal human being would have thought, the
balloon was from a birthday party, there was a poor little girl that was crying
because she lost her balloon. Sad as it was, there was no fear and no anxiety.
Yesterday was a completely different story. A huge bunch of
beautiful, colorful balloons fell in a field nearby. This time it did carry an
explosive that exploded as the security officials were trying to neutralize it.
Luckily no one was hurt but it did start up the inevitable: First the
retaliation from the IDF – “they have to be taught a lesson, again”. Then the
retaliation to the retaliation – a missile launched from Gaza towards Ashkelon,
our nearby town, “We’ll show them who’s who” and so on. Retaliation after
retaliation and as I am writing these lines, I hear explosions, Boom! Boom! Is
it us, is it them? I do not know. What I do know is that it has to stop here
and now.
We have to come to terms with the fact that there is another
people, the Palestinian people, who have a right to live in this region, on
this piece of land with liberty, dignity and security. The Palestinians need to
come to terms with the fact that Israel is here to stay in its own right too.
We both have a history that ties us to this land. We both don’t feel that we belong
in any other place. Each one will tell you why it is the other who has go
elsewhere. The Palestinians say “go back to where you came from before Israel
became an independent state”. The Israelis
say “You have the whole of the Arab/Moslem world to call home, we don’t have
any other”. Both of us know in ourselves what is good and right for the other,
why the other is to blame for the situation.
Maybe we could both make a New Year’s resolution to lay down
the arms, leave behind the hate, the violence and vengeance and start working on
a format that can allow both people to live a secure meaningful and successful life.
Yes, it means to stop bringing up the past. It means to look open eyed into the
future and decide to talk positively about how we make this work and not stop
until we find the way. It is there we have just got to want to reach out to it.
There will be obstacles, there will be disagreements, there will be challenges
but none that we cannot overcome. Let us prove to ourselves, to the world that
it can be done. The leadership that will pick up the gauntlet will be the true
hero, not the one who wins the next round of violence.
I am not a dreamer! The dreamers are those Palestinians who
say they want to drive us into the sea – that is not going to happen. The
dreamers are those Israelis who believe that another 50 years of occupation and
15 years of blockade will bring about a solution or a way out – no, not that
way.
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