糖心Vlog传媒

Then came Saturday, when we learned that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were attacking Israel with unprecedented force.

My former home, located next to Gaza, was in the middle of it. News reports told us of attacks on small towns in the area, but it wasn鈥檛 until Sunday morning that we began to hear details. Among people my wife and I had lived and worked with: Two dead, four in hospital, four disappeared 鈥� probably taken hostage. As I write this, we don鈥檛 know the details, or whether the casualty list will grow.

One kibbutz friend wrote on Facebook as the attacks were going on. She could hear gunfire. She pleaded for reinforcements.

鈥淗orror, darkness, fear,鈥� she added later.

A woman at a neighboring kibbutz wrote on Facebook: 鈥淭he terrorists arrived at 9 a.m. and went from house to house. ... They killed, kidnapped people to Gaza, and set the houses on fire鈥︹��

That鈥檚 what war does, what terrorism does. It crushes the spirit. It opens wounds that never heal.

I鈥檝e criticized Israeli governments for failing to deal with the enormous problem of the 3 million Palestinians living under their control in the West Bank. Another 2 million live in Gaza, half of them in poverty, in an area five times smaller than Rock County.

The current Israeli government seems intent on making the Palestinian problem just go away. It won鈥檛.

So much can be said about 鈥渢he situation,鈥� as Israelis call it. There鈥檚 no room for that here. But here are my takeaways after years of thinking and reading about this:

Celebrating when your enemy鈥檚 blood is spilled, while understandable, is wrong.

The problem will not go away; ignore it at your peril. President Joe Biden might have helped avoid this conflict if he had forced the Israeli government to stop its harassment of Palestinians and building Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

Peace is the only solution, but the road is long and rocky.

Look for those who are helping Thank you, Mr. Rogers.

A tiny minority of Palestinians and Israelis have joined hands in this effort.

The Parents Circle Family Forum, an organization of people who have lost loved ones to the conflict on both sides, issued a statement on the violence.

Some excerpts: 鈥淐ountless families now bear the burden of emptiness in their hearts and the heavy weight of grief due to the tragic loss of their loved ones. 鈥� The time has come to change the situation. This region has endured too much pain, too much bloodshed, and too many tears. It is a moment for all parties involved to reflect on the senselessness of this continued conflict and to recognize the shared humanity that binds us all.鈥�