Israel’s national anthem is called Hatikvah: “The hope.”
It’s hard to feel any hope at this moment, with so many deaths, including from that hospital blast in Gaza; as I write this, U.S. intelligence suggests Israel was not responsible.
When it was adopted as the anthem, Hatikvah symbolized hope for this refuge rising from the ashes of the Holocaust; hope for the survivors who had experienced so much brutality and for Jews expelled from other Middle Eastern countries; hope for a democracy that would ensure that Jews would have a safe place to go. We say “never again” about the Holocaust – and that statement implies the possibility of an again.
The anthem is based on an 1878 poem by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet who lived in eastern Europe before leaving for Palestine. The poem communicated a hope to return to the land of the Jewish people after 2,000 years of displacement.
Israel, established after the United Nations’ 1947 partition plan for Mandatory Palestine, is a tiny nation in the midst of countries that have been, or remain today, hostile to it, with some even denying its right to exist. Its strong army has been essential to its survival, as it has fought neighbouring enemies in wars including the surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973.
Fifty years later, Israel was attacked again. But this was not a military operation: It was a campaign of cruelty. In addition to the more than 1,400 murders, around 200 people were taken hostage, including children and babies.
The horrific tactics have shaken Israelis, as well as Jews and other feeling people around the world to the core. For some, that has led to justified anger.
On CNN, an unnamed Israeli soldier was interviewed at Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 10 per cent of the population was murdered, including, as he described, an infant in her pyjamas, shot in the head. “How do I feel? Determined. Very determined,” he said.
A desire for revenge is understandable. But Israel should be – needs to be – better than that. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Israel is a democratic state. And a full-scale invasion of Gaza will lead to horrific consequences, both humanitarian and geopolitical.
I’m obviously not a military strategist, but I am a human being. And I cannot see the benefit of bombing public infrastructure and apartment buildings, of forcing all those people out of their homes.
Yes, Hamas is known to embed their operations among citizens to use them as human shields.
But Israel knows this.
Yes, Israel warned citizens of Gaza to leave. But to do so on such short notice seems cruel. And where are they to go?
Perhaps that was Hamas’s strategy all along: to inspire an Israeli response that the world would despise, with Gazans as human pawns. But pointing fingers at Hamas, as fair and accurate as this exercise might be, won’t change the fact that Gazans are enduring a catastrophe. And while Israel has said it would not block humanitarian aid to Gaza from Egypt, so long as supplies don’t reach Hamas, that won’t come close to solving that crisis.
Yes, the actions of Hamas were horrific. Yes, Israel has the right to defend itself: to rescue those hostages, hunt down the perpetrators, shore up its defences. Yes, yes, yes. But how far will this go? Already the misery in Gaza is horrific: Displaced families, women with crying babies, men hauling around mattresses, starving and thirsty people desperate for safety as bombs fall all around. That hospital.
Never again, remember?
Whether they were supporters of Hamas or not, there is a danger that Gazans and other Palestinians will be motivated to support it. If Israel invades and occupies Gaza, it will only lead to more death, more strife, more hatred – and then how can we ever hope for peace?
I am absolutely not victim-blaming: this is just a logical consequence of continued escalation. Even some families of Israeli victims have called for restraint. “It seems to me that if in the worst days of their lives they can keep their humanity, the rest of us can follow their example,” wrote Ami Dar, the Israeli-born founder of the NGO Idealist.org, on X, formerly Twitter.
For Jews, the establishment of a State of Israel wasn’t just about hope. It was insurance, of “never again.” And now, at the very time we need that insurance, hope has dissolved into fear.
There is so much to be afraid of – for people living in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and other Arab nations; for Jews everywhere, who have witnessed a modern-day pogrom, followed by some international celebration and atrocity denial. There is so much fear for people everywhere, knowing how far this could escalate.