So it’s Easter Sunday. Happy Easter to those who celebrate, I am one of them, not religiously, but more from the viewpoint of days gone by, when on this particular Sunday I would pilgrim to my godparents house to fetch my Easter CANDY!
To me, it’s more of a sweet memory, rather than the celebration of the first official zombie. What? Can’t possibly be too soon!! It’s been almost 2000 years! Come on, people. Flow with it.
Today, along with Easter, is a special Sunday, because my dear achoti (@lisaaronowatelier) landed in Israel, a few hours ago. She’s in Jerusalem, now. I wish her the best time possible, and look forward to seeing Israel through her eyes, as she walks the Promised Land.
To me, it’s a chance to remotely be a part of something special, and for once experience the sights of Israel through personal images, instead of the news or other’s feeds.
As I admire the beauty of this small country that means the world to so many, I can’t help to think about what will inevitably show on my feeds. Both the hope and the hate. Today I choose to focus on HOPE. Hence this morning’s suggestion of Hatikvah. For it is the one thing the Jewish people never lost, and chose to enshrine in their national anthem.
Hatikvah. The Hope.
“Hatikvah bat shot alpayim
l’hiyotam choishi b’artzenu,
eretz tzion v'yerushalayim…”
“The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.”
Such a small piece of land…
Such immense hope for the future.
Today, there are still those who claim to own the truth. Be it the ones claiming for a free Palestine or those proclaiming a greater Israel, they all root their delusions in God. Today is a good day to remember God belongs only in our private set of beliefs, an individual choice of faith that can neither belong to others, nor be imposed upon them. At the same time protected from those who choose not to believe, and respectful of them.
Such is the genesis of the problem facing Israelis and Palestinians, today. And in it lies embedded the solution: remove God from the equation. God only has place in the privacy of the believers, and the only divine right is that of one’s choice in faith itself, respecting all others.
I have always looked at Jerusalem as the key. The one place where peoples of all faiths could live in peace, leading by example, sharing the ground they all deem sacred respectfully, in harmony.
The kind of place Herzl dreamed of, but could not envision with two states yet, removed as he was by many years from the reality we face today. Yet it is what he described, when he imagined a land where Jews and Arabs coexisted in peace, prosperity, progress, and respect. He couldn’t have had the hindsight to foresee the days we live in, but he had enough vision to predict any kind of return to Zion would mean sharing the land with all who lived there.
As we endure the consequences of years of turmoil and war between populations doomed to it by the deeds and aspirations of colonial powers who couldn’t care less for them, Jewish or Arabic, we realize Herzl’s dream has been upended, but it lives still. It lives in the Hope of Israel, carried in the hearts of millions. As a teenager, I attempted to go and be part of it, traveling to Israel to work in a kibbutz.
It was the time of the post Yom Kippur war Israel. It was a difficult time. My parents adamantly denied my wishes, and that was that. Fate took me in the opposite geographical direction, and today I find myself an American citizen, living farther away from Israel than I have ever been, and yet feeling closer to it than I ever was. And now, on Easter Sunday, I find myself living on the 177th of October, like millions of others in Israel and around the world.
There is no end in sight for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but there are clear choices that both can and should make, if there is to be an end to it.
If you wish for a viable Palestine, start by making sure Palestinian children are no longer taught to hate in school. If you wish for a strong Israel, start by making sure those children have a real future to live for.
There is no denying History, and just as we recognize Palestine as a Roman definition of the region, until then known as Judea, so must we recognize that both Jews and Arabs lived in that same land during the Ottoman Empire, and the British occupation. They all tried to break free from colonialism, through the ages, seeking to live in peace in the land where their ancestors lived. And before that, to live in peace in Judea.
Of course the sands of time run steady and indifferent to the wishes of those looking back, who try to project their will onto the outcome of events literally set in stone. Before the Turks, the Arabs had their shot at administering the region, as did the Europeans. Through virtue of political actions, often enforced by military power, the Europeans had their final say in the Middle East, after the Turks were gone.
By then, both Jews and Arabs set their sights on the Holy Land. The former by virtue of their presence in Judea, later Palestine, since the establishment of the first tribes in the region, the latter by virtue of their presence in that same soil for many, many years. The movement of peoples around the Earth has produced similar situations, in every Continent, throughout the centuries. They have learned to live in the lands they stood on by the merit of those leading them.
There are hundreds of “Palestines” in Europe. There are places there where street signs are written in multiple languages, and borders are but administrative barriers on maps, designed over the years and eventually recognized, after struggles of all sorts, political, legal, and military, but seldom, if at all, religious. The West successfully removed God from government, as as core principle of its civilization.
Whatever problems Europe faced in the XX Century, they had little to do with God. Some, like the great wars, were immense. But they got solved, in the end. Outside of Europe, however, it was a different story. In a conscious move, the repercussions of which are felt to this day, Europe decided it was best for the Arabs not to have a follow up to their renaissance. It was best to keep them mired in pre XX century values, trapped in the past, as stagnant and ignorant as possible.
As a result, most of the Arabs live in a world that resembles the European Middle Ages, more than a contemporary one; and they became, mostly, chained to religion. As western societies deal with their internal problems through political discourse, the Arabs persist in looking to God for solutions. And we all know how that turns out. We were there once, it was a mess. We evolved, but we stopped them from achieving a similar progression.
You may say the same is true of the Jewish people, as religion is so much an important part of their lives. But it’s hardly the same. With the exception of the Haredim, and a few right wing nut jobs, most Jews view religion as a path to understanding and acceptance, of themselves and of others. And most Jews don’t wish God involved in political discussions, as they are mostly influenced by Western civilization morals, and their values are mostly contemporary.
From the very beginning of the establishment of the State of Israel, these two very different versions of society collided. The Israeli society became open, tolerant, diverse, progressive. Are they the paragon of civilization? No. They are working through their problems, in search of a better tomorrow, just as we are. On the other hand, the Arabs persisted in obscurantism, religious mysticism, and fanatical hegemonic ideals, rooted in one thing only: religion.
This is what history shows us. It teaches us to deal with reality in pragmatic terms. To accept Israel has existed as a nation and one people for centuries. But to also accept Arabs have lived in Palestine for many years, mostly as a colonized people, not very long as colonizers themselves.
And from 1948 onwards, these two realities need to come to resolve themselves into one: the fact both Jews and Arabs inhabit the region.
Today is a day for Hope. Hatikvah. The hope of Israel. The hope for peace. A better tomorrow, in which all the lives lost since October 7, nearly six months ago, will not have just been lost, but their meaning not wasted in the grip of hate.
May their memory be a blessing. The memory of all of them; Jews, gentiles, and Muslims. May we never forget them, and may we one day find true peace.
This is my hope, today.
Am Yisrael Chai.
