Good Caturday morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee is black and strong. ☕️
I will be posting yesterday’s good morning post (A Disneyland of Hate) in blog format today. I am glad some of you found it worthy of some introspection. Thank you.
The Nova Festival massacre was, to me, the most horrific event of October 7, 162 days ago. And I talked about it on the post mentioned. But it needs reinforcement.
Many Israelis have tried all they could to coexist peacefully with a Palestinian state. There are two realities, however, that also coexist in Israel.
They materialized, up to 10/7, in the way some Israelis interact with Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank. They reveal both sides of the same coin, one good, one bad. The good side is haunted by excess, just as the bad side is tempered by good will. It’s complex, and deserves a lot of thought, as neither is without flaws.
The bad side, is manifested through the settler movement, ongoing on the West Bank since Menachem Begin’s government of 1981, on steroids since 10/7, courtesy of Israel’s minister of Finance, Bezalel Yoel Smotrich, himself a settler. Under the excuse of creating a protective layer between the West Bank portion of the Palestinian state and the state of Israel, settlements remain more a spear than a shield, and constitute a source of legitimate grievance to the Palestinians.
This is the ugly side of Zionism, not “my Zionism”, a side that Herzl was very much against, but others made sure was part of the Cultural Zionist playbook, in which the divine right to the land of Israel is imposed above all else, at any cost. And even if we understand “land for peace” will not work, as long as Islamic Jihadists control the Palestinian Authority, the goal should be to remove those extremists from the equation, to allow for a true two state solution.
The Oslo Accords remain an elusive dream, but dream we must, if we wish not just peace, but democracy in a Jewish State that is still in the making, as much as our American experiment is still ongoing. After 250 years, Americans still struggle with the quest for a more perfect Union, do not expect Israel to reach it in 75. The truth is we will never reach perfection, but try we must, and trying we are, both in the US and in Israel.
Settlements have a positive aspect, and would indeed allow for a better coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, in the sense that they would allow for Jews to live in Palestine, just as Arabs live in Israel. Now that is a pretty close vision to that of Theodor Herzl, but one that did not come to be. Most, if not all, of Jewish settlements in the West Bank are created at the expense of Palestinian displacement, and are not helping Israel, at home or abroad.
As opposed to this movement, in the East, another was set in motion in the West, around Gaza. Unlike the settlements in the West Bank, the Kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip were created respecting the 1967 borders, on Israeli land, and the people in them were mostly activists who worked very closely with the Palestinian population of Gaza, trying to minimize the impact of Hamas rule and Israel’s response to that reality, naive in the belief that most Gazans were opposed to it.
Since 2005, many Israelis living near the border with Gaza tried their best to help the Palestinians reach stability and safety, by meaningful interactions with them, from technical assistance, trying to teach them new technologies, to medical assistance, very often transporting Palestinians to Israeli health care centers in Israel, so they could get proper care. All in the hopes that one day they would be able to care for themselves, and remember those who helped them.
It was a conscious and concerted effort geared towards peace and coexistence, but rooted in the flawed belief Hamas would allow it. And this is the real tragedy of October 7, 2023. After almost 20 years of work, the people in the communities that truly were engaged in the peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza, were the ones Hamas chose as targets. This is not a coincidence, or a geographical imperative with no relation to Hamas intentions. This was their goal.
And this is what makes the Nova Festival tragedy the single most important event of October 7.
The festival was a manifestation of peace, good will, and the strive for coexistence.
Set near the Re’im kibbutz, five kilometers (three miles) from the border with Gaza, the Nova Festival organizers had planned for a massive flying of kites to be held on the morning of 10/7, so the Palestinians across the border could see the Israelis were thinking of them, and would not abandon them.
Hamas knew this very well. They could have avoided the Festival, as they could have chosen to attack only military targets, but that was not the plan. The plan was to inflict maximum damage to those who most actively helped the population of Gaza, a cooperation they not only looked down on, but despised. And because their greatest enemy is peace, they willingly chose to destroy the most peaceful among their opponents. Those who opposed them, while helping their people.
The Nova Festival has become a painful symbol to all peace loving people around the world, especially Israelis. A reminder that those who seek violence and war will stop at nothing to destroy those who dream of peace. A reminder that sometimes peace can only be achieved through war, not because of the nature of those seeking it, but because of the nature of those who live to destroy it.
Such is our old reality turned new. One we cannot look away from, no matter what.
This is what Israel is up against. What we must never forget, and the reason why remembering the Nova Festival victims and the survivors, is so important.
So remember.
Never forget.
Never again.
Am Yisrael Chai 💔🕊️🇮🇱
Link to Holiday Horror Story on Instagram.
