Fri May 18, 2012
Possibilities of Peace through War
By Yona Kaplan, Israel – September 2006
I am an Israeli; I served in the Israeli army for two years and finished my army service about six months ago. I am also a peace activist who has met with Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians and other so-called enemies. Putting together all I’ve seen and experienced in my life, I wish I could have a black and white view of things and say that war is always wrong but I have come to realize that sometimes war may be at least part of the answer.
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon primarily to stop the attacks of Palestinian militant groups in the area. Israel stayed in south Lebanon for 18 years. The idea was to create space between Hezbollah and Israeli communities. Many Israeli soldiers were killed which, among other things, created pressure from within Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. In 2000 all Israeli forces left Lebanon and withdrew to the blue line, the internationally recognized border.
In the six years since the withdrawal Hezbollah has stocked up on rockets, helped Palestinian terror organizations carry out terror attacks within Israel, placed bombs along the border to blowup Israeli patrols, and, as happened again this summer, planned and carried out the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. Of course Hezbollah doesn’t want a war – but does this sound more like war or peace?
It would be great if we could all put down our guns and just “get along” but the real world doesn’t seem to work that way, especially when on the other side you have an organization whose whole goal is to destroy you.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate war. I hate that civilians are getting killed on both sides. I hate that soldiers in the army, who are my age, my friends, my family, have to risk their lives to try and protect us. I hate that when this is over the children will never be the same children again. I hate that for every person killed or wounded there is a whole family that suffers with them. I hate that people are scared for their lives just for going outside. But most of all I hate finding that there is no better way and that the absence of war is often far from peace.
There is no magic formula to get us out of this mess, so for now, please don’t judge me, please don’t judge Israel, for loosing some faith in the political equivalent of abracadabra- peace.
Since the war between Israel and Hizballah has started there has been international pressure on Israel to “stop the escalation of violence”. Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah himself, announced that he doesn’t want a war. But Israel doesn’t listen to any of this; Israel must be a violent, war-loving nation, right?
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