By Asaf Harduf, Lawyer and PhD candidate at the Haifa Faculty of Law, living in Emek Yizrael
Hello, Lebanon.
Currently, you are under heavy fire. Infrastructures are getting ruined. Innocent citizens are getting killed or are forced to escape their homes. Pictures arrive at the world, and it is not smiling to see them. You know what? Neither are we.
No, I don't want to play the blame game now. I don't wish to talk about 'who started it' and 'whose fault it is'. And still, I would like you to know a little more of the people standing on the other side. It is easy to hate and demonize us. But we are not demons.
The last few days I've been watching pictures of children and mothers in Lebanon, talking about Israel. Talking about me. One boy spoke of the will to strike Israel, to kill as many citizens as possible. One mother told the reporter that ever since they were born, she had been teaching her children to hate Israel. To hate me.
This, perhaps, is the difference between us. I don't hate either you or your son. Never will I educate my children to hate a person for being an Arab, from Lebanon, Palestine or Iran. Unlike you, I ache with every civil suffering in Lebanon. When seeing pictures of refugees, I do not say: "That will show them, for supporting Hezbollah".
My heart shrivels in my chest as I see your pain and distress. While hearing of citizens killed in Lebanon, I do not raise a glass and think "maybe now they will learn". I feel sad for every citizen killed. I feel sad for lives and dreams that are no more. For a family left behind. And for hatred, going stronger, prevailing over the dream of peace, a dream which I hope some of you aspire to as well.
I do not come to apologize. Unlike Hezbollah, targeting its arsenal mainly at civilians, IDF does not seek to hurt the population. If it had wanted, it would have done so easily. But it does not want to. Neither are we, back in the rear. We all wish for peace to return, yet we cannot support a ceasefire. You see, Lebanon? Two of our sons have been kidnapped, and we cannot accept that.
Six years back, IDF withdrew its forces from you. There were some who chose to interpret the withdrawal as a weakness. After the first time three of our sons were killed and abducted, we showed restraint. We negotiated for the return of their bodies. But it was not enough, apparently. Nasrallah has decided that the region was too calm for you and for us. But Nasrallah, bear that in mind, does not serve you, even if he claims differently. Nasrallah answers to Iran, which is the only one interested in this conflict.
You and I, so I hope, would prefer some quiet. You see: we are not taught to hate. We are nurtured by a dream of peace. When we go to battle, it is because we feel we have no choice. When innocent citizens are killed by our hands, we do not merely express sorrow - we genuinely feel it. However, we cannot ignore the abduction of our soldiers.
We cannot allow for more terrorists to be released and continue hitting us afterwards, knowing that if they are captured - they will be set loose on the next abduction. And here, in our prisons, there are those who would not have lived had they been in other countries.
Have you ever paid any attention to the fact that we don't exercise capital punishment in Israel? Even a terrorist who has sent a suicide bomber to kill kids in a nightclub - was not executed here. Some may say we should know better. Some may say deterrence is more important than the life of a terrorist.
Some may say that if we exercised the death penalty, at least we would not have to fear a scenario in which we would have to release these mass murderers to get our sons back. As for myself - I am proud to live in a country that will not kill a murderer if it is able to apprehend him. You see, we don't really wish to kill. We only want to live peacefully.
Even Nasrallah - I would rather have him live and reform, change his evil ways and wield his tongue for the sake of peace between Arabs and Israelis. But that seems far fetched, even for a dream.
Take a deep breath, Lebanon. Don't be tempted to hate us, in spite of what you see. We are not fighting you, just those who try to destroy peace between us. We only want peace. And when we have it, perhaps some day we'll have a cup of coffee in Beirut, you and me, and instead of re-living of the past, we will plan a better future, a peaceful one.
Peace, Lebanon.