How Israel is jeopardising its future

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Jewish history was profoundly influenced by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire and the Roman conquest. It is often mentioned in Jewish historical accounts as involving persecution and exile, but little attention is paid to the fact that these were also political and strategic defeats. Why did the small kingdom of Judah rebel against the Babylonian Empire? Perhaps by a form of certainty that God would help to defeat them? And it was a civil war between Jews that led to the annexation of Judea by Rome.

The narrative of persecution and exile has led to perceiving these events from the perspective of spiritual teachings, prompting the development of adaptation strategies. That’s normal! Any form of resilience begins with the meaning we give to a lived drama and what we do with it. However, resilience should be accompanied by a lesson. And the lesson is clear: internal divisions, a lack of knowledge of the adversary, and overconfidence are the enemies of political and military success.

But that is exactly what Israel seems to be doing since the attacks of October 7, 2023: a war response of rare brutality, without vision or plan, with the sole certainty of embodying the «people of light» against the darkness. We are in the Hanukkah period, the feast of lights, a symbol of the purity of the Jewish soul against the Greeks during the Hellenistic period. However, it is ironic to think that Judaism celebrates a festival of opposition to the Hellenic soul when these same Greeks had cultural exchanges with… Buddhists.

While the Jewish people have developed a strong resilience through their ordeals, the lessons of these events have not been fully learned. The state, which should have existed to save 6 million Jews from the Holocaust, is now the one that is relentlessly starving and massacring civilians for more than a year. The attack on October 7 showed, at its core, that narratives are not enough; concrete actions are required: listening, understanding, and connecting. The Palestinian problem, kept under the surface, exploded with unprecedented violence during this Black Shabbat. The massive media coverage of Israeli actions will remain for decades, and one can hope that this will be conducive to a realization of the unlearned lessons that led to the destruction of two temples.