“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”
~ William Sherman

Almost 200 years ago William Sherman told the honest, naked and lasting truth of a war, after fighting in a dozen of those.
WAR IS HELL.

Nuclear weapons were supposed to work as a tool to establish peace, serving as a dreadful reminder of what could very well be the ultimate fate of humanity.
But, as it happens always, this has led nuclear powers in the world in fighting proxy wars against each other all over the globe, raising militias, exploiting labours, supporting fundamentalism, only to get the upper hand on paper.

But what that decades of power struggle have resulted in the middle East is absolutely unholy.
After the Arab spring in 2011. The region never regained its past stability and now after the USA’s exit from Afghanistan, merely awaiting another major conflict to breakout.
And in all this chaos, we are back to the titled issue in the region, an issue older than a thousand years, Israel-Palestine, Gaza and Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a holy land for all 3 Abrahamic religions, Christians, Muslims and Jews. Let’s skip over the crusades and wars fought here for hundreds of years, to keep this article short, to summarize, this land, Palestine, which had no population earlier has been double promised to both Arabs and Jews during world wars and now for past 75 years both communities have been at each other’s throats to gain complete control over it.

Israel, a Jew nation, has a formidable military might and has been running a successful democratic government. On the other hand, we have, HAMAS, a militant group, recognized as a Terrorist organization by many prominent countries.
I’m also going to stop the urge of getting too much into the chronology of significant events unfolded in the region which has led to today’s warlike situation.
Many YouTube videos can explain that much better than I could.

I’m going to point only to the core of it. And the core is, the inability of two different Cultural Communities to co-exist with one another.
Cultural conflicts resulting in a war is a norm since old times and little has changed since then.
Israeli jews have suffered a terrible fate in WW2 and took refuge in the holy land of Palestine.
Despite conflicts for a long time, both parties almost reached to a middle ground around 1994 and
the world thought the long-lasting conflict has finally come to an end, only for that joy to be proven temporary when some Jewish zealot assassinated PM of Israel Yitzhak Rabin, and some Islamic zealots formed HAMAS to put talk of papers behind and talk of guns and bombs has prevailed since.

This has led us to what is happening today, after an abominable attack on Israeli civilians on October 7th 2023, Israel has decided to go all in and finish Hamas once and for all.
Bombs have been falling on the strip of Gaza and death counts has already passed tens of thousands. Many have condemned the genocidal tactic of seizing and bombing while some have even supported the same citing the barbaric attack done by Hamas.
I am not going to pretend to answer this extremely complicated geopolitical issue in one mere article of mine. BUT, what I do understand, is lives of Israeli and Palestinian people are equally important. Just an year ago when Ukraine and Russia decided to solve their issues with guns, the whole world held their breath and sanctions and followed, meanwhile, now in Gaza the casualties are mounting, and the Warmongering of media is on a high.

Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization, and the victims of 7th Oct should be given justice. But there must be a better way to do it than carpet bombing civilians. We have seen similar pattern 20 years ago after 9/11 attack on Twin Towers and the following wars in Iraq, Afghanistan has led to millions of civilian deaths. We should take a lesson from this recent history otherwise we would be condemned to repeat it.

Coming back to the core of the issue as I mentioned, the inability of two different cultural communities to co-exist with one another. This is dear to me as our very nation was partitioned due to the same reason in 1947. Even today, in our country, we do find animosities between different communities, and it should be our priority to curb that notion and stand as one nation if we ever dream to become a true superpower.

From a completely impoverished country, India has come a long way, and it is because, despite cultural differences, social differences, people in this country have lived together, celebrate with one another and mingle beyond caste, religion and culture.
And while you, like I, must be seeing political and religious divisiveness on social media, we must remember and remind ourselves that we, Indians, didn’t come this long way to fight with one another, but by fighting together.

To conclude,
I share my deep condolences to the victims of terror and war crimes on both Israel-Palestine sides.
And will recite a poem from the Book of Revelation, made famous in the Iconic movie ‘The Omen’,
to remind us how the devil works.

“When the Jews return to Zion
and a comet rips the sky
and the Holy Roman Empire rises
then you and I must die.”

“From the eternal sea he rises
creating armies on either shore,
turning man against his brother
‘til man exists no more.”

~ Gaurav Pande