Hanukkah Light in the Darkness - Day 4

We need more light in the darkness.

The following essays are my inner thoughts in these dark days, published for the celebration of Hanukkah, the holiday we, Jewish people, celebrate for the past 2187 years (yes, in 164 BCE the Jewish people, in the Land of Israel, also known as Zion, were able to yet again have their religion freedom in the temple).

Day 4 - The real war

There are two wars going on right now.

One war is very clear. Its opponents know exactly what they want, and they are stating it for everyone to hear.

The other war is the scary one.

The first war is between Israel and Hamas.?

Hamas, a terrorist organization, operating with terrorists methods since their inception, attacked Israel countless times. In their published charter, their one main goal is to destroy the State of Israel completely. Not to establish a Palestinian country that will live side-by-side with Israel. To destroy Israel. In their actions, they have tried to act on it many times; launching suicide bombers to kill innocent Israeli civilians, launching thousands on rockets on innocent Israeli civilian population, raping women, beheading people, burning children alive, kidnapping babies, elderly, women and men, and anyone they can put their hands on. Nothing comes between them and their goal to eradicate Israel; not their own people whom they use as human shields, not any international aid which they steal and use for their own munition and underground protection, and especially not the truth. If they have the option to lie, to use suffering for their own gain, they will use it. And they admit they do. It is not something they hide.

the other side of this war is the State of Israel, a legal entity recognized by the United Nations, the only country in the world that has majority Jewish people, the same Jewish people who are indigenous to the land where the state is, the same Jewish people who were killed in Europe and expelled from all Arab and Muslim countries. And this nation, legal state, has the right to defend itself, like any other legal country. And In this current war, which Hamas declared with its monstrous rampage on Israeli civilians, Israel has the right - and the duty to its citizens - to fight back, and eradicate this threat. Israel declared its aim in this war - to completely destroy Hamas, and to bring back safely all the kidnapped Israelis.

These are very clear outcomes of each side, and both sides see it clearly.

But the other war? The other war is all over the world. It is a war much scarier than the one between Israel and Hamas.

This is a war of the truth against falsehood. It’s a war of knowledge against ignorance. It’s a war of real liberalism against old-rooted hatred against minorities. It is a war of morality and decency against corrupt political views, corrupt ideological views, corrupt deep pockets full of blood money. It is a war of people whose bodies and minds are in the 21st century clashing with people whose minds are still in the dark ages. It is a war of religions that moved on and reformed some of their original dogmas that don’t make sense any more, with a religion that refuses to do so.

And this war scares me much more than the physical war in Gaza.?

This war is much harder to fight. People are in love with their ignorance. They translate it to righteousness. Instead of thinking for themselves and seeking the truth, they call propaganda the truth, and truth is propaganda. They twist everything to fit their narrative. They refuse to look at evidence. And social media doesn’t help fight the war… It is part of the tools of the war.?

This is depressing. And dangerous. Way more than any physical war.

Where is the light in this war? How can we win it?