War is a Person

We see the rockets shooting across the sky, white streaks of light like so many falling stars.

We hear the sirens wail and watch the reporters scramble for cover. We see the streets explode and the buildings crumble. We absorb the chaos and say the prayers and promise to keep those who are suffering in our collective thoughts.

But we don’t feel anything, not really. Not from those images or experiences. They are abstractions – made for TV moments put on a loop.

Rockets and explosions are death in aggregate. They are anonymized data points on a chart, raw statistics to be compiled. They are the eye candy of the macabre.

This is the sad truth of our 21st Century. Bombs and body parts are instantly streamed to the same devices we use to order a pizza or call an Uber. This inures us to violence and mutes our capacity to care, truly care, as much as any human with a beating heart should. There’s no mobile app for empathy.

But all that changes when you see a face.

What makes the current Israel-Gaza conflict different, at least in these early days, are the videos of civilians being dragged into vehicles and taken hostage. Dead bodies don’t scream; captured soldiers signed up knowing the risks.

But a mother with two crying babies? A grandma shoved in the back of a pickup truck? A family pulled from their home after watching their teenage daughter get murdered?

Yeah, that hits different.

Taking civilian hostages is the ultimate in cowardice, and also nothing new for Hamas. They already use Palestinian civilians as both shields and cannon fodder, so maybe Hamas figured that Israel wouldn’t risk killing its own people.

However, Israel has taken that risk before, notably during the Raid on Entebbe where three Israeli hostages died but the other 102 were rescued. I’m not saying that Israel is going to purposely jeopardize the safety of its citizens, but it’s not going to just let this one slide, either. Israel has a long memory.

How the Israeli government responds is nevertheless a discussion for another day. In this moment of shock and uncertainty, we need to focus on people and not politics. We need to remind ourselves, and the world, what war is.

A young couple abducted from a dance party.

A brother crying for his sister.

A woman bound and gagged and pulled by the hair.

It’s not easy to think about, but that’s the point. War is a person – if we let it become anything less, we lose.