Shadows Of War
Both of my parents left Lebanon in 1976. They were young; my father at the time was only 19. They met here, fell in love, got married, and started a family.
But they both were driven to leave Lebanon—my father on his own, and my mother with her parents and siblings—because of the looming threat of the war in Lebanon. Given that the Civil War began in 1975, they faced a difficult choice: stay and take their chances or leave everything behind to start anew in a foreign country with a different language.
Both of them made the choice to leave. As are so many people right now, making the choice to leave, or rather forced to make the choice. People in many places are facing this choice, from Ukraine to those in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied territories, where the continuation of bloodshed and senseless violence persists.
Since I was young, I had always had an affinity for Middle Eastern politics and history. Along with that subject, I was also drawn to Jewish history and the holocaust. I began to read many books, my favorites among them being those by Edward Said, Robert Fisk, and Thomas Friedman. The way they described the balance between humanity, understanding, and empathy, contrasted with violence, death, and murder, highlighted the paradoxes of life.
That brings me to the current situation happening in the Middle East. I don’t care what anybody says. There is no justification for the barbarism that Hamas displayed on October 7. Innocent people were gunned down and murdered. Butchered.
Some might make the argument that this is a natural result of occupation. Decades of brutal occupation and barbaric repression. I mean for me personally, God forbid if somebody harmed my family, I can understand, wanting vengeance and revenge. But then what? What comes after that? How do we truly break the cycle? As Bono once said: “In order to defeat the monster, we must not become a monster.”
That goes for both sides. The people of Palestine deserve a state of their own; they deserve dignity; they deserve life. The people of Israel deserve to finally live in peace and not with a constant threat of a pogrom, murder, or a holocaust, as has been in their history for centuries.
Israel has killed thousands of innocent civilians, including children and babies. Choked the Palestinian population with an open-air prison of Gaza. It has reduced to rubble the country I can trace my roots to, Lebanon. This act of collective punishment is criminal.
In the west, we have a hard enough time getting rid of a government that acts against the interests of their own citizens, democratically. What are the Palestinians supposed to do about Hamas? Fanatical dictators of the Gaza Strip. They should not suffer or be pulverized for no fault of their own. Just like the innocent people in southern Israel who lost their precious lives through no fault of their own. They did not deserve what happened to them.
History has shown this occupation cannot be sustained; it will be their downfall. Peace in the Middle East needs to come now. We can forgive, maybe even if we can’t forget. But there is no path forward unless it’s together.
My upcoming book, “You’re Already Dead,” touches on such a difficult subject we all avoid in life, and that is our mortality. It’s such a morbid title, but upon completing the book, you will understand where I got it from.
I don’t really touch on the tragic reality of war in this thing we call existence. I deliberately avoid the subject because that’s not what the book is about. I will further touch on that subject in my next book , “On The Bridge Between Lost And Nowhere”.
I wrote recently in an Instagram story that even amidst a world with grand challenges and distant wars, our personal struggles hold weight. Though they might seem small, they are valid. By sharing our truths, we not only heal ourselves and uplift those near us but also cast ripples of understanding that can touch hearts globally.
The wars unfolding around us are another example of why it is so important to live our true lives of authenticity—to pursue the things that will bring us a sense of purpose. Even if it feels like the struggle is futile, we can struggle for the people that truly can’t, like those in Gaza, or the little children, who will never know the dignity and beauty of pursuing a life of joy, purpose, and happiness, because they were brutally murdered. The children in Israel and in occupied Palestine.
The pro-Palestinian protests sweeping the world are not in support of terrorism or murder. Instead, they must advocate for innocent civilians who risk becoming mere statistics in the current onslaught of indiscriminate bombing. These protests voice the rightful place Palestinians deserve among nations. They call for Palestinians’ right to live in peace and security, to be stewards of their own destiny, and not to remain subjugated by colonial rulers.
We have a duty to try to live our best life, all amongst changing winds that guide our kites. In the words of my late father, with the wind around him, pushing and pulling the kite of his life in any number of directions, he would say: “Aitruk Al'Amr Lilah” (leave it up to God).
The current conflict is a very complex continuation of a story; there are many nuances here. I’m trusting you to fill in the blanks.
Thank you for reading, holding in my heart all of those affected by the brutality of war, and the innocent people and families destroyed in Gaza and Israel. Praying for the safe return of the hostages held in Gaza.
