Like many of my colleagues in Times Opinion, I spent much of the weekend trying to reach Israelis and Palestinians to write and explain what we were seeing, horrified, in the hours after Hamas militants swept across the border between Gaza and Israel, kidnapping and killing civilian men, women and children. |
I am normally relatively Shabbat observant. But Saturday, the day Israel was attacked, felt impossible to spend in typical contemplation — in part because I also spent part of the day on WhatsApp, texting my own family and friends in Israel. |
By Sunday afternoon the numbers of Israeli dead were estimated as between 700 and 900, with 2,000 wounded, a devastating toll. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advised Gazans to flee areas where militants might be located — but how to do so, or where to go, he did not say — as Israel began to fire airstrikes into Gaza. Over 400 Palestinians lay dead as the weekend closed, and the United Nations humanitarian agency reported over 120,000 Gazans were displaced. |
The number of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas is estimated to be over 150, including music festival goers and children — some last seen in jumpy cellphone video footage. Families of a handful of the captives held a press-conference demanding news of their loved ones. One friend, a journalist, sent me Facebook photos of two murdered friends, a couple. The news feels terribly ugly, and worsening with each alert. |
I was reminded of the Yehuda Amichai poem, "The Diameter of the Bomb," in which he notes that the "four dead and eleven wounded" of a 30 centimeter bomb are in a "larger circle of pain and time." |
But the young woman who was buried in the city she came from, at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers, enlarges the circle considerably, and the solitary man mourning her death at the distant shores of a country far across the sea includes the entire world in the circle. |
Our columnists Tom Friedman and Bret Stephens gave readers an early analysis of the situation as it unfolded on Saturday. As Tom wrote, "the Gaza-Israel border is only 37 miles long, but the shock waves this war will unleash will not only thrust Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza into turmoil, but will also slam into Ukraine and Saudi Arabia and most likely Iran … This is an incredibly dangerous moment on multiple fronts." |
Bret pushed hard on countries that have helped keep Hamas in power in the Gaza Strip. Israel's response to the attack showed that "Israel has a clear interest not just in punishing Hamas but also in ending its rule for good," he wrote. He went on to explain that means thwarting Hamas's control in Gaza and reconsidering who should rule that region. |
"Saturday will be remembered as one of the most devastating days in Israel's history," wrote Shimrit Meir, an adviser to a former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett. But Shimrit notes that Israelis have a great deal of soul searching to do now — not only over how they underestimated Hamas, but in how divisions in Israeli society left the country at risk for external enemies. |
In my conversations with Palestinians and Israelis alike, all raised the question of the impact of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, the intractability of the conflict and the role played by the current governments, in both Israel and Gaza. Israelis are all turning over military and intelligence failures. |
In the days to come, we anticipate pieces from a number of voices. Pain will be a universal theme. |
Saturday evening began the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. It is a festive holiday, typically filled with raucous dancing and music, with joy and singing. I stopped by my synagogue with my young daughter, but we heard the band and thought better of it, and left. It felt wrong. Nothing felt right. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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