State of war

At least once in your lifetime, you must visit Israel, according to a tourism marketing slogan of the country.

After I visited Israel in 2016, I wholeheartedly agreed.

Apart from the fantastic scenery and the out-of-this-world experience of swimming (or more accurately, floating) in the Dead Sea, it’s a place where major religions intersect. For Christians, it’s a transcendental experience to see the places that we’ve only read about in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the places believed to be where Jesus Christ was born and died.

There’s also the fascinating history of the Jewish state – how people fleeing centuries of murderous persecution culminating in the Holocaust carved a prosperous nation out of forbidding desert. Having visited the Holocaust museums in Germany and the US as well as some of the former Nazi concentration camps in Europe, I am even more impressed with what the Jews have built in their land.

About a fifth of all Nobel Prize winners in all the award categories since 1901 have been Jews. I attended an innovation conference in Tel Aviv during my visit, and I was awestruck by the ecosystem that fosters innovation in that country. Waze, for example, now widely used in the Philippines, was developed by an Israeli company and acquired by Google, whose founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are of Jewish descent.

I was also touched by the Israelis’ deep appreciation – as manifested in the “Open Doors” monument at the Holocaust memorial they built in one of their cities – for the sanctuary given by the Philippines to 1,200 Jews who fled the Holocaust during World War II. Israel is one of the countries where Filipino workers are generally treated well.

COVID turned me into a paranoid recluse. But on my bucket list is a return visit to Israel – one of the countries I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing again.

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Israel is also, unfortunately, a place where faith is driving armed conflict and mass killings.

All the observations about the madness of war and the importance of peace have bubbled up to the surface amid the images of death and destruction in Israel and the Palestinian enclaves.

Being aware of the history of the Palestinians, I also sympathize with their aspiration for their own state. This attack by the Islamist group Hamas, however, was unprovoked, and makes no distinction between combatants and civilians including children, the elderly and infirm.

Because of our special ties with the Israelis, our bonds rooted in faith to that land as well as the high number of our compatriots working in Israel, the ongoing war touches Filipinos deeper than the madness of Vladimir Putin, who has unleashed unspeakable suffering on the people of Ukraine and wreaked havoc on the global economy.

And while Putin has made some half-hearted attempt to package his war as one that does not deliberately target civilians, Hamas went directly after civilian targets, including a music festival with many foreign visitors in attendance. Hamas militants barged into civilian homes including those with Filipinos, and the group is now threatening to execute hostages.

It is said that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, but such attacks are undoubtedly terrorist acts. Even peace-loving Palestinians – and they are, we hope, in the majority – must be horrified, and are now enduring the unsurprisingly ferocious Israeli counteroffensive, with hundreds of Palestinians also killed as of yesterday.

For those with no emotional attachment to the conflict, the bigger concern is the impact of the war on already elevated fuel prices. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine made fuel prices surge worldwide and disrupted supply chains, pushing up food production costs and causing shortages. Only those who are profiting from his war are happy with Putin.

“Stop the war” and “war is hell” may seem like melodramatic slogans mouthed by pot-smoking peaceniks, but not in this case. Seeing the horrific images from the war zone, you feel a deep sense of despair, knowing that the killings and destruction are not about to end soon.

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With at least 900 killed as of yesterday in Israel – pretty steep in a state with a population of 9.7 million – Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed a blistering retaliation against Hamas. Stop the war? He can be expected not to stop until he has exacted retribution and sent an unequivocal message that you attack Israel at your own peril. Peace in that volatile region has become even more elusive.

Israel’s defense industry, among the most advanced in the world, can also be expected to develop a more formidable shield against rocket attacks, after the current shield was surprisingly penetrated by Hamas. This was a catastrophic failure for Jewish intelligence and national defense. Hamas supporter Iran has reason to applaud. Whoever helped Hamas in this will likely also see Israeli retaliation.º

Our poor migrant workers, about 30,000 of them, are literally caught in the crossfire. Everyone is praying for their safety; Filipinos have no quarrel with the Palestinians. The Philippines also faces the problem of marginalized people displaced from lands they have occupied for a long time.

I can understand why many of our compatriots are not seeking repatriation despite the ongoing war. They are treated and paid well in their host country. Now if only the armed conflict would stop, for good… but this is looking more like a pipe dream these days.

The conflict should remind us that our overarching goal must be to make it unnecessary and merely an optional lifestyle choice for Filipinos to seek employment overseas.

Even during periods of peace, the security situation in that part of the world has always been highly volatile.

My tour guide during my visit, the son of an escapee from the Dachau concentration camp, told me “Tel Aviv” refers to verses in Ezekiel, whose message is “we return home.”

It should also be our ultimate aspiration for the Filipino diaspora.