Once again, I find myself watching on television, weary and disheartened, as the rubble of a home targeted by an Israeli strike lies collapsed over its occupants. This time, the scene is in Ain Yaacoub (Akkar) — a modest two-story house, typical of rural areas, its construction unfinished, with parts still bare cement due to a lack of funds. Without warning, as its displaced residents were having tea on the balcony, an Israeli airstrike reduced the building to rubble in a cloud of smoke. The toll: 16 dead, including two children. Earlier, it was Almate (Jbeil) with 17 dead, Joun (Iqlim el-Kharroub) with 20, and Aito (Zgharta) with 22. The Israeli state relentlessly tracks Hezbollah operatives wherever they may be, eliminating them without mercy.
The toll of this lopsided conflict — initiated by Hezbollah on October 8, 2023 — falls harshly on the civilian population.
At the risk of repeating myself and wearying my reader, I must say it again: "They do not know what they are doing." To me, this is the universal response we must offer in the face of Evil, with a capital E. In an era of nuclear power, artificial intelligence, and satellites, there is no longer any such thing as a "humane" war. "War is always — always — humanity's defeat, always!" Pope Francis tirelessly reminds us.
One night, I dreamt of the Holocaust memorial in Israel, Yad Vashem. On display, I saw women’s handbags arranged by size… A woman’s handbag is not just an ordinary object; it is a universe. Along with her dreams, it holds her papers. Amid the rubble of buildings destroyed without warning by Israeli airstrikes, it is the first thing sought out. Press photographers look for a toy to place among the rubble, to add poignancy before capturing the shot.
They seek to stir emotions. But amidst the chaotic pile of collapsed ceilings, furniture, wood, cement, glass, fabric, and aluminum — the very things shattered by the airstrikes — it’s not stuffed toys, but dreams that have been destroyed. Can dreams be destroyed? I don’t know. And among the rubble, it is the heart that searches first, before the hands, the hammers, the picks, and the excavators.
The universal response this heart can offer to Israel, which destroys, is that they do not know what they are doing. They do not realize that they are facing human beings just like them, with their small and big dreams, their hopes — hopes that give them the strength to hold on to life despite everything, and to believe in the happiness it may still bring.
All rubble is the same, whether it’s material, moral, or mental. This is exactly what we witness on television — passive spectators of a horror unfolding before our eyes. And along with the loss of lives and the destruction of homes, it’s the humanity of two peoples that disappears into a vortex of suffering.
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