To live in peace
Hampton Roads must reject old prejudices and support one another
The conflict between Israel and Hamas may be raging half a world away, but it feels much closer for many residents of Hampton Roads. People with ties to that area fear for the safety of family and friends in the line of fire; those with service members deployed there worry about the risk of a larger regional conflict.
Amid so much pain and suffering, Hampton Roads must be a place of comfort, where neighbors support one another rather than fear them. Threats, intimidation and acts of violence based on religion or national origin have no place here, and we must resolve to hold together in the face of hatred and against the backdrop of so much sorrow.
The barbarity of the coordinated Oct. 7 Hamas attack cannot be questioned. It was abhorrent and despicable.
Hamas terrorists rampaged through the southern countryside, slaughtering civilians, burning villages and launching rockets against numerous targets throughout the country. More than 200 people were taken back to Gaza as hostages, including children and the elderly.
The savagery of the violence was nearly incomprehensible. The killers made no distinction between young and old, women and men, healthy or infirm. They cared only about the religion of their victims.
They wanted to kill Jews.
Israel, enraged, has every right to target the terrorist organization responsible for the bloodshed, bring justice to those who would order such obscene violence, and rescue the hostages from captivity.
But as the bombs continue to fall on
Gaza, ground troops begin operations within the enclave and the reported Palestinian death toll soars, we cannot lose sight of the families who, like their Israeli neighbors, wish only to live in peace. Civilians in Gaza have no place to go, as they are hemmed in by the Egyptian border while the Israeli war machine bears down on them.
The world cannot stand by and allow so many innocent people to die and to suffer. A ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid and to move more people out of harm’s way is needed. The United States, as Israel’s strongest ally and most generous benefactor, should press for it, and it was reassuring to see President Joe Biden tentatively endorse a bombing “pause” this week.
The hostages must come home, and Hamas cannot be allowed to exist in any capacity, but laying waste to Gaza is unlikely to achieve either objective and will create a host of other problems, such as the future administration of the strip and the care for nearly 2 million Palestinian civilians. Bombing dense residential areas makes Israel look like the aggressor, even though Hamas was the provocateur.
The military action in Gaza has already resulted in protests against Israel’s response and the harm inflicted on civilians there. Even here in the United States, passionate debate has erupted — in the streets, on college campuses, in online forums — over the war.
Such discussion can be healthy, even constructive, if conducted in good faith. But with misinformation rampant and bad actors polluting the debate, old prejudices have been given a new platform.
There’s a venomous strain of antisemitism circulating. Others voice a familiar anti-Arab intolerance. Some appear content, or even gleeful, as the death toll mounts and they advocate for the other side’s eradication.
Those absolutist perspectives ignore our shared humanity, something we can see plainly in Hampton Roads.
Here, where a Jewish family wants only to attend weekly services without seeing an armed guard posted at the temple or synagogue.
Here, where a Palestinian family wants only to enjoy the bounty of America without being viewed with suspicion.
Here, where families of service members want only to be reunited with their loved ones, who are afloat in the Mediterranean.
They, like so many of the people in Israel and Gaza, want only to live in peaces. And while we cannot deliver that, we can make sure that Hampton Roads is a place where they feel comfort and security, and where together we hope for the reunification of families and an end to the suffering.