Nov. 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht). May 14, 1948 (Yom Ha’atzmaut/Israel Independence Day). Nov. 23, 1963 (JFK’s assassination). Sept. 11 2001 (World Trade Center attack). Oct. 7, 2023 (Gaza terrorist attack). These are some dates with historic meaning that will be remembered forever and that altered the course of millions of lives, far beyond the immediate location of these events.
History teaches us many lessons. Among these are that while we are in the moment of darkest tragedy, there is also, eventually, a softening of the pain and, more often than not, a pivot point in the great arc of mankind’s story. The unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust, foreshadowed by Kristallnacht, while the beginning of one of the greatest genocides in human history, also gave birth to the miracle of Israel 10 years later.
The global trauma of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, unknowingly at the time, heralded a decade that eventually brought the civil rights movement to the fore and witnessed both the beginning and eventual end of the Vietnam War.
Sept. 11 jolted an isolationist and often complacent America to the realization that, whether we like it or not, the great oceans that were supposed to isolate and protect us do not insulate us from the drama of the entire world.
We don’t yet know what the longer-term implications of Oct. 7, 2023, will be. We are still very much living in the moment. With 100 Israeli hostages still held in what are unimaginable conditions, with tens of thousands of Arabs suffering throughout the region, and with the entire area seemingly speeding headlong into an expanding, not contracting, conflict, all we know is that we are in the middle of the maelstrom.
It isn’t possible yet to see what will come next. But what we do know is that it is certain that this is a pivot point and the situation will never revert back to what it was on Oct. 6 last year. A million outcomes are possible. As with every historic trauma, at least some of these possible outcomes include progress as well as further tragedy.
It is possible that the tragedy of the moment we are in will lead to a more civilized, sustainable relationship between Jews and Arabs, who each have centuries-old claims to the same sliver of land. It is conceivable that, like Rwanda after its genocide or Northern Ireland after decades of bloodshed, there will eventually be a future that provides equal rights, opportunity and dignity for all who live in this painfully tiny space. This must also be a thought we cling to whenever we observe the anniversary of the Hamas attack. May this be God’s will.
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