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A woman cries while lighting a memorial candle outside Habima on October 20, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Israel is repeating an old mistake it made many times in the last century. We must stop it.
On the morning of October 7, I woke up around 7:30am to find a message on our family WhatsApp group from my parents explaining that they heard sirens and moved into their safe room. As they often face threats and hear sirens where they live, I wasn’t immediately worried.
I made my morning coffee and turned on the news. This is when I learned that Hamas was intruding on Israeli villages and became worried. I immediately called my father. It was 7:35am. He picked up and told me, “Yes, Maoz we are in the safe room. We hear them shooting. That’s it.”
I called them again 10 minutes later, just after 7:45am. Neither my father nor my mother picked up. I’ve not heard from them again.
Now, I am a peace activist.
Perhaps it was not what I was meant to be, but that’s what the death of my parents made me. There is an understanding in my family that we must keep our parents’ legacy.
My parents were people of peace. They did not care about anyone’s race, age or colour. They treated everyone equally, they treated everyone as they wanted to be treated. They were people of hope. So I became a peace activist to keep alive their legacy.
Today, Israel is repeating an old mistake it made many times in the last century. We must stop it. Revenge is not going to bring my parents back to life. It is not going to bring back other Israelis and Palestinians killed either.
It is going to do the opposite. It is going to cause more casualties. It is going to bring more death.
We must break the cycle.
Today, I am crying for everyone, every single human being suffering because of this bloody cycle.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
On the morning of October 7, I woke up around 7:30am to find a message on our family WhatsApp group from my parents explaining that they heard sirens and moved into their safe room. As they often face threats and hear sirens where they live, I wasn’t immediately worried.
I made my morning coffee and turned on the news. This is when I learned that Hamas was intruding on Israeli villages and became worried. I immediately called my father. It was 7:35am. He picked up and told me, “Yes, Maoz we are in the safe room. We hear them shooting. That’s it.”
I called them again 10 minutes later, just after 7:45am. Neither my father nor my mother picked up. I’ve not heard from them again.
Now, I am a peace activist.
Perhaps it was not what I was meant to be, but that’s what the death of my parents made me. There is an understanding in my family that we must keep our parents’ legacy.
My parents were people of peace. They did not care about anyone’s race, age or colour. They treated everyone equally, they treated everyone as they wanted to be treated. They were people of hope. So I became a peace activist to keep alive their legacy.
Today, Israel is repeating an old mistake it made many times in the last century. We must stop it. Revenge is not going to bring my parents back to life. It is not going to bring back other Israelis and Palestinians killed either.
It is going to do the opposite. It is going to cause more casualties. It is going to bring more death.
We must break the cycle.
Today, I am crying for everyone, every single human being suffering because of this bloody cycle.
On the morning of October 7, I woke up around 7:30am to find a message on our family WhatsApp group from my parents explaining that they heard sirens and moved into their safe room. As they often face threats and hear sirens where they live, I wasn’t immediately worried.
I made my morning coffee and turned on the news. This is when I learned that Hamas was intruding on Israeli villages and became worried. I immediately called my father. It was 7:35am. He picked up and told me, “Yes, Maoz we are in the safe room. We hear them shooting. That’s it.”
I called them again 10 minutes later, just after 7:45am. Neither my father nor my mother picked up. I’ve not heard from them again.
Now, I am a peace activist.
Perhaps it was not what I was meant to be, but that’s what the death of my parents made me. There is an understanding in my family that we must keep our parents’ legacy.
My parents were people of peace. They did not care about anyone’s race, age or colour. They treated everyone equally, they treated everyone as they wanted to be treated. They were people of hope. So I became a peace activist to keep alive their legacy.
Today, Israel is repeating an old mistake it made many times in the last century. We must stop it. Revenge is not going to bring my parents back to life. It is not going to bring back other Israelis and Palestinians killed either.
It is going to do the opposite. It is going to cause more casualties. It is going to bring more death.
We must break the cycle.
Today, I am crying for everyone, every single human being suffering because of this bloody cycle.