Humanity and War
By Dr. Elior Kinarthy
The war between Hamas and the Jewish state of Israel started on October 7, 2023 and has been going on for almost 6 months. The Suez Canal Crisis, a war between Egypt and Israel, started on October 29, 1956 and ended on November 7th, 1956. During this war, I served in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) as a 20 year old traffic investigator for the military police. I was issued an old British army BSA motorcycle and drove it from Tel Aviv to the IDF headquarters in Gaza on November 2, 1956. I was stationed in Gaza City.
The BSA was subsequently replaced with a brand new Triumph motorcycle, confiscated from the Egyptians. Before I rode it to my first assignment, I gave an Arab boy a shekel to shine and clean my new motorcycle. My job that morning was to disperse a demonstration of 5,000 hungry and scared farmers waving communist flags in Gaza City. It was easy to do at that time because I was young and confident and the Palestinian men were in awe of Israeli soldiers. (Today they are not). My second job in Gaza was to confiscate a truck of Brazilian beef that had been smuggled from Egypt. I gave the cans of beef to the poor farmers near my barracks to help feed their families.
One incident that stays in my mind is when a poor and hungry teenager used pantomime
(I couldn’t speak Arabic), and asked me to shoot a pigeon for him to eat. I shot several with my Uzi gun and he picked up the dead pigeons and ran to a dilapidated shack and gave them to his mother to prepare for their dinner. It was obvious that they were starving and I had compassion for their situation. I also remember an incident in that same post, where I separated two Arab teenagers fighting each other in order to get a piece of pita bread. An IDF soldier had offered the pita as a “prize” to the winner. I remember feeling sorry for these children and reprimanding the soldiers for teasing them. Most soldiers were respectful and many were helpful, but some soldiers were not.
Another vivid incident from my service in the IDF was when my Israeli squad faced three Egyptian soldiers in retreat, hiding behind a big rock. I could have easily killed the one exposed to me, but I let them run away, and I vividly remember that they were barefoot. When I let them go unharmed, I felt like a human being and a wise Israeli. I avoided carrying a burden of guilt by not killing another person unless it was in self-defence.
My last job in the Gaza strip was to travel to a local town to help refugee families who had escaped from Jaffa in 1948. They relaxed and settled down after they showed me their photo albums from their lives in Jaffa, before the Israeli War of Independence. I told them "You are refugees because you listened to your leaders." "Can we go back?" they asked. We of course said, ”No." It was our job to help them travel and settle in the Gaza area. Today, the Arabs that settled in Gaza have become militant and hostile, they won't ask if they can return…they’ll just shoot us!
After receiving my PhD in Psychology, I recognize that most IDF soldiers are compassionate and psychologically normal, even considering that many are the children and grandchildren of holocaust survivors. These soldiers have fought many wars and are dedicated to each other (regardless of political affiliations). In my observation as a psychologist, I think Israel is a strong and resilient society that encourages cooperation, education and achievement. The current war has caused a lot of pain for all Israelis, but self-pride and unity are at an all time high. I believe that one day, peace with the Arabs will become a reality as Israel continues to demonstrate strength with humanity.