Mission to Israel Part X: Closing Thoughts

[This is the tenth, and final post in my series on my mission to Israel. You can read Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, and IX.]

Our mission to Israel was on July 9 through 11. It took me nearly six weeks to publish the ten posts in this series. But it did not take me nearly that long to write them. I wrote most of the first five installments on the twelve-hour flight back from Israel. These initial posts, which focused on the legal issues, came out naturally. I could approach them somewhat objectively, and offer pointed criticisms of the Israeli legal system. But the second batch of posts took a different path.

The final installments focused on the human cost: the hostages, the surveillance footage, the kibbutz, and the music festival. With the exception of the surveillance footage, I was able to document with photographs and videos almost everything that I saw. I promptly uploaded these media to YouTube and the Volokh Conspiracy, but I didn’t hit “publish.” Instead, I sat on them. I waited. I needed time to reflect. Never before in my life had I been exposed to such profound suffering and trauma. And it was difficult to translate into words what I felt. I am not one to have writer block, but these posts–especially the one on the surveillance footage–were among the hardest things I have had to write. After finishing the surveillance post, I had to watch a funny movie just to clear my mind. That sort-of worked, for a short while.

I was writing, in part, to help me parse through the confusing and confounding situations I witnessed. That’s how I think–I write. I was also writing to help others make sense of what they have not seen. I did not think that my writings would persuade anyone on the Israel-Gaza issue. That was not my intent, and I made no effort at advocacy. My goal was simply to relate what I had seen. As the months and years from October 7 pass, and as memories fade, these posts will remain as my personal remembrance of that horrific day.

I also do not pretend that I have any insights about the path away from the current conflict. If anyone tells you they know how to solve things, don’t listen to them. Even if a “ceasefire” is reached, and some or most or all of the remaining hostages are freed, the underlying grounds for war remain. The hostilities can re-emerge at any time. To quote Gitlow v. New York, “A single revolutionary spark may kindle a fire that, smouldering for a time, may burst into a sweeping and destructive conflagration.”

All I can do is take a step back and reflect on the millenia-long history of the Jewish people in Israel. The period between 1948, when Israel declared independence, and 2024, is but a mere blip. We are barely eight decades removed from the Holocaust. Nothing is fixed in stone. And I no longer take for granted that Jews will always be welcome in America.

I hope to visit Israel again with my family. I do not know when that will be.

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