Peter Lerner2w ago
Today is my birthday and it’s also the International Day of Peace.
In other years, that coincidence felt almost sentimental. This year, it feels like a challenge.
The word peace has almost vanished from Israeli public discourse. We speak about total victory, deterrence, buffer zones, security control and the next military operation. None have been realized and we do not feel safer today despite the military achievements of the last 3 years. Indeed, after October 7 these conversations are necessary, and we have every right to demand real security.
But a country cannot live forever by explaining only what it is fighting against. Israel must also be able to describe what it is fighting for.
Menachem Begin understood this. In 1982, as Israel prepared to withdraw from Sinai, the former commander of the Irgun and Likud prime minister declared: “Yes, peace brings difficulties. Yes, peace brings pain. Yes, peace demands sacrifices. But all are preferable to the sacrifices of war.”
Peace after October 7 cannot mean returning to old slogans or naïve assumptions. It must be strong, sober and secure. It must confront terrorism, demand accountable leadership and create enforceable arrangements.
But distrust cannot become an endless strategy. Military power can destroy weapons, dismantle tunnels and eliminate commanders. It cannot, by itself, build the future that follows. For me peace is not the opposite of strength, or the absence of war. Peace in my view must be the purpose towards which strength should ultimately be directed.
The disappearance of peace from our language in Israel is not merely semantic. Language defines the boundaries of our imagination and the realm of political possibility. When we stop saying a word, we stop imagining the future it represents. And once that future becomes unimaginable, anyone proposing it can be dismissed as naïve, disloyal or dangerously detached from reality.
So, on my birthday, my wish is simple: that Israel begins saying the word peace again. Not because peace is near, but because it is distant, very distant.
We don’t know who the partner will be, but leadership has the responsibility to help create the conditions in which partners can emerge. I am not delusional, the Middle East has not suddenly become gentle, but I do not want our children to inherit our wars.
Peace is not a prediction. It is a direction and today, that is my birthday wish, and my commitment.
Shana Tova and hatima tova
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