An open letter to the Israelis: rise and save the soul of your country

Lies you were force-fed

For decades, you have been deceived and duped by your villainous leaders like Netanyahu, who misled you into believing that the Palestinians are an irredeemable foe. He exploited Hamas' savagery to support what he has manipulated you to believe in.

Your indifference and disdain towards the Palestinians are not solely connected to Hamas' horrific attack, but tragically is a product of decades of systematic dehumanization of the Palestinians. You have come to believe that they are beasts that feed on Jewish blood, and death must be their fate.

You did not want to seek the truth, which cannot be passively attained and is often latent below the surface. Your criminal Prime Minister has often concocted external threats, amplified the danger, and fabricated new perils to justify his position while presenting himself as the savior of the nation.

He and his fascist government blame the oppressed for their own suffering, a customary psychological manipulation tool used to maintain control, while cloaking themselves as the redeemer. They twist history to ensure ideological conformity to discourage you from understanding the conflict's humanitarian dimension and its long-term, simmering, ominous implications.

The Netanyahu government's intention is copiously clear: rendering Gaza uninhabitable, displacing its Palestinian population, and concurrently embarking on a systematic creeping annexation of the West Bank to realize its dream of greater Israel. Netanyahu's government will not rest until every Palestinian in Gaza is dead, disabled, or displaced.

Tragically, the occupation has become a natural phenomenon as eighty percent of you were born after 1967. You have been manipulated to believe that maintaining the occupation is critical to your national security. Wrong! The never-ending bloodshed in the West Bank, the recurrent violence and battles against Hamas, culminating in the horrific war in Gaza, rendered you anything but secure.

Making a fateful choice

Where do you go from here? Remember, after 77 years of conflict, today's relations with the Palestinians have reached an unprecedented new low. Remember, a total of seven million Palestinians live in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel, roughly equal to the Jewish population.

You cannot now or ever destroy, disable, or displace all the Palestinians. They are around and within your communities. You have been ordained to coexist, no matter what your zealot messianic government tells you. The Palestinians are here to stay.

Whether or not God bequeathed this land to the Jews, the Palestinians, too, can make their rightful claim, rooted in their religious belief, and moral and legal rights enshrined by the UN, to establish a state of their own, on their land where they lived and buried their dead for centuries.

Your military can win every battle handily and inflict unimaginable death and destruction, but remember, the appearance of the Palestinians' defeat is an optical illusion that obscures the deeper reality. This is a generational war that you cannot win, not now, not ever.

Your misguided government has already planted the seeds of another generation of militant Palestinians who will rise and never rest until they reclaim their stolen dream.

Do not confuse your military prowess with safety and security. This has proven to be a fallacy. You would have become much safer had you respected the Palestinians' rights, much more secure if you had unshackled them from their servitude, and much better protected had you treated them with dignity.