Israel-Hamas War: Learning from nature to work together - opinion

For many months, the nation of Israel was tearing itself apart like never before. The government was trying to push legislation through the Knesset to significantly overhaul the judiciary. There was considerable opposition to the government’s plans, primarily from Left-leaning citizens, and just as much support from those to the Right. 

The country was split down the middle, and despite attempts by President Isaac Herzog to bring the two parties together, the government was determined to proceed, and the opposition was determined to oppose. There was a massive protest movement, with anti-government demonstrations on a weekly basis for many months, and from time to time government supporters rallied to boost the proposed measures. 

Politicians, as well as financial institutions, leaders of business and industry, retired civil servants, and army officers all weighed in, as did IDF reservists, some of whom announced they wouldn’t serve if called to duty. It wasn’t just in Israel that there was opposition to the government’s legal reforms. Many world leaders expressed their concerns, too. It is fair to say that a real crisis was brewing.

On Shabbat October 7, the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah, all that changed in an instant. Almost 50 years to the day after the surprise attack that started the Yom Kippur War, the terrorist organization Hamas caught Israel by surprise again on a day that is now referred to as Black Shabbat. 

Hamas was no doubt delighted that Israel seemed so divided and arguing within, and so its leaders took the opportunity to carry out its monstrous crime against virtually defenseless citizens while Israel’s leaders had taken their eyes off the ball. 

The hideous attack of Hamas that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 or more Israeli civilians and the kidnapping of hundreds more, breaking into family homes and carrying out rape and butchery on a scale not seen since the dark days of the Holocaust gave Israel something to think about other than judicial reform. Ironically, this was total injustice. 

And the result? The people of Israel came together like never before. The Left and the Right; the young and the old; the religious and the secular were all equally targeted by Hamas, and all rallied to the cause to defend Israel, to defeat Hamas, and to bring home the kidnapped hostages. The war goes on and will hopefully achieve its aims very soon. But with the renewed unity of the people of Israel, it is to be hoped that lessons have been learned in how to deal with internal conflict in Israel, including matters of legislation, and never again will we be so divided.

While the war rages and the people of Israel and Gaza suffer, the flora and fauna of Israel, the animals and birds and wildlife generally carry on more or less unaffected. Five hundred million birds (comprising 550 different species) passed through the airspace of Israel in recent months, as they do every fall and spring, oblivious to the horrible events taking place below their flight path. 

Birds migrate from the colder conditions of Northern Europe’s winters to the warmer climate in Africa, to ensure they have sufficient food supplies. Then in spring, they make the reverse journey and travel north to return to Europe. Whether from Europe to Africa or the other way around, it is safer to fly over land rather than sea; therefore, Israel, the land bridge between Europe and Africa, is on their preferred route.

What Israel can learn from nature

And we, the people of Israel, can learn a lot from the nature we see around us in our beloved country. On a cool morning recently, I stopped my car to observe a murmuration of starlings. It was fascinating to watch hundreds or even thousands of starlings flying in formation, creating ever-changing artwork in the sky. It was mesmerizing to observe the mass of birds wheeling as one solid shape. They made synchronized swimming groups and air force aerobatic teams look ordinary as they swooshed and swirled, ducked and dived, twisted and turned, and incredibly avoided flying into each other. The primary reason for this phenomenon of murmuration is to confuse predators, who are literally so mesmerized by what they see (as I was), that they are incapable of selecting a target bird – thus the flocks have safety in numbers. In the photographs, you can see black kites that were flying around and within the murmuration but failed to catch a single starling dinner.

Working together to confuse their predators, starlings can stay safe. They share their resources, they present a unified mass, and they move in conjunction with each other to resist attacks from predatory hawks or kites. There is so much that we in Israel can learn from them. Only together will we win against this despicable terrorism. Be’yachad nenatze’ach – “Together we will win” – goes the slogan that has become synonymous with this war. But we need to do more than win the war against terrorism. Once the war is over, it is our hope and prayer that Israel and its neighbors can work together for the greater good of all.

On my walks in the woods near where I live, I frequently see cattle egrets sitting on the backs of cows. The birds pick the insects from the cattle and, in doing so, have a plentiful food supply. It’s a win-win, symbiotic relationship – the egrets have a source for food, and the cows get rid of the irritating insects. 

A few months ago, two young people died in a natural disaster when they were caught in a flash flood in the south of Israel, near Eilat. This was the heartbreaking death of Ma’ayan Assor, 24, and his 17-year-old sister, Sahar, who lived in Tiberias, just 100 meters from my home. Shortly before his car was swept away by a torrent of water, Ma’ayan had written in a social media post about the deaths of three pairs of siblings at the hands of terrorists (including the Dee sisters, who were murdered together with their mother). He wrote: “When will everyone understand that we are all brothers here?”

Let’s learn from the birds and animals how we must look after ourselves. But more important still, let’s find ways to work together with our neighbors and let us all be winners – we’re all brothers and sisters here.  ■

The writer is a nature photographer and blogger. His website is https://natureofisrael.blogspot.com/