My truth and your truth siting by the fire

I have friends on both sides of the fence. Some are holding guns, some are in basements hiding, and I'm left praying and trying to figure out the lessons of war as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Usually when Hashem gives us obstacles, the sooner we figure out the lesson, the sooner the obstacle disappears, revealing a path to beauty.

One of the main tests that this war poses is, Can we hold multiple truths at the same time? Are we big enough, are we equipped to suffer with the Gazan children while at the same time feeling with the mothers in Sderot. On both sides of this conflict we are guilty of taking tiny pieces of truth and holding them so close to our faces that we can see nothing else. We point and we scream, "THIS IS TRUE! THIS IS MY TRUTH!" And often we are right, it is the truth, but only a fraction of the whole truth.
I think we're big enough to hold more.
This war is begging us to hold more. And maybe if we learn to hold each others stories, while at the same time holding our own, this predicament will evaporate, like the mist in the morning, revealing a most lovely path.

We must hold onto our vision of what, in the end, we want. When we pray for peace for Israel, we know that also means peace for her neighbors.
We dip wine (symbolizing removal of joy) from our cups on Pesach (Passover), because the Egyptians, OUR oppressors & murders, had to suffer.
When Korach came to challenge and fight with Moshe, the first thing Moshe did was fall to the ground and cry.
Compassion for the "other" is the most challenging kind, but it is also the most potent and maybe, just maybe, it's the medicine of the moment.
So I pray...
I pray to the G-d who splits seas and makes frogs rain from the sky, the one who let the light burn for eight days instead of one, and the one who reversed Hamman's decree...
I pray for Bnai Yisrael, that one day soon there will be a generation that doesn't know of enemies sworn to her destruction.
I pray for the children of Gaza that Hashem, who makes miracles, should make a shelter of peace for all the innocent ones.
I pray for Hammas, that the poison of hatred and fear that fills theirs hearts be transformed...QUICKLY! Before it's too late.