An Israeli soldier seen after he attaches an Israeli flag on top of an armoured personnel carrier near Israel’s border with Gaza, in southern Israel, Thursday, June 6, 2024. Part of my job as a researcher and teacher entails traveling to various parts of the world to ensure that my sense of reality gained from reading about the world matches one’s view informed by seeing it.
Though everyday life hummed along, a sense of foreboding hung in the air. Having recently returned from Ukraine, two of my colleagues found chilling parallels — the dissonance of normalcy against a backdrop of looming threat. This parallel spoke volumes about the fragility of peace and the ever-present potential for conflict to upend even the most seemingly stable societies.
Instead, it has been met with a weary acknowledgment of a Pyrrhic victory. There is a growing awareness that while Israel may be able to repel individual attacks, it cannot win a war of attrition against an enemy with seemingly endless resources and unwavering commitment. The threat, many fear, is not of a single, decisive defeat but of a slow, grinding erosion of Israel’s security, economy and international standing.
The shadow of Oct. 7 loomed large over our meetings. The attack and its aftermath have seemingly shattered any remaining trust between Israelis and Palestinians, erasing the hard-won progress made since the Oslo Accords. It felt like witnessing the collapse of the peace process during the Second Intifada all over again, leaving many feeling that coexistence is an increasingly distant dream.