I am not an expert in warfare, international relations or geopolitics.
I am a physician and a public health educator and it is from this position of human concern that I write these words.
The recent escalation between Israel and Iran has flooded my social media feeds, just as the dust seemed to settle from tensions between Pakistan and India.
Once again, war is being projected into our lives, through memes, misinformation and a constant stream of content that often makes light of real human suffering.
The world feels increasingly unsafe, and yet, behind the missiles, slogans and justifications, I believe there’s a much deeper issue worth understanding.
The global economy thrives, paradoxically, on destruction.
Somewhere, someone always benefits from war.
As Lao Tzu famously said, “Every victory is a funeral.
” No one truly wins in war, every celebration is a quiet mourning for the lives lost, families shattered and futures erased.
I started reading to better understand the dynamics of this conflict.
Not to take sides, but to question what we know and what we’ve been taught.
One of the first distinctions we must make—especially in regions like ours, where understanding can be muddled, is between Judaism and Zionism.
Judaism is a religion, a faith with deep spiritual roots and traditions.
Zionism, on the other hand, is a political movement that emerged in the late 19th century, advocating for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a response to centuries of persecution in Europe.
Theodor Herzl, often called the father of modern Zionism, wasn’t particularly religious.
He was a secular journalist of Austro-Hungarian origin who became disillusioned with European society after witnessing the Dreyfus Affair; a scandal that exposed the deep anti-Semitism embedded in European politics.
Herzl concluded that assimilation had failed Jews and that the only solution was a nation-state of their own.
The Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906) was a major political event in France, where a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was accused of treason.
The affair revealed how deeply antisemitic sentiments ran through even so-called enlightened societies.
This event transformed Herzl’s thinking and led him to believe in Jewish political self-determination.
To understand this history is not to condone violence or occupation.
Rather, it is to humanize a complex issue often reduced to slogans.
Many people conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.
But that conflation is intellectually dishonest.
Criticizing the actions of a state, any state is not the same as hating a people.
Ironically, the term “Semite” itself encompasses many groups, including Arabs.
Derived from the biblical figure Shem (Hazrat Saam), it refers to peoples of the ancient Near East who share linguistic and cultural roots—Jews, Arabs, Assyrians and even Ethiopians.
Judaism also has nuanced theological perspectives about non-Jews, referred to as Goyim/ Gentiles.
The term is not inherently derogatory, but interpretations of the Gentile’s role in Jewish tradition vary and some views have contributed to perceptions of exclusion or superiority.
But just like Islam, Christianity or any faith, interpretations differ and extremist views don’t represent the whole.
Still, I find it difficult to reconcile how a people, persecuted for over two millennia—survivors of pogroms, inquisitions, ghettos and the Holocaust, could now be involved in the displacement and oppression of others.
This is not a denial of the real fears Israel faces, nor of the real acts of violence by others.
However, a painful paradox invites moral introspection.
When you look deeper, you find war is not about religion or identity; it is about power.
About control of economies, narratives, borders and resources.
Modern warfare is less about soldiers and more about influence: media manipulation, economic advantage and the politics of fear.
While nations clash, it is civilians; ordinary men, women and children, who bleed.
As a physician, I have trained to save lives, as a teacher, I aim to raise consciousness.
In this noisy, chaotic world, perhaps the most radical act we can do is to pause and think deeply, compassionately and critically.
Let us not be passive consumers of propaganda.
Let us strive to understand before we react, to question before we condemn.
Peace, after all, begins in the mind.
—The writer is Associate Professor, Health Services Academy, Islamabad. ([email protected])
