You cannot bomb your way to peace.

Every man who has seen everything

he had ever known, loved and worked for

reduced to rubble, his loved ones

buried beneath.

Every mother forced to listen to her

hungry child cry, or scream in agony

with nothing to relieve the pain.

Every child who has known nothing

but fear, trauma, loss, displacement

and war.

Every shattered life risks creating

a new recruit for the next cycle of violence.

Every buffer zone carved out of people’s

homes, schools, olive groves, hopes and

dreams becomes tomorrow’s front line.

After 78 years, surely the lesson is clear.

You can destroy buildings.

You can kill fighters.

But you cannot bomb away grief.

You cannot bomb away despair.

And you cannot bomb people into peace.

Peace will not come from bombs.

It will begin when we accept that both peoples

belong in this land and neither will be driven

from it, and that Israelis and Palestinians alike

deserve freedom, security, dignity and hope in

the land they call home.

Until then, every bomb risks

planting the seeds of the next war.