“In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
People who are “naive” tend to believe in whatever they are told, without questioning whether it is right or wrong and somehow they do it again and again, never questioning if it is right or wrong.
Being naive refers to a lack of understanding or a lack of experience and wisdom versus ignorance which is more a lack of knowledge or may be lack of education.
Tsuk Eitanhas shown us how our leaders in parliament can manipulate almost an entire population into thinking we are “winning this war, that we have destroyed Hamas’ capability, we have rebuilt deterrence, we now have an upper hand”, and so on.
Our economy has suffered a blow, no one knows when and how we will fully recuperate and at what price. The interest rate has dropped to .025%, its lowest since the creation of the State of Israel. Our education system in the south is on hold and nobody knows how or when school will resume; as a result, hundreds of thousands of children could be wandering in the streets, a much more dangerous situation and no one has a solution for this.
Business all over the southern border has been deadly affected and there is no way the State of Israel can rescue all local business, therefore many hundreds or thousands of small and big business may just vanish during next year.
Every time we use “Iron Dome” it costs us at least $80,000 dollars – for every single use (total estimate including the missile itself and the surrounding logistics needed to fire these missiles). The costs for the so badly needed medical care for all those injured is rocketing and we, the people will feel very soon that cost when the Ministry of Health starts to “re-budget” due to this war.
It is well known in the legal system the dictum “Ignorantia juris non excusat” (or ignorantia legis neminem excusat) – Latin for “ignorance of the law does not excuse” or “ignorance of the law excuses no one”, but is ignorance of the current situation an excuse or we are doomed to pay for our ignorance or let’s say our naïveté?
We must apply this rationale on ourselves. Don’t say “I didn’t know”, because we all know that regardless of how long a cease fire might last, the next operation is already being planned by all sides.
We know if two or more rockets were to hit Ben Gurion airport, somehow in a miraculous change of heart the State of Israel would quickly find a solution to what today they say is “impossible to achieve” – the destruction of Hamas.
Israeli leadership believes that we the people, are either naive or ignorant. It is up to us next time we vote to send them a clear message – we are neither!
