‘This will sear Jews and Arabs for years to come...’

Isaiah 40:1 ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’

When I was eight years old, I remember sitting in front of my family’s black and white television while watching the Yom Kippur war unfolding in front of my eyes. It was exactly 50 years ago and, as a Jewish boy growing up in the USA, it was my first realisation that there was a country named Israel that Jewish people call home.

As I watched those Jewish people on the television defend themselves from Arab attackers, the guns, the shooting, and the killing, fear welled up inside me. From that early age fear grew into a distrust and dislike of Arab peoples.