But I do do something, Helena. I write a blog. I expose my feelings, my experiences, and my life to the world. I do this in the hope that maybe, just maybe, someone, somewhere will read what I have to say, just an ordinary Israeli working mother with everyday hopes and fears, and see that I am not an ogre, and that even if they don’t agree with what I have to say, I am a human being. And maybe that person will be moved slightly to see that things are sometimes more complex than they seem at first glance. That must be worth something.

I know the things I say are nothing special, probably not very different from the thoughts and feelings of many ordinary Israelis. I’m no great scholar, no brilliant columnist. I’m not very right wing, or very left wing, by Israeli standards. I’m somewhere in the middle, a bit mixed up, swayed by emotions. I have no hidden agenda. I just say what enters my mind at a given moment. All I have to offer is my little angle of Israeli life. Could this not be useful for someone who wants to help peace along and needs to really know and understand both sides, and not just what he or she believes is right and just, based on previous life experiences from other parts of the world? Does compromise not take into account the dreams and fears of both sides in a conflict? Is my contribution so far less valuable than that of someone with fury in his or her eyes, standing on a street corner chanting mindless, inflammatory slogans that someone else thought up, and that mean very little, but serve to increase hatred between the sides?