As an Israeli, I have been longing for peace my entire life.

Some of my earliest childhood memories are shaped by fear – fear of terrorists attacking me and my family, fear of getting hurt, fear of losing someone close. Decades later, as a father, it breaks my heart to hear my children express similar fears. Just a few days ago, my five-year-old son told me he had a nightmare: “Bad people from Iran came looking for me.”

That sentence alone is enough to understand why peace is not an abstract idea for me. It is deeply personal.

As a combat soldier in an elite IDF unit, I have fought in multiple wars. I have seen the horrors of conflict up close. I have lost friends. I have lost family. The images of the dead and wounded are part of me now. The sounds of war have become part of my life’s soundtrack.

And........

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