How can we understand two national cultures that have fought over the same land for 78 years?

Read what they wrote. Listen to what they sang. Study the words they gave their children, the heroes they placed at the center of their stories, and the emotions they chose to preserve after war.

I grew up in Israel, served in the IDF, and now raise Israeli children in New York. I sang these songs before I carried a rifle. I understood them differently after I became a soldier.

Israel’s national anthem is “Hatikvah,” “The Hope.” It expresses the Jewish longing to live as a free people in our ancestral homeland. Its lyrics contain no enemy, revenge, weapon, death, or military victory. Its subject is Jewish freedom.

The Palestinian anthem, “Fida’i,” speaks of the fire of weapons, a volcano of revenge, crossing borders, fighting wars, and living and dying as a revolutionary until Palestine returns. The fighter is the hero. Revolution is the mission. Revenge is written into the official national song.

These anthems give children their first language for understanding national purpose. “Hatikvah” teaches hope for freedom. “Fida’i” teaches permanent struggle.

My military service taught me the purpose of an army. It must defeat the enemy, complete the mission, and bring its soldiers home. An army is built to win. That is why “Shir LaShalom,” “A Song for Peace,” deserves close attention.

The song was first performed by an official IDF ensemble in 1969, during the War of Attrition. Israeli soldiers........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)