The recent war between Israel and Hezbollah is perceived by many to be only a first round, because this threat to Israel, Lebanon and the whole Middle East has not been crushed entirely. Furthermore, this might only be a prelude to the real showdown, the confrontation with Hezbollah's patron, Iran.
If this is the case, then the present lull in hostilities is a good time for some soul searching. What was this war about? Bringing home two abducted Israeli soldiers? Stopping the harassment of the north of Israel by Katyusha rockets? Or was there something else?
In 1863, in his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln, in a few immortal words, touched the heart of the matter. The bloody Civil War was fought so that ''the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.''
Yet already in 430-431 B.C., in the first year of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, Athenian leader Pericles addressed the same issue. Like Lincoln, he gave his speech at a ceremony for the war dead, with the same conclusion: The war was waged to preserve the free, democratic way of life of his people. And like the Gettysburg text, in Israeli ears the message from Athens, the mother of democracy, rings as fresh as if it were to be delivered today.
First, Pericles explains why the unique form of democratic government in Athens has become a model to others: ''Because the administration is in the hands, not of a few, but of the whole people. In the settling of private disputes, everyone is equal before the law.'' Words, mind you, said 2,437 years ago, which still can shed light on present events in the Middle East. Whether one buys Samuel Huntington's thesis of the ''clash of civilizations'' or not, the present war was definitely fought between people who believe in democracy and people who despise it.
Pericles then touches another difference between the Athenians and their enemies: ''Not only in our public life are we free and open, but a sense of freedom regulates our day-to-day life with each other. We do not flare up in anger at our neighbor if he does what he likes.'' Compare that with Hezbollah's charter, which not only calls for the annihilation of Israel, but also for destroying the relatively free society of Lebanon by turning it into an Ayatollah state. Not to mention its ally and patron, the Iranian president, who threatens to liquidate the Jewish state with his soon-to-be-ready nuclear capability.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, had this theory about Israel becoming weak, like a spider's web. Imagine his shock when this ''weak'' Israel smacked him in the nose like that. Maybe if someone smuggles to his hiding place a volume of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, he would understand. Because here is how Pericles explains it: "It is not painful discipline that makes us go out to meet danger, but our easy confidence. Our natural bravery springs from our way of life, not from the compulsion of laws. Also we do not spend our time anticipating the sufferings that are still in the future, and when the test is upon us, we show ourselves no less brave than those who are continually preparing themselves for battle.''
Finally, ''We have had the good sense to provide for our spirits more opportunities for relaxation from hard work than other people,'' said Pericles, his words fitting the Israelis today as much as they matched the Athenians two and a half millennia ago. "We cultivate the arts without loss of manliness.''
Indeed, the war provoked by Hezbollah, besides the loss of life and the destruction of material that it had brought, also postponed the Kfar Bloom Musical Festival -- an annual event which attracts thousands of Israeli music lovers. This summer, the only music heard in this otherwise pastoral area in the north of Israel was the sound of Katyusha rockets launched at Israel and Israeli guns firing back.
Yet autumn is at our doorstep, with its annual International Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem and the popular jazz festival in Eilat. Israelis will debate the war; they will protest, they will rally and maybe even bring down the government. In between, they will listen to music, letting the arts calm their agitated minds and souls.
And if the alarm is sounded again, these free people will rise and fight like lions. Israeli democracy will prevail.
This article was first published in The Miami Herald on August 25, 2006.
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The opinions expressed herein are the author's own personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the Israel Democracy Institute.