Israeli Women Respond to Lebanon's President: We Choose Peace Over Endless War

More than 1,250 Israeli women and nine civil society organizations sent an open letter to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun after he addressed Israelis directly in an interview with Christiane Amanpour and asked, “Do you really want to live in endless war?” The letter, titled “We Refuse Endless War,” answers, “Our answer is no.”

The signatories say they were moved by Aoun’s appeal to the Israeli public and by what they describe as a message of a different future for the region. “In days when the voices of war dominate the public discourse, such a message is especially important,” they wrote. They added that they recognize “the pain, loss and destruction that decades of conflict and war have brought to both our peoples,” and that their hearts are with families in Lebanon and Israel who have lost loved ones, been displaced, or continue to live in fear and uncertainty.

The letter rejects the idea that war is inevitable. “Too many leaders in our region have become accustomed to speaking only the language of force, as if war were fate and not a choice,” the women wrote. “We refuse to accept that.” They said it is time to treat peace between Israel and Lebanon as a realistic goal, not out of naivety but out of hope, responsibility, and the understanding that no military solution can give either people the future it deserves.

The initiative’s organizers said that a Lebanese leader’s outreach for dialogue is “another voice” in Middle Eastern public life. They argued that citizens in the region must keep calling for a future based on shared security, cooperation and diplomacy. The letter closes by saying that, for future generations in both countries, they choose hope over fear, dialogue over hostility, and peace over endless war.