Imagine two neighboring pastures.

On each of them there are wolves. The wolves are proud, ruthless, and powerful, and they seek to keep power at any cost. Over time they seize the pastures, set up their own order there, and begin to dictate the rules to everyone who lives there.

The wolves call these pastures their own. They draw borders around them, ready to defend them at any cost, and convince the sheep that the sheep must defend the wolves’ territory.

But the sheep are not wolves.

Ordinary sheep live on both pastures. They want to graze in peace, to live, to multiply, and not to be dragged into a struggle. They do not care which pasture another sheep came from. They do not see one another as natural enemies merely because someone drew a line between their pastures.

The problem is the wolves.

Not all of them look like wolves. Some put on sheep’s skins, walk among the flock, and speak with a sheep’s voice.

The wolves constantly convince the sheep that the other pasture is a threat. They say:

“You must fight the sheep on the other side, because you must defend our pasture.”

They praise those who are ready to go to war, and they shame those who refuse.

And so the sheep are dragged into a war that was never theirs.

The wolves fight for territory, power, pride, and control. But they convince the sheep that the wolves’ interests are the sheep’s own interests.

The wolves on both sides of the fence may call each other enemies, and convince the sheep that they must hate one another.

Meanwhile the sheep on both sides look at one another through the fence and cannot understand why they should consider one another enemies at all.

Perhaps the most important question is not:

“Which wolf owns which pasture?”

But this:

Why must the sheep fight one another merely because the wolves decided that the pastures belong to them?