One can always count on Deepak Chopra to make sense of mental chaos induced by external factors. In his newsletter on LinkedIn, he talked about the ongoing wars in a way that made the moral divide more comprehensible.

"Morality is personal and collective at the same time. This point is brought home in two shocking wars, the one incited by Russia in Ukraine, the other by Hamas against Israel. The Israeli situation is far harder on moral grounds, because there are horrors on both sides, innocent civilians killed in mass numbers, intractable religious views clashing with one another, and one's personal allegiances to consider," Chopra said in his piece titled "Why Don't People (and Nations) Do the Right Thing?"

People all over the world are affected by these wars – not just because of their impact on economies, but also on our peace of mind. Not to be cavalier about this overused term, but who really has peace of mind nowadays?

We have voices beating into our ears — newscasts of abductions and active cops involved in such a crime; of Chinese vessels attacking Philippine boats with water cannons; of a long-detained politician finally freed on bail. These are not games that will fizzle out when we are bored with them. They are as real as your tears, the pain you feel every time you hear of a child dying, of mothers losing their babies, of bodies burned to unrecognizable chunks.

Those last ones, graphic as they may be, are real. Can you believe it?

The atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists and other Palestine sympathizers who do not know any better — their knee-jerk reactions incited by incomplete or twisted information — are too horrific to contemplate.

Really, you ask yourself. In this day and age, do we still have zealots willing to butcher and maim, man, woman and child? 

If you really think about it, the position that Israel has been put by this war is morally divisive. What is right and wrong in this situation? What is the right thing to do when your race or culture is being actively eliminated by those who believe you have no right to be in this planet?

This is what Chopra says about it: "Doing the right thing is an everyday expression of morality, which roughly translates into two parts: You know what the right thing is, and you follow through by doing it. Both parts are tricky. Knowing the right thing was much easier when people didn't have freedom of choice but were told, in no uncertain terms, to obey the dictates of a religion, tribe, ideology, or absolute ruler.

"Some places in the world are still hampered in this way, but even under the strictest moral code, people can say yes or no inside."

As for Israel, it chooses to go by its commitment to international law, it seems, as stated in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs paper discussing "key legal aspects" of the Hamas-Israel conflict:

"Despite Hamas' unimaginable brutality and its disdain for human life — whether Israeli or Palestinian – and for the law, Israel is committed to conducting its military operations in accordance with international law, as Israel's senior political and military leadership has repeatedly affirmed."

On morality, it says: "Suggesting a moral equivalence between Israel and terrorist organizations is repugnant. Any sound analysis of Israeli operations cannot avoid the crucial context of the ongoing attacks, as well as the nature of the enemies, and the scope of the threat, that Israel faces on multiple fronts. It must reject any moral equivalence between those defending against terrorism and those perpetrating it; between a State whose commitment to law underpins its military operations and a terrorist group which openly defies the law; between the IDF, which seeks to minimize civilian harm, and the terrorist groups that deliberately target Israeli civilians while perversely viewing Palestinian civilians as expendable and using them as human shields."

We must determine our personal compass against the collective that seems to rule the world.