One was an 18year old American boy in Israel for his gap year. Motive: to strengthen his knowledge of Judaism. This day he took time off to deliver snacks to kids his own age who were serving to insure the security of the State of Israel and its citizens. Along with him were five other boys from his yeshiva. Inside the nearby village of Alon Shvut was another yeshiva where many other boys, including many of his former classmates from high school - and my gentle #2 grandson - are also spending their gap year. Not an unusual day - except that Ezra never made it back to school and is instead back home and instead of preparing for Shabbat, is having the rites of death performed, readying him for his final trip.
Two men stabbed to death outside a shul in Tel Aviv. A third in critical condition. Why? Because they are Jews and because they thought that they would try to pray with a quorum, a more preferred manner of praying than doing it alone. The cost: their death and that of the wounding of another man.
Nine others were wounded at the Gush junction. Two others were killed and though one was a Palestinian, Israelis and Jews worldwide are making no distinction and a letter of condolence is being sent to all families. Terror and hate make no distinction.
The most murderous day yet in this sakhin intifada. A man wakes up one morning and decides to get an automatic weapon and go to a place where there is often a traffic jam at that time of day and then shoot that assault weapon into cars and when done, ram his car into another so as to take more people with him, he and his accomplice figuring they would have done a good day's work.
And in the meanwhile a nation is stunned. And in the meanwhile a nation continues to bleed. The wounds of other mothers in Israel are cruelly ripped open once more as they recall the deaths of their children and reach out to comfort the newly bereft. This is a special club that no one wants to join. It is by violent invitation only.
The terror in Paris or today's hostage taking in Mali or the bombing in Beirut or the attacks on Israelis are all part of the same whole. There are no rationalizations. There are no reasons. And there certainly is a moral transgression on those murdered, torn from life, when the US State Department issues a statement that tells both sides to take actions to stop this and to take carefully measured steps so as not to inflame the situation. Really? How dare the State Department. How dare Obama stand by silently. Could not this 18 year old American boy also have been his son? Is he not to be mourned or is he to serve only as another vehicle for the State Department to exhibit their long known Arabist tendencies? Are we to blame the Israelis who dared to walk in the only country that welcomes Jews, that brings them home if they must, the country that French Jews are immigrating to in vast numbers, the only Jewish state in the world while there are 57, yes 57, states of Moslems so why do they want this little one? Why? Because it is not the state but the people within it - their goal and thus, the world acquiesces in their murderous intent when they blame the victims and somehow these victims should have never fallen onto these knives, should not have wanted their lungs and hearts to be ripped apart, should not have wanted bullets to rend their bodies temples of death, to wish to live, to live in peace, to love their families.
So unto the Heavens we Jews will cry again. We will weep and mourn with the families for Jews are one, no degrees of separation, a small group of people who defy the attempts to slaughter them, to wipe them off the face of this earth. That will never happen. Never.
And so my daughter is keeping her son in Israel and going to visit him soon, as we are to do in March. And the mothers and fathers of thousands of other kids there, be they in yeshiva or university, volunteering or interning are keeping their kids there and planning to visit. The point is made. And despite the hearts of all of us being in our throats night and day, we will persist, strive and survive. It is time the world learns this and learns that terror makes no distinction and by the way, stop this odious comparison of the Jewish refugees of the 30's and 40's to the Syrian migrants. There is no comparison.
So we pray for an end to this horror. We pray for the world to wake up and realize what it is that we all face. No one's loved ones are immune. Let us put an end to this murder and weeping and let us join hands to fight the terror of this growing "caliphate". Let us stop the tears. Let us stop the blood. Let us pray, yes, but let us also take action, have courage and faith. There is no other way unless we wish to keep on the path of murder and rampages and blood filling the streets and no one is safe. Je suis Paris. Je sui Juif. Je suis Mali. Je suis Beirut. Je suis Americain. Je suis human.
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