AND SO

 And so we wait. With bated breath and pounding heart. With the mourning already in place within. Our eyes cringe, shutting tight as if we could wipe out the imagined but very real awful numbers of dead and wounded. That is inevitable but is there any alternative?

The answer to that is a resounding no. There is no one to talk to. No one to reason with. No one there brave enough to allow for a continued existence of a Jewish state among the dozens of Moslem and Arabic states. Cowards is their category. Even the mighty Saudi Arabia, a country whose leaders use their immense wealth as a battering ram have shut down the talks.

The morality level, the humanity level of these countries sinks way, way, way below the horizon. Even as Israel postpones, again and again its inevitable incursion in a futile effort to rescue hostages most likely dead or going to be, and in an attempt to put this issue of constant terrorism, threatened and so real, put it away, for once and for all. Deal a death blow to Hamas such that they will never rise again. Sinwar and Deif are dead men walking. No matter how long it takes, no matter how desperately they try to hide, their death warrant is sealed. Mene, Mene, Tekale Oohpharsin. Like the King of Babylon, they have been weighed and found wanting and their fate awaits.

We Jews know that in the long run, our Protector hears our voices, heeds our prayers. We do not understand why there is often a great delay, but we do know that we are alive, thriving, while ancient mighty empires are gone. That is our assurance. That is the magic pill which gives us the strength to carry on in the midst of horror. It sustains where no logical sustainment is possible. 

We are expected to maintain a higher standard, meet a higher bar in our dealings with others. We are the ones to be called upon to save enemy armies, to spare lives where there would never be any such reciprocation. We accepted the challenge of protecting Palestinians in Gaza despite the best efforts of Hamas, their own, to endanger them, to use their lives as petty change, of no value other than as pawns in a deadly mine field. That ruthless attitude has nothing to do with us, and yet, we are blamed for it, asked to save people who would have their druthers fulfilled with our death.

There are no innocents in Gaza. Their men flooded Israel as they joined Hamas in their terror attack. The goal of finding children and women to hold as hostages, while slaughtering the men, turned into a wholesale slaughterhouse, a war waged upon helpless civilians, upon desperate parents trying to save their children. Of families of Holocaust survivors praying not again, never again, the threat of yet another bloodline of a Jewish family destroyed forever. Yet there it was and there it is. 

The constant efforts to fulfill the Charter of Hamas which calls for the elimination of Jews, not Israelis but Jews. Wherever and whenever. You can be assured that no safe passage ever would be allowed should G-d forbid such a lethal situation occur. And yet, we will be blamed for that as well. Ever the guilty victim in the eyes of a hate filled world.

The loss of another generation of Jews. The decimation of the young, the horrors awaiting, especially should Hezbollah join in the murder fest they have long desired.  It blinds the eyes, shatters the hearts, scars the souls and the river of tears will be met with a river of blood. Our only hope is that the bloodshed will be minimized with sanity of Hamas or Arab leaders, but will they rise to the challenge? Will they try to lasso and control their rabid dogs? Can they dig deep and find some morality within? The level of doubt is high, for why would they scorn an opportunity to wreak havoc and destruction, to threaten in a serious existential threat?

The physical wounds will be great. The loss of life will be enormous. Accompanying all that awfulness will be, is already, the disillusionment of young America, of liberal America, as they discover that once again, there is no room for the Jew at the table. As their supposed buddies, the people they had thought to be friends, turn their backs to them, on them, blame the victims for their own deaths, for the loss of life. As the BBC refuses to call them terrorists rather than militants. As the same BBC calls slitting a baby's throat an atrocity but never terrorism. As they use as was termed "weasel words" to wiggle out of the truth, as they showcase the long history of oh so polite antisemitism of England.

My throat is raw, my eyes are red, my soul is black with thoughts of what should never be. I wait, along with everyone else of even a wisp of right and justice. We wait together, We, and our true friends must hang together lest we hang separately. There is no other choice. There will be hard times for a long time, but the choice is here. Gog and Magog are supposed to fight the final war, and it will take place in the Middle East. Are they here?  

But please, please, remember that our fate is as a group, for together we will be, like it or not.

Let us, together,

 

• HEAL THE WORLD.

  HEAL YITZY!

  Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah

  May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.

  AMEN. AMEN

  AM YISROEL CHAI.

"May the Omnipresent One have mercy on our brothers the whole House of Israel who are in distress or captivity, whether on sea or land. May He lead them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, and from oppression to redemption, now, swiftly and soon - and let us say: AMEN. 

Always together. Only together.