Anybody who
is looking for a nice relaxing place to live, please don’t pick Israel. Anybody
who is looking for the greatest country in the world, please come
immediately. Having just fended off the
most recent onslaught by the Islamic enemy in Gaza, who with the help of other
radical Islamic regimes such as Iran, Sudan and Egypt, unleashed a barrage of
missiles on the civilian population in Israel,
we have resumed our day-to-day lives of being productive and helping mankind.
On Friday
evening with the onset of Shabbat, we in Jerusalem received our first warning
with the wailing of a siren during Kabbalat Shabbat. This came not long after
we had welcomed in the Shabbat with a similar siren. This time however, we knew
exactly what it meant. We all calmly
walked down to the Miklat (Shelter) and continued to welcome the Shabbat with
more fervor than usual and we inserted a prayer for the well-being of all our
soldiers and citizens of the South. The leader of the prayer service chanted in
a mellifluous, haunting melody we had heard so many times before but somehow
seemed to have more meaning this time. When we finished the maariv prayers each
of us walked quietly home to see our wives and children and to eat our dinners with
our families.
We had been
riveted to the news all day. We were scared but optimistic. We hung onto every
bit of information that emanated from the mouths of the newscasters and we
couldn’t help but admire the way we were conducting a war that had been forced
upon us. We were comporting ourselves in
the most patient and humane way possible given the situation. We had perfected
through home-grown Israeli technology, a defensive system to knock out the
missiles directed to the population centers in the South. It was almost science
fiction to see how the Iron dome could detect the launch of a dangerous
projectile, determine whether it should be intercepted, and then when judging
it to be a bona-fide target, would knock it out of the sky. When forced into attacking
after numerous months of restraining ourselves and running into shelters, we
did so with uncanny accuracy and never directing our aim at civilians.
The
following Thursday shortly after the cease-fire had been implemented I attended
a bat-mitzvah of my nephew’s daughter in Eshchar in the Galil. My nephew had
just returned from duty in Gaza, and with very little sleep began preparing for
the happy event. He had figured out a way to detect the launching of rockets
during the Lebanon war and had modestly accepted a prize in Haifa for his
contribution. His computer technology was now an imbedded part of the Iron-Dome
system. As I walked around the new yishuv, I could see all the children playing
in the streets without a seeming care in the world. The parents talked about
building a new school and enlarging the synagogue. There was no talk of the war, no talk of
hatred or revenge…only moving ahead, building, and looking for a peaceful
solution.
We a nation
of about 7.5 million people amidst perhaps 400 million Arabs who want to
destroy us, have the courage to stand tall, and to continue the vision of our
fore-fathers . As the prophet Bilam
uttered many years ago “Behold it is a nation that will dwell in solitude and
not be reckoned among the nations (Rashi clarifies that we will not assimilate
and when the final reckoning to punish the nations arrives; Israel will not be
among them. The prophet Bilam raised his
eyes and saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes, and the spirit of G-d was upon him, He then proclaimed: “How
goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places O Israel.
How thankful
I am to be here.
Gerry
Ziering
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