Yesterday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem is indescribable. To call it tragic or heartbreaking is unacceptable because there are no words. I sit here at my keyboard struggling to produce a post that is worthy of the moment. It is with profound sadness that I stare at the keyboard and realize that this is not the first time that I have written that words fail me.
iTunes is playing in the background. It is the party shuffle so the mix of songs is filled with tunes that are both appropriate and inappropriate for the moment. Some are sad, some are happy and some are angry songs. It is the angry music that fills my heart. Angry because I look at pictures and read stories of the celebration of the terrorist and realize that I describe him as an animal. He and his ilk have been dehumanized in my head. I feel a bit of shame for admitting that.
I have been near terrorism, close to shootings and bombings, but never so close that I was directly involved. Some of you probably read Gila's blog, My Shrapnel. She has more reason to be angry or upset than I do, she survived a bombing. If you haven't read her, go check out her blog. It is worth the time.
This past summer I posted a video about relatives of victims of terror called Children- Survivors of Terror Speak. Until today I had forgotten about it, but then I saw it over at Gail's blog and realized that it needs to be posted again. More people need to see it. Not just because of the emotion it evokes, but because it helps to make you realize that the victims of terror are not just nameless faces. The dead leave a gaping hole.
If that doesn't strike a chord inside watch Three Days in Israel.
Look at these pictures
If that doesn't strike a chord inside watch Three Days in Israel.
Look at these pictures
When you watch the videos and you see the pictures I want you to ask yourself what an appropriate response would be. Think about it and then tell me that you wouldn't demand that your government respond with something more than platitudes.
I want to see peace. I want to see people living side by side without fear, but we don't live in a time when that can happen. Not now, not for a long time. Too much has happened. It is time to sit down and say we agree to disagree. It is time to stop trying to force an agreement.
Related links:
IDF Special Unit training to fight terror
Inside Terrorism- The X-Ray Project
Defeat Stolen From The Jaws of Victory
6 comments:
My mother cried bitter tears yesterday for the innocents who were slaughtered. She is a Holocaust survivor and said that they often cried when the children and families were being sent to the camps if only we had our own medina, if only there were somewhere to run to that was a refuge. And then she cried harder because we have our own medina and there is no refuge. They are still slaughtering our children. The time for agreement is long past. To agree you have to have two parties who are willing. Why is Israel the only one going to the table? Why are we going at all?
It's beyond sad. There is no point in talking to people who have no reasonable logic and compassion. They don't want peace. They want to obliterate the Jewish people.
I am truly beyond words.
It's shamful that Israel must endure these kinds of attacks. I heard on the news that the house of the killers had Hamas flags flying outside.
I was upset and thought, how could that be allowed. But then I caught myself. We have Hamas and Hezbollah flags outside houses here in the US and our government does nothing.
Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth
Profk, I know your mother's feelings. When you have a neighbor or a teacher or a friend of a friend who are victims of terror attacks, it feels "personal", not distant, and I can understand how your mom would feel personally threatened. My Shrapnel also wonderfully personalizes how many of us here feel in Israel, both as victims and as those who feel threatened.
Jack, you're right, by themselves no words would suffice. And in terms of arguing with your government, there's little you could argue that we haven't argued with our own government to no avail. You can't well expect others to do for Israeli Jews what Israel's government refuses to do, and there Val, I know what you mean and feel your frustration.
But there are 2 types of silence - that which is the result of shock, and that of moral equivalence. The first can be and must be overcome to combat the second, and the second was the target of your recent joke you put on your blog. Moral equivalence of terrorism to a law-abiding defensive action by an army causes the delegitimization of all life-sustaining and law-abiding societies to thrive, by undermining their basic purpose - each human's right to life and the wherewithal to defend that right when threatened.
Blogs like yours can link to antiracistblog.blogspot.com/ to see how you can become involved in your own communities to overcome the sympathy for the filth that committed these acts and the faux-ideologies that underlay them, which now even have a few Jewish supporters in the Blogosphere. Allowing journalists to make "balanced" claims in favor of terrorism without challenge will, eventually, undermine American society not less than it threatens our own.
We've ceded the field to the amoralists for too long - it's time to gain back ground, for all of our sakes. Finding the words to gain ground for deciding to "agree to disagree" is really the best we can hope to do now.
Posted HH--gave a fair amount of space to both this attack and to Sderot/ Ashkelon.
Why are we going at all?
I wish that I could answer that with a straight face, but I don't think I can manage that right now.
Val,
I know.
Debbie,
We stand together or we die alone. It is not cliche, it is reality.
Shai,
Well said.
Gila,
Thanks.
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