Yesterday I had a belated birthday lunch with one of my oldest friends from college, a woman who now lives in Efrat, Israel. (Yes, over the Green Line, 20 minutes away from my house, by car.) We were discussing the collective stress of the last month of war on this country, and the particular agony to parents; especially those whose sons or daughters were called up to serve in the South and in Aza.
My friend, originally American, has a 19-year old daughter currently serving in the National Service Program of the army, and she put much of this violence into a new perspective, at least for me. She said, "Every one of those young men who go into Aza and get killed, or wounded physically and emotionally, that is one less potential boyfriend or husband for my daughter."
Because 64 Israeli soldiers died in the last month and they will never come home to their families. And countless numbers rest in hospitals across the country, even if they recover physically they have been irreparably scarred by the war and the bloodshed.
It is quiet, today, for now, though I in no way trust Hamas, Hezbollah, and the other random terrorist groups and anti-Semitic nations who actively plan for the day that Israel will be wiped off the map, and for all Jews to be wiped off the planet.
Raphaela has told me that she plans on serving in the army when she turns 18, and will be proud to do so. I told her that we have another 13 years to think about this, and privately I pray that there will be no need for my daughter and her generation to continue to fight for our daily safety and existence, in a world that seems to have gone mad.
Today former President Jimmy Carter appealed to the United States and the international community to recognize Hamas as a valid political partner. Like I said, a world gone mad.
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