November 13, 2013
One year ago today, my Aunt Terry
passed away. She was sick for more than
a year, but her occasional boosts of life had given us hope that she would beat
leukemia. She fought and fought and she
stayed positive, but in the end, our family was left devastated as my
grandmother outlived her own daughter.
The day after Aunt Terry passed, I flew home to Boston, and on Thursday
we got in the limousine on the way to the funeral home.
So many
emotions were flowing through me between the sadness and the pain of seeing my
father and grandmother in such a vulnerable state, and the joy and appreciation
that comes from bringing family and friends together. I was trying to figure out how to feel about
the situation at hand, and yet my eyes were glued to my phone as I read and
refreshed headlines, waiting for the next piece of news from 5,000 miles away. It was November 15, the climax of “Operation Pillar
of Defense” – the escalation between Israel and Hamas. In just over a week, 1,400 rockets were fired
from the Gaza Strip into Israel with no goal other than to harm innocent
Israeli civilians and to instill fear in the state of Israel. Thankfully Israel
has a military that is strong enough to defend herself, and minds brilliant
enough to create defense technology such as the iron dome, which has shot down
hundreds of rockets and saved countless lives.
The
escalation ended (except for a handful of rockets fired into Israel) with a
cease-fire between Hamas and Israel signed on November 21.
After a week of fighting, the normal “peace”
was restored in the region.
This year
has been relatively calm, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu announced last week
that the war in Gaza last year caused a 98% decrease in rockets fired into
Israel.
But today Eden Atias, a 19-year-old Israeli boy was stabbed to death.
Atias was doing his civic duty and training
to defend his country, and just two weeks into his basic training, he was
murdered in cold blood by a Palestinian who entered Israel illegally.
Eden was asleep on a bus back to his base
when he was attacked, and he died shortly after.
Over the
last century, Israel (and the Zionists before 1948) has tried numerous times to
make peace and live side-by-side with the Palestinians in the geographical
region from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The most recent efforts have been the current
peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, mediated by John
Kerry and the United States.
As a part
of these talks, Bibi Netanyahu cancelled large plans for expanding Israeli
settlements in the West Bank, and until now, Israel has released 52 Palestinian
terrorists from Israeli prisons.
With 54
more prisoners to be released within the coming months, it may be time to
reevaluate the situation.
Following the
last prisoner release, on October 30, during which 26 terrorists – many with
blood on their hands- were freed, Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas
made an intriguing remark.
After hugging
and kissing each one of the freed prisoners, Abbas vowed that there would be no
agreement with Israel as long as even one Palestinian remained in Israeli
prison: “now we are talking about 104 prisoners, but our joy would not be
complete unless all the prisoners are released.”
Everyone
gives Abbas credit for not being a member of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO) which has been one of the most radical, anti-Israel groups
for years, but who is Abbas really?
Writer Victor Sharpe calls Abbas “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” citing
that he was a trusted member of Yasser Arafat’s inner circle and responsible
for raising funds for PLO operations including the Munich Massacre in 1972.
Frequent articles are written about Abbas
honoring and rewarding terrorists upon returning home after murdering Israelis.
This past summer, Abbas awarded the
"highest order of the Star of
Honor" to Nayef Hawatmeh who was responsible for carrying out “many deadly
terror attacks, including the killing of 22 schoolchildren and 4 adults after
taking them hostage in Ma'alot, the killing of 9 children and 3 adults in an
attack on a school bus, the killing of 7 in a Jerusalem bombing, the killing of
4 hostages in an apartment building in Beit Shean, all of which took place in
the 1970's.”
Not only does Abbas praise
terrorists, but in 1983 he wrote a dissertation for his doctorate degree at a
Soviet University titled “The secret relations between Nazism and the
leadership of the Zionist movement" in which he claims that no one can confirm that six million Jews were
murdered. Abbas suggests that the number
of Jews killed may be less than 100,000 and was inflated to gain support for
Zionism.
Despite the ongoing
conflict and the constant threat of Palestinian rocket-fire, capable of
reaching over 2 million Israelis, Israel thrives as a nation. The major headlines in Israel this week tell
about the 234 Israeli doctors, nurses, and paramedics who landed in the
Philippines with state-of-the-art equipment to set up a field hospital after
the tragic typhoon Friday night. Haaretz shares the story of a team of Israeli
scientists that has discovered a bacteria-killing protein that could replace
antibiotics.
The people of
Israel and Jews around the world yearn for peace in the state of Israel, but
how is that peace attainable when we are struggling with those who value our
deaths more than their own lives? What
is it all for? Is anything going to come of this, or are we only fighting a
battle in an eternal war?
Today, not only do I remember my beloved Aunt
Terry, but also I pray for the Atias family and I pray that one day soon, there
can be peace in the state of Israel.
