Friday night, I went dancing and rejoicing to celebrate Simhat Torah. Saturday morning, I woke up to the sound of rockets.
More stories:
Friday night, some went to a party in the desert. Saturday morning, they were bombarded like animals trapped by hunters.
Friday night, some went to have dinner with their family. Saturday morning, they were taken hostage in Gaza.
In Israel, there isn't a single person who doesn't feel that knot in their stomach. From South to North, from East to West, we mourn our missing, our hostages, and our wounded. Whether we're believers or non-believers, left or right, young or old, men or women, we weep, we pray, we hope, we cry, we beg, we rage, we despair, we wait, we support.
When they celebrate our dead, we mourn them. When they celebrate their dead calling them martyrs, we lament them. When they surprise-attack our civilians, we warn theirs so they can flee.
When they take civilians, women, children, and the elderly hostage, we only hold criminal terrorists captive.
When they dance and sing in the streets of Gaza, Tehran, Kabul, and even in some places in Paris, Berlin, New York, or elsewhere, to applaud assassins devoid of humanity, we support our young soldiers who wish to be anywhere but in combat, and we worry for them.
Yes, Israel is in mourning today. Mourning of a cruelty previously unimaginable. For every Jew on this earth, these children taken in Hamas vehicles to Gaza echo distant memories of children taken by the Nazis to Auschwitz. But Israel will respond.
This response will surely be of a magnitude never seen before. Unfortunately, it is necessary. Hamas, but indirectly Iran and any other terrorist power, must understand that targeting civilians without consequences is not an option.
For years, Israel has been trying to find a proportional response to the attacks it has faced. The population of the South has repeatedly begged the various governments to go further and do more because living constantly under the threat of rockets was unbearable.
However, out of fear of killing innocent Palestinians, Israel has always restrained its strikes. But the red line has been more than crossed. In the coming days, weeks, or months, there should be nothing left of Hamas and its leaders.
We will need to be patient because this war will be long, but we will win it. Unfortunately, the blood of innocents, both Israeli and Palestinian, will be shed, but it is the price to pay. Barack Obama had promised to strike hard if Bashar al-Assad crossed the red line and used chemical weapons to massacre civilians, but he did not, and it was the Syrian people who paid the price. Benjamin Netanyahu must not, and will not, make the same mistake.
A question arises. What will the world think? This same world that, for the moment, is shocked by images of abyssal atrocity circulating on social media. This same world that, for years, allowed the UN to condemn Israel countless times while condemning so few terrorist and/or dictatorial states: Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq.
This same world that rushed to condemn Israel every time it defended itself, for every mistake it made, without even verifying that it was actually a simple piece of disinformation used as propaganda.
Whether it was the case of Mohammed al-Durah, a young Palestinian supposedly savagely killed by Israel when he was actually alive and not attacked by the IDF, or the case of the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara supposedly filled with humanitarians and food, brutally attacked by Israel when it was actually teeming with activists and weapons, or the numerous deaths in Gaza immediately attributed to Israel when it was later discovered that they resulted from rockets fired by Hamas or the Islamic Jihad.
The reality hit him squarely in the face. How can one defend these so-called liberators of Palestine when they rape, kidnap, torture, and murder innocent civilians, regardless of their age, gender, or nationality? While some have already found a way to blame Israel (Didn't it ask for it?), many are currently struggling to turn a blind eye to such atrocities.
What will the American senators who wanted to reduce or even eliminate the budget allocated to this useless Iron Dome say now? After all, if thousands of Palestinians are massacred by Israel, wouldn't it be fair for thousands of Israelis to be as well?
Will the world have a short memory and rush once again to criticize Israel for its excessive response, or will it, for once, try to understand that Israel acts primarily in self-defense, without enthusiasm, and that each of its actions aims to eliminate terrorists who, to evoke world sympathy, use their own people as human shields without any remorse in order to win the image war?
As always, we will try to spare as many civilians as possible, but we will be condemned. As always, a maximum number of terrorists will be eliminated, but only civilians will be counted. As always, a democratic state will fight a terrorist entity, but they will be equated. As always, young soldiers dreaming of a future will have to sacrifice themselves to save their homeland from vile beasts dreaming only of martyrdom, but no distinction will be made. As always, we are dealing with terrorists who only wish to eliminate the State of Israel, but the world's press will use the term "fighters defending their territory."
Golda Meir used to say, "I prefer your condemnations to your condolences." Unfortunately, today we received your condolences. Unfortunately, tomorrow we will receive your condemnations.