Dear friends;
In a few minutes we will recite Yizkor. Technically, the correct name of these prayers in memory of the dead, recited four times a year, on each of the last days of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, and on Yom Kippur morning is “Hazkarat Neshamot,” remembering the souls of the deceased. They are also called Yizkor because the principal prayer opens with the words “Yizkor Elohim,” “May God remember,” May God remember the souls of those who have gone to their eternal rest.
Yizkor has a long history. It can be traced as far back as the year 165 BCE.
Judah the Maccabee and his men offered prayers for the souls of their comrades who had fallen in the battle against the Greco-Syrians. Centuries later Yizkor rose to prominence during the crusades in medieval Europe and later through the severe persecutions of Jews that took place in Eastern Europe in the seventeenth century, when thousands died as martyrs. Their names were inscribed in “Memorbuch,” the memorial books of their respective communities, and were read at Yizkor. In time these death rolls were expanded to include not only the names of martyrs, but of all members of the community who had died; and the custom of reciting Yizkor Prayers for all of them came into being.
This year, in particular, Yizkor has added significance. It will be recited with terrible Tuesday, September 11, as the backdrop against which everything in our lives is still being measured. The sense of shock and disbelief, the still developing feelings of loss and mourning, the questions of how to cope, and the now burgeoning anger and desire for justice, all color everything that we say and do and think and feel.
Nevertheless, the origins of Yizkor suggest and human nature demands that we must also make time to remember the personal losses that we have suffered as individuals. That we will do at the end of my remarks when we chant Yizkor and include the personal prayers that fit each of our unique and very personal circumstances.
Now, however, at this very moment, as members of the Jewish People, we make a time and place to remember those of our people who have given their lives “al Kiddush Hashem,” in martyrdom. We now honor the memories of those who made the ultimate sacrifice because their very lives, where they lived, what they stood for, even the language they spoke, were building blocks in the chain of Jewish continuity and living; breathing, living witnesses and testimony to our People’s eternal struggle to live in freedom and security in our own homeland. They are men, women and children, ranging in age from 5 months to 85 years. They are this year’s casualties of the horrible terrorist war now being waged against Israel. They were stabbed to death, strangled, beaten to death, bludgeoned to death, shot in drive-by shootings, shot by snipers. They were shot in their cars and busses and taxis as they went about their daily lives. They were killed as soldiers in uniform protecting their country. They were blown up by bombs and blown up by suicide bombers-30 suicide bombers this last year alone! Their only crime was to be residents of Israel, whose mere existence is an affront to the very same terrorist groups who attacked us only two weeks ago. They did not leave their homes on their particular fateful day with the intention of becoming martyrs. They only left to do their jobs, serve their country, live their lives in as normal a fashion as possible. Much like those who set out for work at the World Trade Center on September 11. And then, suddenly, without warning, terror struck! They are no more. We do not know the details of their lives, their accomplishments, their failures and successes, their hopes and dreams and aspirations. But at least, at the very least, let their names be known! Let their sacrifice not be anonymous. At least let their names be remembered.
(List of names by date)
Sept 27, 2000 - Sgt. David Biri, 19,
Sept 29, 2000 - Border Police Supt. Yossi Tabaja, 27,
Oct 1, 2000 - Border Police Cpl. Yosef Madhat, 19,.
Oct 2, 2000 - Wichlav Zalsevsky, 24, Sgt. Max Hazan, 20,
Oct 8, 2000 - Hillel Lieberman, 36,
Oct 12, 2000 - First Cpl. Yosef Avrahami and First Sgt. Vadim Novesche, 33
Oct 19, 2000 - Rabbi Binyamin Herling, 64
Oct 28, 2000 - The body of Marik Gavrilov, 25,.
Oct 30, 2000 - Eish-Kodesh Gilmor, 25, Machlouf, 30, David-Hen Cohen, 21, and Sgt. Shlomo Adshina, 20Maj. (res.) Amir Zohar, 34,
Nov 2, 2000 - Ayelet Shahar Levy, 28, and Hanan Levy, 33,
Nov 8, 2000 - Noa Dahan, 25,
Nov 10, 2000 - Sgt. Shahar Vekret, 20,
Nov 11, 2000 - Sgt. 1st Class Avner Shalom, 28, ,
Nov 13, 2000 - Sarah Leisha, 42,
Cpl. Elad Wallenstein, 18, and Cpl. Amit Zanna, 19, Gabi Zaghouri, 36,
Nov 18, 2000 - St.-Sgt.
Baruch (Snir) Flum, 21,
St.-Sgt. Sharon Shitoubi, 21
Nov 20, 2000 - Miriam Amitai, 35, and Gavriel Biton, 34,
Nov 21, 2000 - Itamar Yefet, 18,
Nov 22, 2000 - Shoshana Reis, 21, and Meir Bahrame, 35,
Nov 23, 2000 - Lt. Edward Matchnik, 21, Sgt. Samar Hussein, 19,
Nov 24, 2000 - Maj. Sharon Arameh, 25, Ariel Jeraffi, 40,
Dec 8, 2000 - Rina Didovsky, 39, Eliyahu Ben-Ami, 41, Sgt. Tal Gordon, 19,.
Dec 21, 2000 - Eliahu Cohen, 29
Dec 28, 2000 - Capt. Gad Marasha, 30, and Border Police Sgt.-Maj. Yonatan Vermullen, 29, ,
Dec 31, 2000 - Binyamin Zeev Kahane and his wife, Talia,
Jan 14, 2001 - Ron Tzalah, 32,
Jan 17, 2001 - Ofir Rahum, 16,.
Jan 23, 2001 - Motti Dayan, 27, and Etgar Zeituny, 34, cousins
Jan 25, 2001 - Akiva Pashkos, 45,
Jan 29, 2001 - Arye Hershkowitz, 55,
Feb 1, 2001 - Dr. Shmuel Gillis, 42, , Lior Attiah, 23,
Feb 5, 2001 - St.-Sgt. Rujayah Salameh, 23,
Feb 11, 2001 - Tzachi Sasson, 35,
Feb 14, 2001 - Simcha Shitrit, 30,; Staff-Sgt. Ofir Magidish, 20,; Sgt. David Iluz, 21,; Sgt. Julie Weiner, 21,; Sgt. Rachel Levy, 19,; Sgt. Kochava Polanski, 19,; Cpl. Alexander Manevich, 18,; and Cpl. Yasmin Karisi, 18,
Feb 26, 2001 - Mordechai Shefer, 55,
Mar 1, 2001 - Claude Knap, 29
Mar 4, 2001 - Naftali Dean, 85,; his niece, Shlomit Ziv, 58; and Yevgenya Malchin,
Mar 19, 2001 - Baruch Cohen, 59,
Mar 26, 2001 - Shalhevet Pass, age 10 months, shot between the eyes by a sniper while being held in her father’s arms
Mar 28, 2001 - Eliran Rosenberg-Zayat, 15, and Naftali Lanzkorn, 13,.
Apr 1, 2001 - Staff Sgt. Ya'akov Krenschel, 23, ,.
Apr 1, 2001 - Dina Guetta, 42,
Apr 2, 2001 - Sgt. Danny Darai, 20,
Apr 21, 2001 - Stanislav Sandomirsky, 38,
Apr 22, 2001 - Dr. Mario Goldin, 53,
Apr 28, 2001 - Sgt. Shlomo Elmakias, 20,
Apr 28, 2001 - Simcha Ron, 60, of
May 1, 2001 - Assaf Hershkowitz, 30,
May 8, 2001 - Arnaldo Agranionic, 48
May 9, 2001 - Yossi Ish-Ran, 14, and Kobi Mandell, 14, both of Tekoa, were found stoned to death in a cave about 200 meters from the small community south of Jerusalem where they lived.
May 10, 2001 - Constantin Straturula, 52, and Virgil Martinesc, 29,
May 15, 2001 - Idit Mizrahi, 20,
May 18, 2001 - Tirza Polonsky, 66, Miriam Waxman, 51; David Yarkoni, 53, Yulia Tratiakova, 21,; and Vladislav Sorokin, 34, of Netanya- killed in a suicide bombing at Hasharon Mall in the seaside city of Netanya
May 18, 2001 - Lt. Yair Nebenzahl, 22,
May 23, 2001 - Asher Iluz, 33,
May 25, 2001 - Yosef Alfasi, 50,
May 29, 2001 - Gilad Zar, 41,
May 29, 2001 - Sarah Blaustein, 53, and Esther Alvan, 20, killed in a drive-by shooting
May 31, 2001 - Zvi Shelef, 63,
June 1, 2001 - Marina Berkovizki, 17, Roman Dezanshvili, 21, Ilya Gutman, 19, Anya Kazachkov, 16, Katherine Kastaniyada-Talkir, 15, Aleksei Lupalu, 16, Mariana Medvedenko, 16, Irina Nepomneschi, 16, Yelena Nelimov, 18, Yulia Nelimov,; Raisa Nimrovsky, 15,; Pvt. Diez (Dani) Normanov, 21, Simona Rodin, 18,; Ori Shahar, 32, Liana Sakiyan, 16, Maria Tagilchev, 14, and Irena Usdachi, 18, Sergei Pancheskov, 20, Yael-Yulia Sklianik, 15,; Jan Bloom, 25, and Yevgenia Dorfman, 15, killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a disco near Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium along the seafront promenade just before midnight on Friday.
June 5, 2001-Yehuda Shoham, aged 5 months, died of injuries incurred in a fatal stoning..
June 12, 2001 - Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34,
June 14, 2001 - Lt.Col. Yehuda Edri, 45,
June 18, 2001 - Dan Yehuda, 35
Doron Zisserman, 38,
June 20, 2001 - Ilya Krivitz, 62,
June 22, 2001 - Sgt. Aviv Iszak, 19, and Sgt. Ofir Kit, 19, June 28, 2001 - Ekaterina (Katya) Weintraub, 27,
July 2, 2001 - Aharon Obadyan, 41,
July 2, 2001 - Yair Har Sinai, 51,
July 4, 2001 - Eliahu Na'aman, 32,
July 9, 2001 - Capt. Shai Shalom Cohen, 22,
July 13, 2001 - Yehezkel (Hezi) Mualem, 4
July 14, 2001 - David Cohen, 28,.
July 16, 2001 - Cpl. Hanit Arami, 19, and St.Sgt. Avi Ben Harush, 20,
July 24, 2001 - Yuri Gushchin, 18
July 26, 2001 - Ronen Landau, 17
Aug 5, 2001 - Tehiya Bloomberg, 40,
Aug 6, 2001 - Yitzhak Snir, 51,
Aug 7, 2001 - Wael Ghanem, 32, Zohar Shurgi, 40
Aug 9, 2001 - Giora Balash, 60, Zvika Golombek, 26, Shoshana Yehudit Greenbaum, 31,.; Tehila Maoz, 18; Frieda Mendelsohn, 62,; Michal Raziel, 16,; Malka Roth, 15,; Mordechai Schijveschuurder, 43; his wife Tzira Schijveschuurder, 41,; their children Ra'aya Schijveschuurder, 14, Avraham Yitzhak Schijveschuurder, 4,; Hemda Schijveschuurder, 2,; Lily Shimashvili, 33; her dauughter, Tamara Shimashvili, 8,; and Yocheved Shoshan, 10, were killed and about 130 injured in a suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria
Aug 9, 2001 - Aliza Malka, 17,
Aug 25, 2001 - Maj. Gil Oz, 30,; St.-Sgt. Kobi Nir, 21, Sgt. Tzahi Grabli, 19
Aug 25, 2001 - Sharon, 26, and Yaniv Ben-Shalom, 27; Sharon's brother, Doron Sviri, 20,
Aug 26, 2001 - Dov Rosman, 58,
Aug 27, 2001 - Meir Lixenberg, 38,
Aug 29, 2001 - Oleg Sotnikov, 35,
Aug 30, 2001 - Amos Tajouri, 60,
Sept 6, 2001 - Lt. Erez Merhavi, 23,
Sept 9, 2001 - Ya'akov Hatzav, 42, Sima Franko, 24,
Sept 9, 2001 - Dr. Yigal Goldstein, 47;Morel Derfler, 45, Sgt. Daniel Yifrah, 19
Sept 11, 2001 - Border Policemen Sgt. Tzachi David, 19 and St.-Sgt. Andrei Zledkin, 26
Sept 12, 2001 - Ruth Shua'i, 46
Sept 15, 2001 - Meir Weisshaus, 23,
Sept 16, 2001 - Sgt. David Gordukal, 23,
Sept 20, 2001 - Sarit Amrani, 26,
(Indicate to congregation to be seated)
“How,” we ask, “how?” How did we arrive at such a juncture? How has Israel been turned into such a horrific battleground? Only a few short years ago, in September of 1993, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed. We began an eight year journey towards what we hoped would be the fulfillment of our 3500 year old dream to be a free people living in our own land in peace and security. Instead, it turns out, we were living in a fantasy world; the dream has become a nightmare. We neither saw nor heard nor understood the truth. We did not get it! One year ago, Ariel Sharon strode onto the Temple Mount and in short order we discovered a series of horrible truths.
The premise of Oslo was "land for peace." It is now clear that Arafat's intention from the beginning was "land for war"-to use whatever West Bank and Gaza territory he would be granted in any "peace" as a base for waging war against Israel proper. "I don't believe that Arafat ever really gave up violence as a tool to achieving his objectives," outgoing ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk confessed in his parting interview with the Jerusalem Post on July 6. The pledge of nonviolence, made in Arafat's famous September 1993 letter to Yitzhak Rabin in the Oslo accords, the foundation of the whole "peace process," was a fraud and deception from the very beginning. We neither saw nor heard nor understood the truth. We did not get it!
Oslo assumed
that Arafat would prepare his people for peace. Instead, he trained them for
"popular war," down to the children who are indoctrinated with the
glories of "martyrdom" and bloodlust from their very earliest days. A
video clip repeatedly shown on Palestinian TV features a children's song with
the lyric, "How pleasant is the smell of martyrs, how pleasant the smell
of land, the land enriched by the blood, the blood pouring out of a fresh
body." We neither saw nor heard nor understood the truth. We did not get
it!
Oslo's basic premise was even more
fundamentally violated. It was not "land for cease-fire"; it was
"land for peace." Meaning, not just nonviolence, but recognition by
the Palestinians and the Arab world of the legitimacy of Israel. We now know,
eight sorry years later, that the PLO's recognition of Israel was just paper,
without an ounce of true intent. From the very beginning, Palestinian officials
flaunted their nonacceptance of Israel and their disdain for the
"peace" they had signed. At every opportunity, Arafat insisted that
the Oslo peace accords were only a means, and that if they did not get him what
he wanted, he would revert to "other means." We neither saw nor heard
nor understood the truth. We did not get it!
Arafat never
wavered from the unbroken Palestinian tradition of rejecting compromise. In
1947, when the Palestinians were offered a state side-by-side with a Jewish
state, they rejected it in favor of a war of extermination, a war that failed.
In 1978,
they were offered negotiations and autonomy after the Camp David peace
treaty between Israel and Egypt. The PLO rejected the offer, root and branch.
In 1993 in the Oslo accords, Arafat was offered recognition, self-government,
and an end to occupation. The overture culminated in Ehud Barak's astonishing
July 2000 offer of a Palestinian state with its capital in a shared Jerusalem.
Arafat did not just turn that down, he never made a counter-offer. His
counter-offer was war. We neither saw nor heard nor understood the truth. We
did not get it!
The objective had always been
"Palestine from the river to the sea." Meaning from the river Jordan
to the Mediterranean. Meaning no Israel. This is nothing new. This is precisely
the very same program laid out by the Palestinians in the 1974 Cairo
"Phased Plan:" Accept any piece of land within Greater Palestine as
Phase One, from which to carry on Phase Two, the war for the extinction of
Israel. We neither saw nor heard nor understood the truth. We did not get it!
We are now at Phase Two. The war Arafat has coveted all his life; the war against Israel from within Palestine. Arafat now has control of 98 percent of the Palestinian population, 40,000 armed “police” (i.e. army), international legitimacy, foreign aid, and the territorial base of every city in the West Bank and Gaza. This war is the war Arafat always wanted. Arafat is not a peace partner. He is an obstacle to peace! The political realities of Terrible Tuesday may force Arafat to change his tune. If he wants to be “in” with the United States, he may have to condemn terrorism and even put a lid on terrorist incursions into Israel. For the moment much of his support in the international community may have disappeared. But be wary!. He is still the same Arafat. Since 1993 he has had 2920 days to condemn terrorism against Israel. He has had 2920 days to change Palestinian culture that harbors, supports, encourages, and empowers terrorism against Israel. He has had 2920 days to enter into agreements that would have brought peace and the expectation of a real future to his people, never mind to Israel.
Arafat has done none of this! Moreover, in the last week he has not even been able to meet Ariel Sharon’s modest demand that there be a complete cease fire lasting 48 hours before he allows Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to meet with him. Sharon is under tremendous pressure-both internal and external-to move forward with this meeting in the wake of Terrible Tuesday. But he will not budge. And I give him credit! I only hope the United States will take it’s stand from him!
Now we see and
hear and understood the truth. Now we get it! Israel has paid a terrible price!
Israel is dazed and reeling-economically, diplomatically, and politically.
Above all, psychologically. Israelis
are afraid. They are afraid to send their children to the mall. They are afraid
to go to the movies. They are afraid to drive the open road. And even worse,
they are demoralized. They are close to losing hope. They see nothing but indefinite struggle,
continued bloodletting, for the endless future. Military reserve service has
been extended. Tourism, a mainstay of the economy, is dead. Unemployment is at
the highest level in Israeli history. People are so afraid to go to Israel that
British Air, Swissair, KLM, and Lufthansa forbid their pilots who fly there to
stay overnight.
Israel is also isolated. The
vilification of Israel, temporarily moderated during the Oslo interlude, has
resumed full force at the United Nations, the Arab League, and in Europe. Egypt
and Jordan have withdrawn their ambassadors. The tentative ties Israel had
established with moderate Arab states like Morocco, Qatar, and the United Arab
Emirates have been cut. At the Durban conference on racism, dozens of countries
attempted not only to brand Zionism as racism but to devalue the Holocaust by
deliberately using the word to apply to a myriad of other national tragedies.
My friends, these are the facts. They were the facts from last Rosh Hashannah until this very day. But then Terrible Tuesday, September 11, 2001, literally exploded onto the world scene and certain other truths became self evident. Truths that Israel and Israelis have known for decades; truths that they have been trying to communicate, but truths that the world community did not want to see or hear or understand or get!
The truth that terrorism directed against Israel was only a ticking time bomb that sooner or later would explode against the entire world. Israel is only the Little Satan, a symbol of Radical Islam’s real target, the United States, the Big Satan, the entire western world!
The truth that Israel is not only fighting its own battle for survival. It is on the front lines fighting the battle for the survival of the entire western democratic world.
The truth that every casualty in Israel is not just Israel’s loss; it is the entire world’s loss.
The truth that if terrorists see success in Israel, and see an Israel isolated from the world and left all alone to defend itself, they will export it elsewhere-and they did!
The truth that to fight terrorism you need to strike at the organizers, the engineers, the planners of attacks-a policy Israel has embarked upon, and been criticized for, in recent months.
The truth that targeted assassinations do the job of eliminating identified trainers and organizers and supporters and enablers of terrorism-without taking dozens or hundreds of innocent lives in the process.
The truth that while quiet might prevail for a few days, in a world of terrorism the only question is when and where the violence will resume.
The truth that every possible weapon-economic, diplomatic, political and military must be used in combating them. That is why Israel closes off the territories and keeps Palestinian workers out of Israel when things get bad. Not because it wants to punish innocent Palestinians who earn their livelihood within Israel, but because it needs to protect and defend itself and its citizens. That is why Israel seized Orient House and evicted the Palestinians. They struck at the very symbol of what the Palestinians wanted to do to Israel.
The truth that to combat terrorism effectively you need three things:
1. Intensive police work across national borders so that vital information can be gathered and shared and acted upon before it is too late. That is why Israel responded immediately to the United States’ need to update its profiles of Muslim extremist organizations and individuals. Mr. Sharon ordered the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, and the Shin Bet, Israel’s military intelligence- to work around the clock to send all available data to Washington. A week ago Friday President Bush warmly telephoned Mr. Sharon to thank him for the help
2. An ideological campaign to engage all the arguments and excuses for terrorism and reject them; thereby creating a climate that rejects terrorism.
3. Serious and sustained diplomatic efforts so that all governments not only reject terrorism but agree not to harbor, support, aid and abet terrorism within their borders.
We learned the truth that a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist. The truth that a terrorist by any other name-even a Nobel Peace Prize Recipient- is still a terrorist!
The truth that you are either with us or against us in the war against terrorism! The truth that there is no middle ground. The truth that there is no such thing as negotiating when it comes to terrorists. To negotiate is to compromise. To compromise is to show weakness. To show weakness is to let them know they are winning! The truth is that the only way to confront evil is to “take it out.” That is what Israel must continue to do. That is what the Western World and the United States must do
The truth that the battle against terrorism will be for us in America what it has been for Israel-decades long! Not a week or a month or even a year. Decades! Israel has taught us that you are not allowed to ask the question, “How long?” because to ask it implies that there is a length of time beyond which we can no longer bear it and we will give up. But if you must ask it, the answer is “As long as it takes!”
The truth that to sustain such a lengthy battle against terrorism the way Israel has, and the way the rest of the world will now have to do, you need two things. You need weaponry of all kinds; and you need the will and stamina. Israel has both; Israel will not yield. The United States and the Western World have the weaponry and technology and resources. The big question is, will we have the will and stamina? If we do not, after the smoke has cleared we may wake up to an international reality that is not very different from what preceded it. When it comes to will and stamina there is no better example than Israel.
Yes, my friends, it is hard to believe! Who would ever have thought that we would one day say that there is no better example for us, for the United States and for the Western World, in a battle we must now wage, than tiny little Israel, a country of only six and a half million! Who would have thought that the day would come when we would say that Israel is America’s best friend! Who would have thought that Israel could be a source of such knowledge and inspiration!
That Israel is the miracle country of the last 53 years-we all know. That Israel has made the desert bloom and been able to build a thriving, cultural, scientific, economic and technological society from scratch-we all know. That Israel has taught the world what it means to open your gates to those in need of a home-we know. That Israel takes in not only its own, but those to whom no one else would give a safe haven-we know. That Israel is the world’s prime example of how you can build a thriving dynamic society in only 53 years, in spite of four major wars and decades of living with terrorism-we know! That Israel has managed not only to survive and flourish and grow in spite of such odds while taking on and absorbing over two and a half million immigrants-we know! That Israel is still absorbing 6,000 immigrants a month in spite of everything going on-we know! But that Israel would become a shining example of how to fight the world’s most pressing and dangerous enemy-that we would never have expected! Look at the words the President of the United States used to describe the war we must now wage. The State of Israel wrote the textbook! Not with pen and ink! But with blood, sweat, and tears!
Yes, my friends, Israel can teach us how to fight and what tactics to use. It can teach us that the two most important weapons are the means to wage the war and the will and stamina needed for what will be a protracted battle. But more than this, for each one of us as individuals, for you and me, who live ordinary lives as civilians and want to continue to live normal lives in spite of the ever present backdrop of terrorism , Israel’s people teach us that it can be done. Israel’s people teach us that you don’t need to be an extraordinarily unusual person to rise to the challenge and meet it head on. It is hard, but we can do it. They teach us that one can live-even in their reality. And if they can do it, so can we!
Esther Ochana lives in the tiny settlement of Noqedim in the Judean Hills. “Look around, “ she says. “Look at the homes, look at the view, isn’t it paradise?” An American might differ. In looking around one might be startled by sights that seem to fade into the background for Mrs. Ochana. The dozen or so soldiers, M-16 submachine guns over their shoulders, standing a few feet away; the chain link fence and steel gate that gird Noqedim; the nearby trailer that serves as a military intelligence office; the three massive tanks parked a little way uphill. Yet Mrs. Ochana can still see paradise, even though she now sees it through tears. A dear friend, Sarit Amrani, died on September 20 just half a mile away, in a hail of bullets fired at her car by Palestinian gunmen. Nevertheless, she still sees the beauty around her. Israelis teach us that we must not allow the terrorists to deprive us of the ability to see the beauty around us. When that happens we lose our humanity.
Israelis also teach us that the hatred does not take over our lives! Orly Zohar is the 34 year old widow of Major Amir Zohar who was killed almost a year ago in a major gun battle in Nahal Elisha near Jericho. The sniper’s bullet that killed her husband and the father of their two children did not succeed in filling his wife’s heart with hatred and bitterness. Zohar remains committed to the ideals of respect and humanity her husband cherished. “The hatred does not take over our lives,” she explains. “I do not reinforce in my children that it was Arabs who killed their father. We can not make generalizations, that would be a negation of everything that Amir believed in.” Israel teaches us that terrorists may take our lives; but we will never allow them to take our souls as well.
Israel teaches us that you look reality straight in the face, confront it, acknowledge it for what it is, and go about life as best you can. “Ayn Brayrah,” there is no choice! Israel’s reality is that it is a place where college students have their bags checked on the way into libraries, not on the way out. Holidays are occasions for boosting the numbers of soldiers and police officers on city streets. Children are trained not to pick up stray toys or knapsacks, and to tell by their dress if strangers might be primed to explode. Armed guards are posted outside restaurants, synagogues, and even weddings. A watermelon or a can of beer might be a bomb. It has been this way so long that people have learned to go on with their lives-in spite of the ever present concerns for safety.
Israel is a paradise- with tanks. But Israelis go on living, striving for normalcy. They go to work, to school, to university, to the library, to the shopping mall. They go for a walk on the street. They go to the clubs and discotheques. They enjoy life as mush as possible. They may think twice about going to a mall to run errands, but then most of them go about their business anyway. In the face of terrorism, going shopping and insisting upon normality become acts of patriotism.
Suzie Cohen, a neighbor of Mrs. Ochana in Noqedim, left Vienna to move to Israel. “It’s not that I left Vienna because of anti-Semitism,” she says, “but there you felt different all the time. Here you can live a normal life.” Here you can live a normal life!
My dear friends,
This is all the State of Israel has ever wanted-to have a normal, national life. In spite of the fact that the world has never allowed her to have a normal life, she has survived. She has fashioned as normal an existence as any state could, given her unique position in the world.. In 53 years she has accomplished, under the most adverse of circumstances, what many other countries can only envy but have not been able to achieve! -Either because they lack the will, the stamina, the courage, the determination and the vision; or because their autocratic dictatorships chose otherwise for their populations and direct their discontent outward at Israel and at the entire Western world.
Israel is once again alone and isolated. We are so grateful that the United States stood by israel’s side at Durban and walked out in protest. We are grateful for all the support the United States has given Israel from its birth in 1948. In spite of the ups and downs, Israel’s relationship with the United States has been nothing less than critical. This year, however, things are reversed. We do not marvel at what we can do for Israel. Instead, we marvel at what Israel can do for us and for the United States. Show us the way to find the strength and courage and determination to get over the shock, look the enemy straight in the face, and take up the challenge. Show us how to live normal lives, in the most abnormal of times. Show us how to keep the terror from robbing us of our ability to enjoy the beauty in life. Show us how to prevent the terror from filling our hearts with hatred and bitterness.
I began my remarks by reading 177 names of individuals who died “al kiddush hashem,” as martyrs. As it turns out, they also died to defend us, even though they were 6,000 miles away from our shores. Now, the very least we can do for their memories, the very least we can do so that Israel can continue to be strong both for her survival and for us, is to stand up and be counted and pledge…