Ho Hum….Another One

I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why someone things you can change someone’s mind by insulting them. @afrikaano – who doesn’t divulge his/her name, gender or location, thinks I should “change your name in a mother of a murderer, or in a mother of a hitler look a like (genocide against palestinians

Now, I have to confess, I didn’t spend a lot of time before deciding to call this blog “A Soldier’s Mother.” It just sort of happened. But, I have to admit, it’s a heck of a lot better, and worlds more accurate than “mother of a murderer” or even “A Murderer’s Mother.” As for the comment about “hitler look a like (sic)” I have to wonder if @afrikanno has ever seen a picture of Hitler, read a history book…or any book for that matter.

Perhaps what @afrikaano really needs is a dictionary, there to understand the basic difference between murder and kill. My son has likely killed – it is a very difficult thing for a mother to know. It is not something I ever really thought would happen, back in the days before he entered the army. I wasn’t very realistic, but it never crossed my mind. Now it does…often. But unlike countless Palestinian mothers who pride themselves on having raised their martyred murderers, my son never committed murder, never targeted innocents, never shot without a clear and defined target that presented a clear and present danger to his unit, his fellow soldiers, or his country.

From a Biblical standpoint, one of the ten commandments is “Thou shalt not murder.” Some Bibles mistakenly translate the Hebrew original text to “Thou shalt not kill” and in doing so, open themselves up to the very logical conclusion that the Bible contradicts itself. It does not. Killing is, sadly, a part of war…you avoid it when and where you can, but it is the nature of the battle and if the Palestinians wanted to avoid having their people killed, they could have avoided sending hundreds of rockets each month against Israel (this year alone, 328 rockets have been fired at Israel) and stop sending terrorists who wish to commit murder.

There are, in fact, times when we are commanded to kill – never are we commanded to murder. If someone tries to murder you, you have the moral and legal right to defend yourself – even to kill the attacker to avoid the murder.

We know that what Elie and the other soldiers did in Gaza resulted in the deaths of some Palestinians…largely combatants, but yes, even some innocents. Elie even knows the where, the how, and the why. It is something he will have to live with; something he does live with; and something that I try to live with as well.

The fundamental truth – that Israel was not aiming at civilians – is what sets us apart from the Palestinians. Our rockets were not indiscriminate. If we fired at a mosque – it was because the mosque was being used to store weapons or launch rockets. If a school was the target, it was because Palestinians were using that school  from which to hide.

As our children were hiding in bomb shelters because they WERE the target, Palestinian children were played outside, because they were not. Their parents were confident that Israel would identify their location and abort an attack. It went that way most of the time…but not always.

Elie knows of a young Palestinian boy who was killed on a Saturday morning while he was playing by a school (from which rockets were being launched). Why was that boy there, Elie has asked me several times…why on a Saturday morning in the middle of war? An artillery unit fired smoke into the air; the smoke canister fell to the earth and in a freak accident, struck the boy and killed him. The boy was not the target (trust me, there are more accurate ways to kill than using a smoke canister fired from kilometers away!). His death was a tragedy of war, the callousness of those who fired from the schoolyard, and probably a decent dose of parental negligence.

Schools in Israel were canceled; children stayed home and were kept in doors. We declared many short ceasefires during daylight hours so that the Palestinians could go out and stock up – our people never had that luxury and still we did not break the declared ceasefires. Why was the boy out there?

Yes, I know it was a stupid comment this person sent me and no, I’m not upset and no, I have no intention of changing my name or the name of this blog. I am so proud to be a soldier’s mother…four plus times over. I am proud that my sons fight for Israel and confident that my army is among the most moral of armies in the world. My country did not commit murder; my son did not murder anyone.

I doubt @afrikaano will understand or admit the difference – but it matters not at all. What matters is the truth, and this I have written here in this blog, again and again.

2 Comments

  1. War is Hell. It’s been said before and it will be said again. I have never known the hells of war and I pray my children never do, but it is an undeniable fact that innocent civilians do get hurt in a war. But don’t blame Israel on the war — they are not the ones wanting to eridacate all Arabs, It’s the Islamic terrorists who want to kill all Jews who state the war.

  2. My favorite response to the absurd claim of Israeli genocide against the Palestinians is “if that’s Israel’s goal then they’re doing a really miserable job as the Palestinians are doing so well.”
    Thanks for this post it’s too bad that you have to deal with such stupidity.

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