My son is in the army. He is not the type at all, believe me. Quiet,
studious, a writer, a lover of Jewish history, Talmud, ethics. He spent two
years in a pre-army program in the Galilee called Karmei Chayil. He made many
good friends there from all over the country, and now he and all his friends are
in the army. One of them I know well. A bit chubby, with payot, and a great
laugh. He and my son have become like brothers. While both of them tried out for
the elite paratroopers unit, only he made it in. He and his unit are the ones in
Lebanon. They were there over a week, fighting under horrific conditions,
running out of food and water. Even though the Israeli Air Force dropped tons of
leaflets warning civilians to flee because they were in terrorist territory and
likely to be injured, they still encountered civilians. My son spoke to his
friend yesterday, and this is how he described it:
"The village looked empty, and then we heard noises coming from one of the
houses, so we opened fire. But when we went inside, we found two women and a
child huddled in the corner of the room. We were so relieved we hadn't hurt
them. We took up base in one of the empty houses. And then all of a sudden, we
came under intense fire. Three rockets were fired at the house we were in. Only
one managed to destroy a wall, which fell on one of us, covering him in white
dust, but otherwise not hurting him. I spent the whole time feeding bullets to
my friend who was shooting non-stop. We managed to killed 26 terrorists. Not one
of us was hurt. Our commanding officer kept walking around, touching everybody
on the shoulder, smiling and encouraging us: "We're are better than they are.
Don't worry." It calmed us all down. And really, we were much better then them.
They are a lousy army. They only win when they hide behind baby carriages."
Please remember this when you hear about the "atrocity" of the Israeli bomb
dropped on Kfar Cana, killing many civilians, a place from which Hezbollah has
fired hundreds of rockets at Israel. Unlike previous administrations, Mr. Olmert
has my respect when he says: "They were warned to leave. It is the
responsibility of Hezbollah for firing rockets amidst civilians."
Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to complain about
civilian casualties, since all they have done this entire war is target
civilians. Every single one of the more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel,
is launched into populated towns filled with women and children. Just today,
another suicide belt meant to kill civilians in Israel was detonated harmlessly
by our forces in Nablus. So don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to
those using your babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who store weapons in
mosques, ambulances, hospitals, and private homes. Cry to those launching deadly
rockets from the backyards of your kindergartens and schools. Cry to the
heartless men who love death, and however many of their troops or civilians die,
consider themselves victorious as long as they can keep on firing rockets at our
women and children.
Save your sympathy for the mothers and sisters and girlfriends of our young
soldiers who would rather be sitting in study halls learning Torah, but have no
choice but to risk their precious lives full of hope, goodness and endless
potential, to wipe out the cancerous terrorist cells that threaten their people
and all mankind. Make your choice, and save your tears.
That terrorists have been unsuccessful in killing more of our women and
children is due to our army, God and prayers, not to any lack of motivation or
intention on their part.
If you hide behind your baby to shoot at my baby, you are responsible for
getting children killed. You and you alone.