Bought with Suffering

Not again, I thought as I saw the ambulances and policemen racing to the scene. We quickly ran back to our hotel and, looking out our window, we could see overturned cars and a tractor. In a copycat attack, an Arab tractor driver ran amok on a crowded Jerusalem street, attempting to kill and maim as many Jews as he could. All the Israelis had already grown used to such attacks and after initial shock, they continued with their lives, undaunted by the acts of a homicide terrorist.

Reading the newspaper and watching the news, my heart breaks. Why does this one little people deserve so much suffering and pain? This legacy of loss is written deeply on the face of every Israeli. Unfortunately, they are no strangers to hardship. Sitting in a restaurant in Jaffa, the waitress, along with everybody in the restaurant, was glued to the TV, watching a tearful Karnit Goldwasser mourn over the coffin of her husband. The mood in the air was tense and tragic. The waitress looked at us with pained eyes and said: "this is a sad day for Israel." Across the border, our enemies were celebrating the release of a vile child murderer, praising his "heroic" act of bashing in the skull of a 4-year old. Such good people are surrounded in a sea of bastards who only wish them bad. The lives of many more Jewish children have certainly been endangered by the release of this unrepentant monster.

Some Jews in the Diaspora, fed up with Israeli scandals and problems, are ready to wash their hands of the Zionist experiment. Speaking with the people of Israel, living proudly in the land of Israel, I say that I will never do that. Yes, I know that the Israeli leadership is inept and completely corrupt. I am aware that Israel is suffering from serious drought and that the waters of the Kinneret are receding at an alarming rate. I am conscious of the fact that Israel finds itself alone in a world of suicide bombers, terrorists and nuclear-bent mullahs and that its "friends" are adamant that Israel surrender large chunks of Jewish land and effectively commit suicide. Israel has no shortage of problems and Israeli society has many fractures and fault lines. Nonetheless, the strength and resilience of the nation that dwells in Zion is endless. While the government may be living in a fantasy world, the average person is beginning to get it. Israelis are committed ad determined to live in their own land in safety and security,

What did the kind lady working at the Falafel shop do to deserve all of the pain inflicted upon her by cruel enemies? What about the Russian immigrant, with his kids, who was injured in a terrorist attack? The little boy who wakes up every night screaming from the constant bombardment of his homes in Sderot? The old lad who survived the Holocaust only to be murdered in her own country by Islamic terrorists? Israel is filled with amazing and strong people. The nation that dreamed for 2000 years of returning home is not about to call it quits because of some terrorists. The Talmud teaches us that the land of Israel is bought with suffering. Sadly, every inch of our holy land has been purchased with the blood, sweat and tears of the citizens of the state of Israel. It is simply naive on the part of anyone in the Diaspora, or any non-Jew, to think that the people of Israel is ready to forfeit so easily.