A Tales of Mothers

Israelis are often characterized by their detractors as ‘warmongers’ and with that in mind, I want to contrast this report titled Hamas Women Vow Bombing via Arutz Sheva:

A second woman called to "strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah." Two of her sons have died as "martyrs", the woman said, and she hopes to do so as well. "There will be days of battle between us, and this will be our opportunity to avenge our sons whom they have bombed, and the blood of the 400 martyrs who were killed in the headquarters," the woman continued. She called on Gaza Arabs to be strong, saying, "Your daughters march by your side on the path of Jihad and martyrdom.”

With this, from an Israeli mother of a soldier currently serving on the southern border:

May God please, please protect my son, all my sons - because they are all mine. Watch over them and keep them safe and guide their missiles to hit only those buildings that have explosives and rockets in them. And please, God, give the Palestinian leadership enough sense not to store their explosives with their wives and children.

Oh, and one more prayer - please take care of those Palestinian gunmen who are hiding themselves and their weapons in hospitals - especially in the maternity wards among the innocent newborns.

Oh, wait - one other - please ask the Palestinians to choose between praying in a mosque and storing weapons there because, if they store weapons there, like the two we have already bombed, we are going to bomb those structures too. A House of God is not an arsenal and an arsenal cannot be a House of God.

I have been reading A Solider’s Mother for well over a year now. I first started to read it as my own son started to creep up in age where military service will become a choice of his own choosing. I looked for insights or wisdom in how she copes, and instead, I found more than I bargained for. Now I find every day I dread the next new post. While today her and her family are spared the endless sorrow which makes up the blood and flesh reality of war there are other mothers and families who are not.

In the end, I am utterly impotent, and can do nothing more but pray. And so it goes,

May He who blessed our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who keep guard over our country and cities of our Lord from the border with Lebanon to the Egyptian desert and from the Mediterranean Sea to the approach to the Arava, be they on land, air or sea.

May the Almighty deliver us our enemies who arise against us, may the Holy One, blessed be He, preserve them and save them from all sorrow and peril, from danger and ill.

May He send blessing and success in all their endeavors, may He deliver to them those who hate us and crown them with salvation and victory, so that the saying may be fulfilled through them, "For the Lord, your God, who walks with you and to fight your enemies for you and to save you", and let us say, Amen.