I write you from Jerusalem.

 

My wife Berni and I arrived here last Sunday to attend a nephew's wedding and to visit with our children. The young nuptials met while both were assigned to the operation of the Iron Dome.

 

Each time I visit I see and feel my ancestral roots and personal belonging to the Land even more firmly planted. At the wedding, we were surrounded by numerous nieces and nephews who live here and their growing young families.

 

The war,  fought by Israel on three fronts,  not just in the South and North but also in Judea and Samaria where our son is currently serving—there is an amazing effort to maintain as normal a schedule as possible for children, their war awareness notwithstanding. (He was redeployed on Saturday and received his call-up during Sabbath morning services.)

 

It was a tear-jerker for us to see our grandaughters cry as they said goodbye to their Abba (Hebrew for father) as their observance of the Shabbat was punctured by his having to return to his base.

 

And I experienced what too many families here experience all too often, a sad necessity of watching their children go off to war.

 

It is not where Israel wants to be, but they have no choice. Oct. 7 changed the world order and threw Israel into this unprecedented existential struggle for survival.

 

Consider that Hezbollah happily, unprovoked, joined forces with Hamas the day after the Oct 7th massacre of Israeli communities along the Gaza border to introduce an added measure of mortal menace to Israel's Northern border and its numerous communities.

 

Hassan Nasrallah, it must be stressed, was a mass murderer of Americans along with Israelis over a reign of terror extending back to 1992. That he and many of his henchmen have been eliminated is something that all people of good conscience and human caring should applaud and celebrate. The bloody carnage he exacted on so many people and fronts for so long defies description.

 

I end with this thought.

 

Our little grandchildren know what a "safe room" is which exists in most apartment buildings and certainly in all newly built individual homes and apartments. 

 

Keeping children out of harm's way is a strong and cherished cultural imperative and social norm. Our children will not be used as human shields; neither will our synagogues, hospitals, and schools ever be hijacked to stock and store rockets and other explosive devices that easily malfunction and maim innocent bystanders, as is the norm for the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah.

 

The asymmetry of this war and the skewed thinking of these agents of evil should scare and frighten all who know and value the gift of life, for all who are created in God's image. 

 

Blessings that war will one day cease to be such a prevalent reality so that our societies can prosper and grow in grace and goodness. And finally, let us bring home the remaining live hostages and the remains of those who suffered and perished in captivity.