As I was about to go to bed on Monday night I was gripped by the haunting sounds of sobbing coming from outside my window. A group of teenage boys were sitting on the sidewalk, crying and one of them sobbing “Why?! Why?! Why?!” It is haunting me still.
I first heard that the three boys kidnapped by Hamas terrorists were found dead when I was in the middle of a jam session with my musical group. These were probably their friends crying. But the whole nation was crying. And the whole nation is comforting one another.
I feel, more than I have ever felt before, that we are one family. It is a feeling that is hard to put into words. Many feelings are pulsating through all of us that are hard to process.
Pain over the loss
Longing for peace
Hope for redemption
Anger over inaction
Helplessness
Resoluteness…
From all that has been said over the past weeks three words stand out for me: deterrence, humanity and response-ability.
Deterrence means making it not worth their while to murder. We are in the midst of a world war, only no one is acknowledging it. We talk about a war against terror but it is really a war against evil that is being perpetrated around the globe. The U.S. State Department cites seven nations as state sponsors of terrorism – Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. It is all part of the same war of good against evil, celebrating life against celebrating death. Israel has lost its capacity for deterrence only because our leaders have not declared war against terror. If they did, it would not be hard to figure out what would make the terrorists decide that murdering innocent children is not worth their while.
What does it mean to not lose our humanity? It means not becoming cruel and bloodthirsty like them and not taking revenge, but only doing what is required to defend ourselves and to preserve life. I think that we have been exemplary at this.
What is response-ability? It is the response to the Arab desire to wipe Israel off the map. You want to drive us into the sea? We will build more.