The line between the culture of life and the culture of death in Israel is gaping.
On the one side, the culture of life: Israel’s embrace of it and horror at its loss. On the other side, the culture of death: Many Palestinians’ embrace of it and jubilation at its success.
Cleavers. Knives. Instruments of butcher shops. Weapons of choice on one side of the line, the impassable gulf, embraced by the newest wave of Palestinian terrorists.
Prayer. Study. Instruments of human spirit. Weapons of choice on the other side of the line, embraced by the victims of the newest wave of Palestinian terrorists.
Images:
The blood on the prayer books on the floor of the synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem.
The blood in the hallways.
The severed arm there, still wearing tefilin.
The funerals of the rabbis; the thousands of Israelis joining in the funeral of the Druze policeman who gave his life to save the lives of the others in the synagogue.
The dazed mourners wandering without direction or understanding.
Images:
The dancing in the streets in Gaza. The jubilation of the people with whom Israel is supposed to make peace.
The fork-tongued Mahmoud Abbas:
Who condemns the terror attack in Haf Nof — after John Kerry urges him to do so.
Who recites the litany of lies that Israel has taken over the Temple Mount.
The Mount that includes the al- Aksa mosque — unmentioned as a central holy place of Islam before Jews began to return to Palestine.
Images:
“The images I saw inside the synagogue reminded me of images from the Holocaust — Jews wrapped in tallitot and tefilin, dying in pools of their own blood on the floor of the synagogues.”
This, fromZAKA Chairman Yehudi Meshi Zahav, the head of Israel’s first responders.
The man who’s seen scores of terrorist attacks. Body parts. Blood. Detached limbs. Bombed out buses. But it was this week’s attack that summoned images of the Holocaustfor him.
Images:
The bald lies and gross distortions in many media, only some duly retracted, all reflecting their first instincts, their anti-Semitism.
The CBS report that called the synagogue in Har Nof a “contested religious site.”
The Canada CBC Tweet that says: “Jerusalem police fatally shoot 2 after apparent synagogue attack.”
The CNN story that says: “Deadly attack on a Jerusalem mosque.”
The Le Monde headline that says: “Six killed in Jerusalem.”
The Guardian story that edited a Reuters story that identified the two killers as two Palestinians, but which the Guardian called “two men.”
Images:
Jews returning to the scene of the crime the very same day.
Returning to pray again.
To study Torah again.
To plan the trip to the funeral of the Druze policeman.
To weep.
To commit to continue — witness, the bris in the same synagogue the very next day — to determine not to let the murderers define the agenda.
To embrace the culture of life. To reject the culture of death.
Images we hope never to see again.
But which, short of supernatural intervention, we fear will find their way to our eyes, again.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
