It seems the entire world is reeling from the heinous night terror attacks in Paris.
Paris.
The City of Light.
Of beautiful romance.
Culture.
And culinary delights.
And so, the entire world mourns with Paris.
But what about Beirut the day before?
What about a downed Russian plane a couple of weeks before that?
Closest to home: what about the shattered Israeli Litman family — husband and son murdered the day before their daughter and sister’s wedding that very same Friday?
Since then, only more terror: beloved high school teacher Yakov Don, son of Holocaust survivors, who made the toughest teens, despite themselves, love him; Ezra Schwartz [Page 1]; Mr. Mizrachi, who buried his son Ziv after burying his brother Ya’alon 12 years ago, both terror victims. Who could bear the heartrending eulogy of this double-bereaved man?
Aligning with victims of terror should be, as it is in the case of blind justice, a blind compassion.
Compassion for victims of terror should not be a left-right political issue, but a visceral apolitical reaction of cherishing life and freedom for all.
Terrorism, like any crime, ought to garner universal condemnation. A society recoiling from the marring of norms of unwritten laws for humanity.
Instead the reactions are inconsistent and varied.
A western or European country attacked? A tragedy warranting front page news.
Beirut? Russia?
Whatever.
As the saying goes, “selective compassion.”
If so, what kind of compassion is that?
Either there is or there isn’t respect for valuing the lives of innocents.
Wherever they may or may not fall on the map of the world.
All of us are tinged by our life experiences that lead us to identify with some more than others. There will always be degrees of identification with one group or another. Of course, there are often political nuances that flesh out any given situation when it comes even to violent situations.
But when, just like that, innocents are attacked, we ought to consolidate our compassion and be equal in dispensing it to all victims of terror.
For in those painful moments, is it not clearer than ever we are all victims of these machinations of evil?
Why does the world judge nation’s basic right to life, differently?
As a Jew, yet again, it was the loneliest feeling. And to be sure, I, together with the rest of the world, cry with Paris.
Along with noticing the absence of coverage for Beirut and Russia, I found myself wondering to myself, “but why is Jewish blood different?
“Why didn’t the media even squeak about the Litman, Don, Schwartz and Mizrachi families?”
If anything, these Paris attacks reflect the reality that all this terrorism is not political. But, sadly, hate-driven.
For the centerpiece of that famous City of Light is the Eiffel Tower.
There is no Temple Mount in Paris.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
