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Ellen W. Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights with her husband and six children. She is a painter, writer and political activist.
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By Ellen W. Horowitz
May 7, 2004
When women, children and the defenseless members of a society are ambushed and murdered in cold blood, what's a nation to do?
Well, the Jewish people have received our marching orders and instructions directly from the Almighty Himself. "Remember"? (Parshat Zachor)
If you're waiting for salvation to come from the likes of Kofi Annan, Jack Straw and George Bush, well, don't hold your breath. Seems like a lot of us are still waiting for the Allied forces to bomb the tracks.
The heavens must be truly be perplexed. I mean, G-d has given us the potential and means to be one of the most effective and motivated military powers in the world. But it seems that we have chosen to embrace death and victimhood, rather than cherish and fight for life.
We are a people who have had more than enough time to intensely examine and reflect on the consequences of destruction and exile. More than any other nation, it is our scholars, writers and greatest thinkers who have obsessed on morbidity, mortality and morality. And through the worst of times, we have consistently drawn the conclusion that we must choose and fight for life.
So what has happened?
Our generation has witnessed and participated in a desecration of unknown proportions on a metaphysical level. We have stood by and watched silently at what is clearly forbidden. "Don't stand by your brother's blood." (Leviticus 19:16) In some measure, the atrocities we are witnessing may surpass that of the Holocaust, because we have the means at our disposal to stop the catastrophe; whereas, sixty-plus years ago, we were defenseless.
Anybody who pats themselves on the back for taking the time to shoot-off an email to the heads of the European Union should think again. When our sincere and tireless efforts manage to elicit a veiled response like "Such attacks do nothing whatsoever to advance the Palestinian cause," one has to wonder. What, pray tell, is the Palestinian cause? Is it to destroy every Jewish man, woman and child? Is it to grant territorial integrity and legitimacy to the concept of Hell? Perhaps it's both. Surely, it must be time to redirect our efforts and place our rage at the doorsteps of the Knesset, and to place our military might at the entrance to Ramallah.
With great finesse, Likud members and Yesha activists directed a well-orchestrated campaign and managed to vote down the "disengagement" plan, while at the same time, being ever so careful to prop up an incompetent Prime Minister. The strategy worked brilliantly, but the victory was more bitter than sweet. And I wonder if the precious souls of a mother and her five children (we can include an almost full-term baby, can't we?) will ever be avenged.
It is beyond all tragedy and cynicism to realize that if Ariel Sharon were to pull the plug on Arafat tomorrow, his reasoning would most likely be for political expediency. Is it not forbidden for our elected representatives to sit in this government?
It seems that we as a people will continue to suffer bitter-sweet victories, because our policies reflect that same duality. We rely heavily on G-d's unending mercy, but have reneged on our part of the bargain.
Until our leadership vacuum can be filled and we fulfill our obligations, some of us will continue to die unspeakably senseless and brutal deaths. Others will continue to look away, because the very thought and images of what transpired at the Kissufim junction this week could cause one to die of a broken heart.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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