I've been here before. Been here before way too many times.
Too many gruesome murders.
I remember the first real mass murder. It was somewhere in Jerusalem, when I was living there. It was in 2001, or maybe 2000. Can't remember exactly. There was so many. The Sbarro pizzaria, perhaps? My blood boiled, and I knew this was a war. One we must win. But we had so little certainty in the value of our own lives. We thought maybe we deserved it. We gave “peace” a chance, until it happened again.
Cafe Moment was gone in a moment. Baruch died there. I dated him. He was a good man.
Israel went in and finally waged a battle, then about a year later, gave Gush Katif away, and we got Hamas. The terror stopped for a little while, and we forgot how bad it was. We forgot the names of those who were murdered. The enemy realized killing innocents doesn't help their cause. Israel became strong economically.
We forgot. I forgot. It felt good not to feel angry anymore. It felt good not to want war.
The enemy stopped being so overtly gruesome. Just some rockets here and there; it seemed liveable. Israel went in and out of Gaza. Oh yeah, we had a war in Lebanon too that was a stalemate at best.
But this is the reality. Jews get killed here and there. It's a part of life.
We'll remember these boys. We'll even remember their names. Gilad. Eyal. Naftali. And then we'll hope the government does something. And it does something symbolic, and then the enemy regroups.
In the meantime, we'll get new jobs, new loves. We'll live life, want to be normal. We'll forget. We'll forget for a little, until it happens again. And I think it will go on like this for several years, and in the meantime there will be both incursions and land withdrawals. And I think Israel won't crack and wage the war that needs to be waged. We will have already been so demoralized, desensitized, afraid.
Those who want to fight will be silenced, called extremists.
And when the Islamic legions come along, it may be too late….
