Only 3 dead? What Chutzpah!

Right now I am in the US about to return to Israel from a speaking tour.  War has just broken out, my youngest son begins active duty in Israeli Army in a few hours, and I am surfing the web desperately trying to find out what on earth is going on back home.

Meanwhile, on my desktop I see the following headline in the newsfeed:  “Erdogen: Israel Making Fuss Its 3 Dead”

Besides the fact that the current operation in Gaza is about far more than 3 dead Israelis – its about thousands of rockets and missiles being shot into Israel every day from Gaza. Its about the amount that it is costing Israel to protect its people from the rockets and missiles which are occasionally shot with enough accuracy to actually pose a danger to someone. Its about the constant barrage which disrupts the daily life and sleep of thousands of Israelis who live within undisputed Israeli borders and just want to live normal lives, 3 dead Israelis is exactly what its about.

One of the differences between Israel and the Palestinian authority (besides the fact that the PA isn’t a state and the Palestinians aren’t a people) is the fact that we (the Jewish people) value human life and they value power no matter how many lives it costs to procure it.  When we go into a Palestinian area we risk our own sons’ lives to take extra precautions that we harm as few civilians as possible, while they purposely position themselves so as to use those same civilians as human shields.  We watch in horror as Palestinian mothers proudly display their children on TV wearing explosive belts, and we wonder what kind of a mother could do such a thing?

The Jewish people also watched in horror as we traded a thousand Arab terrorists for one Israeli soldier who had been taken hostage, without most people realizing the greater significance of the act – that we hold one single human life at such high value that the Arabs don’t even value one thousand lives to such a level.

So, yes, Prime Minister Erdogen, we are making a fuss about only 3 dead, because those 3 people are precious to us, because life is a Jewish value.

“We can forgive you for killing our sons, but we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.” – Gold Meir