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Now when I hear of a Palestinian stabbing a Jew, my thoughts are different than they once were.
I used to think about how that terrorist and his family should be punished.
Now all I think about is the poor family of the victim and what they’ll go through.
Heart wrenching.
I used to think about how that terrorist and his family should be punished.
Now all I think about is the poor family of the victim and what they’ll go through.
Heart wrenching.
I used to think about how Israel should react, create deterrence, about how Israel has to end this already. I used to think about the incitement/hatred in the Palestinian education system. Now all I think about is how the victim’s wife/kids/spouse will wake up tomorrow morning.
The victim of this morning’s attack, in which a Palestinian, according to reports, went on a stabbing spree with a fork, the victim is unconscious in critical condition. In Shaarei Tzedek hospital, where Ari was brought. The family trauma is being created now. I know it well.
This person, whoever he is, has a family. A wife. Kids. They are about to experience a hell the likes of which they have never known. No one should. They don’t realize it yet but these moments are being burned into their brains forever. Hard coded into their consciousness.
We read about a person in critical condition because a Palestinian decided today was a good day to kill a Jew. We read it and then we take the next sip of our coffee. We don’t think about the life, not the physical life, the entire world that is that person. Ari was a world.
I hope he survives. It doesn’t sound good based on reports. The world will go on with its business. This man’s life, irrelevant of how this ends, his life as he knew it, is now over. His family’s life changed forever. In that split second when a Palestinian decided to make it so.
I refresh news sites dreading the words. מת מפצעיו, “Has died of his wounds”. Those are the words they use to let us all know a world was terminated. That a universe has come to an abrupt end. Because some Palestinian decided to go Jew hunting. And the world shrugs its shoulder.
There’s a side room in Shaarei Tzedek hospital. I came into that room; saw my parents broken, Ari’s wife Miriam torn to shreds, his kids shattered to pieces, my whole family torn apart. That room is what I think of every time there’s a Palestinian attack.
A world has just ended.
A world has just ended.
The Palestinian who did this was 19. The victim is fighting for his life. But allow me say one more thing. People call it a cycle. As if it’s symmetric. A circle has no beginning, it just goes round n’ round. This isn’t that. This has a beginning. Calling it a cycle is damaging.
A cycle has no beginning and no end. This conflict, this attack started with a Palestinian child told killing a Jew is the ultimate accomplishment. It ends when the Palestinians decide to love their kids more than they hate us. This isn’t a cycle. It has a beginning and an end.
Putting an equal sign is not helpful. This isn’t symmetrical. There is a beginning and an end. There is cause and effect. Action reaction. Don’t equate those two sides, one that lives to kill, glorifies death, and incites to hate, and one that glorifies life and prays for peace.
This 19 year one Palestinian child, and I call him that because that’s what he is. Don’t call him a monster. Don’t call him an animal. Call him a child, a child that has hatred so deeply planted in him; that this morning he decided to go Jew hunting and put an end to a world.
And I’ll end this horrible thread I wish I never had to write by saying this. The next time you read about a Palestinian stabbing a Jew, if even one of u thinks of that victim’s family, even for a split second, then this thread that was very difficult for me write, was worth it.
