Few nations in the world can claim a more intimate relationship with the victim side of terrorism than Israel. The reaction by the people of Manchester to the recent attack there was both inspiring and familiar - defiance, determination to answer death with life, to keep on living.
Each attack brings back to many of us the days when we felt hunted, targeted, at risk. We drove on our roads but when a bus came close, we thought of what would happen if it exploded. When someone entered a cafe, we looked and assessed the risk of them being a suicide bomber.
But there were two things that made the attacks so much worse. The first was when children were involved; the second was when we weren't given time to cope. When attack followed attack; when we were still burying victims from the first, still deep in grief and anger and pain only to be hit by another.
As broken as we were after the first attack, the second came and hit us so much harder. That's what I think England is feeling today - first Manchester, now London.
The first was against your children; today's attack was against the heart of your capital.
There is a special kind of pain that comes when you are attacked again and again and again. I see people laying flowers on the ground; I see people praying. It's time to get angry...time to defy. Time to answer.
The image that will always haunt me is one I have never seen but has been described again and again in the media. When Arab terrorists went into the Fogel home in Itamar one Friday night, they murdered two parents and three of their six children. Two were left asleep, defended to her death by their mother. The third would come home to find their bodies. Among those murdered, a four month old baby girl. They slit her throat with a knife.
As I sit here and type, I rock my five-month-old grandson...how in God's name, I ask myself, how can a human being murder an infant? Last night in London, terrorists went into cafes and slit the throats of some of the victims. How? What society, what religion, what world condones this behavior?
The answer is one that many of us have known but too many are still afraid to voice it. And so they perform a macabre dance around words easily clarified. We know - we know who is responsible for the London Bridge attacks. We know who is responsible for the Manchester attack. We know who brought down the World Trade Center, who blew up the airports, who rammed in Nice, who stabbed in countless places. We know...
And the agony of terror is made so much worse for the families of the victims who ache to hear our leaders say unequivocally that terrorism will not be tolerated, intolerance and hatred will not be allowed to breed in our cities.
Islamic terrorism will be stopped at all cost. Innocent Muslims will be allowed to celebrate and practice their religion, as will innocent people from all other religions but there will be zero tolerance for terror. We owe that to the victims in London, Manchester, Jerusalem, Madrid, Otniel, New York, Boston, Tel Aviv, Brussels, Itamar, Berlin, and Kiryat Arba.
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| Hadas Fogel, murdered with her parents and two brothers in her home in Itamar. |
Each attack brings back to many of us the days when we felt hunted, targeted, at risk. We drove on our roads but when a bus came close, we thought of what would happen if it exploded. When someone entered a cafe, we looked and assessed the risk of them being a suicide bomber.
But there were two things that made the attacks so much worse. The first was when children were involved; the second was when we weren't given time to cope. When attack followed attack; when we were still burying victims from the first, still deep in grief and anger and pain only to be hit by another.
As broken as we were after the first attack, the second came and hit us so much harder. That's what I think England is feeling today - first Manchester, now London.
The first was against your children; today's attack was against the heart of your capital.
There is a special kind of pain that comes when you are attacked again and again and again. I see people laying flowers on the ground; I see people praying. It's time to get angry...time to defy. Time to answer.
The image that will always haunt me is one I have never seen but has been described again and again in the media. When Arab terrorists went into the Fogel home in Itamar one Friday night, they murdered two parents and three of their six children. Two were left asleep, defended to her death by their mother. The third would come home to find their bodies. Among those murdered, a four month old baby girl. They slit her throat with a knife.
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| Hallel Yaffa Ariel, murdered in Kiryat Arba |
The answer is one that many of us have known but too many are still afraid to voice it. And so they perform a macabre dance around words easily clarified. We know - we know who is responsible for the London Bridge attacks. We know who is responsible for the Manchester attack. We know who brought down the World Trade Center, who blew up the airports, who rammed in Nice, who stabbed in countless places. We know...
And the agony of terror is made so much worse for the families of the victims who ache to hear our leaders say unequivocally that terrorism will not be tolerated, intolerance and hatred will not be allowed to breed in our cities.
Islamic terrorism will be stopped at all cost. Innocent Muslims will be allowed to celebrate and practice their religion, as will innocent people from all other religions but there will be zero tolerance for terror. We owe that to the victims in London, Manchester, Jerusalem, Madrid, Otniel, New York, Boston, Tel Aviv, Brussels, Itamar, Berlin, and Kiryat Arba.
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