One hundred of “their” children

http://www.maarivenglish.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7975

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Irrespective of justification for the war against Palestinian terror, we must not deny the moral price it is costing us. Amnesty International reports that more than one hundred children were killed by the IDF in 2003 – a figure which should make us lose sleep.

" Chance put two books on my desk last week. The first, a revised edition of Lena Kichler Zilberman’s well known work: “One Hundred of my Children”. The second, Amnesty International’s 2003 report on violation of human rights throughout the world (including Israel and the territories). A cursory glance at the two works revealed an uncomfortable parallel: both works mention “one hundred children”. Kichler’s book describes how one hundred children were rescued from the horrors of the Holocaust. The author herself devoted all her energies to their rescue. The Amnesty report cites that 600 Palestinians were killed by the IDF in 2003, of which more than one hundred were children. According to Amnesty, “most of the children died as a result of irresponsible shooting and bombings in residential areas, killings without trial and exaggerated use of force”.

As a proud Israeli and Jew, I was more than troubled by the parallel between the two works, In Kichler’s book, Judaism and the State of Israel represent morality, humanity and respect for man. Her book testifies to the great courage shown by Jews to preserve these values in a world where they were held in scorn. Although humanity fell to its lowest ebb and in the face of the the worst brutalities ever invented by man, Kichler refused to accept bestiality as an inherent part of man. The horrors of the war did not prevent her from establishing an institution devoted to restoring the children’s faith in the progeny of Avraham Avinu. Her success can be seen in the fact that the children viewed the bestiality of the Nazis as the exception to the rule rather than the rule.

The Israel portrayed in the Amnesty report is the complete opposite. Powerful and brutal, she is depicted as a country that follows the laws of the jungle where only the strong and the cruel survive. Nothing seems further from Kichler’s impressive work than the destruction of Palestinian homes in Rafah, when residents are not even given time to take out their belongings. Nothing is further from the journey of Kichler and the children to Israel, when every child’s wish was taken into consideration, than the brutal incursions by the IDF into Palestinian cities, when roads are broken, trees – the few that there are – uprooted, and cars completely destroyed under the chains of tanks. Even if one accepts the necessity of such operations, one cannot avoid being troubled by the cruelty which with they are conducted."

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"Irrespective of the justification for the war against Palestinian terror and the way it is being carried out, we must not deny the heavy moral price it is costing us as a nation. The transition from a time when we fought as Jews to uphold human values in the most brutal period of history, to a time when we accept brutality as a necessity, should make those who still believe there is no greater Jewish mission than that of Kichler’s lose sleep. We have a duty to safeguard the same values of “their” children as we did for “our” one hundred children."

operative word there being, should.

I wonder if it also should leave us to postulate that these kids are blowing & shooting themselves up just to make Israel look bad.

I see much more of the later in this forum, which is tragic.