A Battered People Once Again

No one emerges unscathed after fighting for their lives.

Taking a dog for a walk on the Tel Aviv Beach (photo: Arsen Ostrovsky)

When walks on the beach in Tel Aviv brings you side-by-side with an #IronDome battery, a commute to school in Ashkelon brings you past a bombed-out preschool, a hike in the Galilee intersects a mortar crater, and a coffee date in Jerusalem is still peppered with glances at a bomb shelter, you know things will never be the same.

A ceasefire is not peace, and this one gives #Hamas way too much opportunity to restock its terror arsenal. But it also gives my sisters and brothers, my mothers and fathers in Israel, my children in Israel, a little room to breathe. Perhaps even our Palestinian cousins will focus on rebuilding themselves instead of tearing us down.

We are a battered people once again. But we are also the ancient people who refuse to die. We are here, and we will never allow our hope to fade. We will defeat the anti-Semitism that has again reared its dark and ugly head. We will fight when we must, all the while praying for a better day for our family and for every family.

We live. We live. The Jewish People lives.

#AmYisraelChai #haTikvah