Dayenu. The Wedding is Over
Hurrah. The royal wedding is over. The glitter of tiaras and precious gems no longer blind one’s eyes. Now Mr. and Mrs. Harry Windsor, the Duke of Sussex, must settle down to the tepid life of a future heir to the British throne with the Duchess of Sussex at his side.
The wedding was spectacular and was a stunning first in British royal history… the marriage of an heir to the throne who has taken a lovely but non-white bride to be his heaven-blessed wife.
They look very much like a loving couple but so did Crown Prince Charles and the beautiful Princess Diana at their wedding several years ago.
We wish them well and hope they will be the first of the British royal family to break “traditional coolness” by paying an official visit to another royal kingdom…that which was established by King David in Jerusalem 3000 years ago.
Perhaps the royal family hesitates for fear of being abducted for ransom by some Hamas terrorists or perhaps it may be attributed to their dislike of kosher cuisine. They do expect cream in their coffee following a meat meal. But of a certainty, our chefs at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel will know how to please them.
Now that our attention is drawn away from Windsor Castle and St. George’s chapel, we can return our thoughts to our unsanctified border with the Gaza. Kites armed with inflammatory bombs explode in the wheat fields of neighboring kibbutzim on the other side of the border fence. Fires burn relentlessly, destroying crops planted lovingly and tended carefully by Israeli farmers.
The infamous United Nations Council on Human Rights, a very pro-Palestinian segment within the body of the UN, wishes to investigate the crimes of wanton and over-reacted killings of young Hamas terrorists in an effort to bring Israel to the International Crimes Court for war crimes accusations.
Hopefully, Israel will deny them permission to visit the Israeli side of the border fence with Gaza. In a most recent activity, 60 Gazans were killed by Israeli military, 52 of them admittedly members of the terrorist Hamas organization. We shed no tears for them. We do not mourn for them. And we do not console their bereaved parents.
If Palestinian parents want to preserve the lives of their young children they could and they should prohibit them from taking part in the protest marches…not peaceful marches but armed with weapons aimed at the Israeli military. Molotov cocktails and bullets and bomb-attached flying kites have been evidence of daily occurrences of Gazan hostility.
When we left Gaza voluntarily some years ago, a grave mistake on our part, we believed that it would give the Gazans some autonomy to build the infrastructures, homes and solid lives for their people. The opposite was true. Without Israeli forces controlling Gaza it has become a living hell for its inhabitants bereft of fuel, electricity, food and needed medicines.
Only this week, an Israeli truck loaded with medicines for the sick and injured in Gazan hospitals was denied entry into Gaza by the inhuman Hamasites who refuse to accept medical equipment and medications from Jews.
The British, who once occupied and controlled the Free State of Ireland recall only too well, as do the people of Eire, the tragedy of the potato famine which brought starvation to the Irish people and was the light to kindle the fires of Irish anti-British hatred. The Irish revolt eventually succeeded to end British domination and Ireland then became an independent nation.
Perhaps if the people of Gaza had fewer potatoes they too could begin a revolt against Israel, a revolt which would fail and would cost the lives of thousands of Gazans in their attempt to create a Palestinian state..
Watching the royal wedding gave some relief to us. In place of bullets and bombs, we heard joyous singing and saw the feet of the hundreds of guests on the dance floors of Winsor castle.
I hope that Prince Harry, the new Duke of Sussex, was able to utter to his bride the very same words I uttered before, during and after the 56 years of my marriage: “My darling wife, I am nothing without you”.
I hope that the young royal couple will find the same loving happiness in their years of marriage as I had with my beloved wife.
But for now, it’s “Dayenu”. Enough of the royal marriage. We Israelis have many more serious matters to contemplate. Will Hamas declare war? Will Iran have the audacity to fire missiles at Tel-Aviv and Haifa?
And while we put our trust in the God of Israel, we also put our faith in the brave army of Israel.
Dayenu. Enough. The wedding is over. Back to the battle fields.