How Will We Choose to Go On

We’ve cried so much; too much.

We have experienced it all, time and time again.

The roller coaster of Israeli life. Living, dying, mourning, defying, living, only to die once again.

I thought I couldn’t cry anymore. I thought I’d be numb by now… I wish I could be numb by now.

I see pictures of this handsome young smiling face, 21 year old of Tuvia Yanai Wiseman, looking so vibrant so alive so full of promise. I watch the video from his wedding, where he and his bride Yael looked so happy embarking on their future together. I see them with their beautiful new child, who could’ve been the older sister to additional Wiseman children if not for this nightmare.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who wasn’t in the least bit surprised to hear it happened once again, to see the now all too familiar pictures on the web….the fallen knife, blood stained tiles, shot terrorists. My supermarket shopping has turned into a paranoid experience. I’ve stopped going to Rami Levi on a regular basis a long time ago. I still go, but less often and with an additional person and always armed. I don’t want to be the next Muquata headline. My affairs aren’t in order….I can’t die today, but who really can?

Immediately, the blame fest begins with those never fail Facebook posts and newspaper editorials that reflexively pop up after any wrongdoing in our country occurs.  If you want to blame the evil madmen who feed hate to their people and create child murderers I am fine with that. But do not start more in fighting by getting ugly and hurling nasty accusations about our own people. It makes me angry and tired and hopeless. If you are not part of the solution you are a part of the problem. So stop. Stop it, right now. Go do something positive and stop adding fuel to the fire. The terrorists have gotten us down, but we can’t rise again if we are divided. It will not work that way.

They may succeed in taking some of the best people from our midst, but they can’t take our dignity or destroy our unity unless we let them.