We take this personally

America, while you wake up over coffee on your Sunday morning, I have to tell you something:

Four soldiers were mowed down in Jerusalem today — on purpose.

Their bodies were trapped under the truck —

Several others were injured… one is in the ICU fighting so hard to live right now.

Their comrades wept and hugged and wept and prayed while their commander shouted “Don’t look! Don’t look!” as those who could still walk away, walked away.

You have to understand something — I don’t know a single Israeli who doesn’t take this personally. This country is so so small that we all know someone who was killed or maimed in a war or terror attack. This isn’t a headline or a soundbite for us.

These are the people we sat next to on the train this morning, or jostled in line at Aroma. They sat shiva with us at our uncle’s funeral three months ago, they danced with us at our cousin’s wedding last May.

This place is so small and so fraught and every time we relax just enough to breathe a little, it happens and it hurts so hard in that space beneath the ribs until we are afraid to breathe again too deeply.

And it’s like this every single time.

So please — think of us right now wherever you are — whatever you’re doing. Think of the four who are dead, and their families and their friends and those who knew them… and think also of the broken heart of a nation that is grieving, too.