Patriot's Day and Yom HaAtzmaut
Both Israel and the United States of America were founded by peaceful emigration followed by violent wars for independence. There are times in the course of human events when freedom and hope are challenged by oppression, injustice or avarice. As democracies, both nations hold core values that stand against capricious violence, prejudice, and oppression. And both are at the bullseye of the terrorist elements in the world. This is not coincidence.
Both Israel and the United States have internal elements who hold on to a mythology of government oppression. In fact, peaceful and participating members of both societies enjoy civic privileges, government services and personal freedoms that are the envy of the world. Both Israel and the United States have external enemies who fan the flames of international discord and war by claiming that we are destroying and conquering their cultures, stealing their natural resources and lying about our true belief in peace. In fact, the spread of American cultural and economic influence is organic to the human condition in the world: we are attractive and the peoples of many other countries want what we have, and want to be much like us. This social and economic revolution towards democracy and capitalism - diversity and empowerment - is a threat to all who seek power for its own sake.
The bomb is only a patriot's tool in a time and place where oppression, injustice and prejudice rule the people by force and despotism. A bomb against the Nazi government is a blow for justice.
But a bomb against civilians - whether on a bus in Jerusalem or Bulgaria, or at the JCC in Argentina or at the finish line of the Boston Marathon - is the murderer's tool. Its only purpose is to spread hatred and violence against a world that is free. It is an admission that the murderer's ideas are not convincing to the world around him, and he is simply wrong-headed. It is hate's hope that from chaos our peaceful freedoms will be become compromised and the world will become more like the mind of the murderer. Soft targets exist because the society is peaceful and just. They will, in Israel and the United States, always exist.
Now is a time for the Israeli and American friendship to once again come in to play. Israel has sad experience in protecting soft targets. Grocery stores, malls, public events, religious services and civic ceremonies all have tremendous visible and invisible security in Israel. Boston, New York, and all of America can continue to grow the security advisor role of Israel for the United States. The years of cooperation are mutually beneficial, and the relationship between the two can only become stronger in the face of our shared experiences in sorrow.
May the souls of those killed in Boston be protected in the presence of God. May the wounded be granted full healing through the divine hearts minds and talents of their doctors nurses and counselors, and may the God of justice guide the tools of civilized society to find, prosecute and punish those who pursue terror in their political impotence.
