Moments of unity
By Dr. Haim Shine
Ever since Operation Protective Edge began, many of those who experienced the days of waiting that led up to the Six Day War are once again feeling the same great spirit of belief and hope, just like then.
I was a high school student during the Six-Day War. I will never forget the spirit of those days. A spirit of unity and comradeship enveloped society as a whole, like one person with a single heart, battlefront and homefront wonderfully united.
The Israeli leadership have been backed by a unified nation, who pray we will not go back to the regular ritual in which battles are stopped but our enemies continue to force upon us more wars.
Our sages have taught us that when someone is coming to kill you, it's best to kill him first, and to conduct a war like a war. We have a country and an army so that we will never have to be dependent on anyone.
Unified Israeli Solidarity "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies"
The citizens of Israel realize that we are in a tough battle for our right to live in our homeland in safety. A battle with a brutal enemy for whom human life has no value, including innocent women and children, Israelis and Palestinians alike. An enemy that sanctifies death while its life is filled with hate and murder.
The spirit of unity will persist, because there is no other option. We are all, at the front lines and the homefront, under threat. The danger is real and tangible. The best of our boys are giving their lives to protect their home. Even the same people who tried to sell the delusion of peace now understand that anyone who shows mercy to brutality is being brutal to the merciful.
We are forgiving all the naive "prophets of peace."
We are lucky that only a few among us took part in the sanctified innocence that could have weakened our determination.
Israelis soldiers, people from the Left and Right, have been fighting shoulder to shoulder and the entire society will continue giving them all the support they need until the battle against terror is won.
Our enemies don't know the spirit of Israel. A stiff-necked people, a neck that is so strong it can't be bent. A neck that bears thousands of years of Jewish history that have taught us that Jews can depend only on themselves and their heavenly father.
It's hard to face the mourning for the deaths of soldiers on the battlefield and the suffering of the wounded. Every soldier is an entire world.
The entire people takes part in the pain and grief, but we see and hear the parents of the heroes, we must believe that there is some deep well of strength, one that never runs dry. A spring that guarantees our right to live in the simplest meaning of that right.
