We live in a yishuv in the Shomron, where most of the men do yearly reserve duty, since they belong to combat units. Watching some of my friends deal with husbands going off to war was difficult. One day, during the Second Lebanon War, as a few of us were sitting in the park, I just blurted out that I felt terribly guilty because I didn’t have anyone in uniform.
A woman sitting next to me gave me a funny look. “My husband isn’t in a combat unit, and my sons are too young also”, she said. “You have nothing to feel guilty about - not every Israeli family is sending their loved ones to war now.”
Another woman also piped up and said, “You know, we really admire the olim from America. You chose to come here, not because you are running away from persecution, but out of free choice. You don’t have to worry about not doing enough.”
These comments made me feel a lot better, although I was still a bit uncomfortable until everyone I knew came safely home.
I thought about this incident for the past three weeks, especially when I read other posts by olim chadashim who expressed their feelings about the Gaza war. Some felt at the “outer edges”, like me, and some were about as close to the center as they could get, sending sons to war. I decided to host a roundup of posts by olim and how they felt.
Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.
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