Sunday, February 1, 2015

We stop the enemy at the ‎gates, so that we may live peacefully within

...It is not in my nature to feel hopeful, but hope was what I felt after spending a ‎day with the men and women of the IDF. Dealing with danger, engaging in ‎action and making decisions that influence us all, these young men and ‎women handle themselves with unbelievable grace, humility and personal ‎courage. Knowing that they are now 18 to 24 and that they will grow up to be ‎leaders, parents and policymakers in this country allows me great comfort in ‎an otherwise dark time. ‎

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein..
Israel Hayom..
01 February '15..

‎"You will never really know Israel until you know what connects us all. ‎Everyone you meet will have lost someone, or be connected to a loss in some ‎way -- a daughter, a father, a friend -- stories of heartbreak and pain. We are all ‎in this together." ‎

We are driving north after spending the day on the Gaza border, my friend ‎the colonel and I. He tells me that yesterday was the anniversary of the death of one of his ‎soldiers, and tomorrow is another. Their families have become part of his ‎family and his of theirs, not only in death but also in life, from the very ‎moment they put on that uniform. ‎

My day had started in Tel Aviv a few hours earlier. The colonel picked me up ‎and we drove south, for hours, the mood changing as seamlessly as the ‎landscape. All along he told me the history of each strip of land, breathing life ‎into the stories I had read but not lived and told but never truly known. ‎Suddenly he points to an unassuming bridge to our left.‎

‎"You see that? It's called Ad Halom; this is where the Egyptians were fought ‎off during the War of Independence. Ad Halom translates to 'until this point,' ‎and it may seem literal, but it means more than that to us. You'll see." ‎

And I saw. ‎

I wish that I, within the boundaries of this page, could retell all the stories that ‎I heard that day and all the tiny details that will stay with me forever: The female volunteer giving a midday Torah class to the soldiers, the beautiful ‎flower bed so carefully planted between barracks, the fallen mortars placed ‎between computer screens as a reminder of what is at stake, or perhaps the ‎respect with which religions and traditions mixed in the interest of duty. ‎

But I can't tell them all. Instead, I will tell you about Sarah. ‎


Sarah came to Israel alone, six years ago. She left her family behind in Australia ‎to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, and ended up staying to serve, to live, and to build a ‎life here. She is an officer now. At 24 she is responsible for the 50 ‎women in her unit and for countless others who will never know her name or ‎be aware of the debt that they owe her. She has already served through two ‎major military operations and made decisions that few of us have to make in a ‎lifetime, let alone over the course of a few short years. ‎

As she is telling her story, I have to check my impulse to hug her. Because, ‎despite all her stripes and glory, she is still a child. She is a daughter to ‎someone and a sister to all of us and my heart struggles to contain my ‎admiration. When I ask her what the army has given her, she smiles and says ‎‎"everything." She tells me how she used to be shy but has grown confident ‎through her service, and that the girls on the base are not merely fellow ‎soldiers, but sisters. "I know what they go through, she said. "I've been there, I ‎am there, and together we help each other through it all." ‎

I was watching the colonel in silence as we rode back to Tel Aviv, wondering ‎about the soldiers whose memories he would honor tomorrow. After that ‎day, meeting these men and women and witnessing their lives even for a ‎second, those losses seemed more real to me. I found myself imagining their ‎stories, thinking what would have become of them and how many days of ‎mourning the man next to me had seen through his years of service. ‎

And I thought about Sarah, the beautiful girl with the glasses and the bright ‎smile. She came to Israel alone, but she is far from lonely and thanks to her, ‎neither am I. Along with countless others, she makes sure that I can return ‎home to a secured Israel in this time of need and that my children can live in ‎the land we have prayed for so long to return to. ‎

It is not in my nature to feel hopeful, but hope was what I felt after spending a ‎day with the men and women of the IDF. Dealing with danger, engaging in ‎action and making decisions that influence us all, these young men and ‎women handle themselves with unbelievable grace, humility and personal ‎courage. Knowing that they are now 18 to 24 and that they will grow up to be ‎leaders, parents and policymakers in this country allows me great comfort in ‎an otherwise dark time. ‎

We are not an army with a state, but a state with an army, the colonel says to ‎me before I leave. We do not seek the fight, but we meet the challenges ‎wherever they may come, whatever they may be. We stop the enemy at the ‎gates, so that we may live peacefully within. ‎

And with that, it all came together for me; from the bridge to the brigade and ‎back again. History is alive here as we enter the future, and the values lived by ‎these servicemen and women of today are the same values that secured that ‎bridge 67 years ago. We are a nation of many and an army of one, and if ‎history has taught us anything, it is that one on the side of God is always a ‎majority.

Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=11441

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein is a political adviser, activist and writer on the Middle East, religious affairs and global anti-Semitism.

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