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Remembering Israel's Fallen, But Which Ones?
The evening of April 26, 2009 marks the beginning of Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Memorial Day. Traditionally observed to recall those men and women who paid the ultimate price for the creation and ongoing security of the State of Israel, the day has begun to change. For the second year in a row, Yom HaZikaron will mark the deaths of all those who have died, including civilian victims of terror. And despite having losses to remember from each group, this blurring of lines strikes me as a poor idea with potentially dangerous consequences.
Israel, like any other nation has both the right and the obligation to mourn those men and women in uniform who have sacrificed their lives for the safety and security of the citizens of Israel. But we ought not to confuse the issue by layering on our desire to mourn those civilians who died simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are not the same and should not be seen as such.
Do we really want to lump civilians and members of the military into a single category? Isn't the inability to make that distinction what distinguishes enemies from terrorists? Isn't it fundamentally different to die while serving in uniform and under arms than to be murdered while walking down the street or eating a slice of pizza?
Hamas and Hezbollah argue that no such distinction between the two groups exists -- that in Israel, all citizens are "Zionist soldiers of the state", and therefore equally legitimate targets. If they are not correct, and they most certainly are not, why devote a day to mourning the losses as if they are?
I worry that in our entirely legitimate pain over both kinds of loss, we have created a situation that makes it increasingly difficult for those who may not support Israel to take a moral stand against the purposeful murder of civilians and the practice of terror to achieve political ends. Israel, its supporters, and even its detractors, if they are serious about not supporting terror, would be better served by maintaining two distinct days or at the very least, some practice which distinguished between these two categories. This would force all of us to address the ongoing challenge of global terrorism as distinct from the political differences which we are not likely to resolve in the short term.
Let no one confuse the fight for the existence of the State of Israel, which is far from over, with the plague of terrorism against which all decent people must take a stand, regardless of their position on the former issue.
By
Brad Hirschfield
|
April 26, 2009; 7:41 PM ET
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Posted by: arik67 | May 1, 2009 3:57 AM
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I agree with Hamas and Hezbollah “…that in Israel, all citizens are "Zionist soldiers of the state", and therefore equally legitimate targets…” Just like the Japanese citizens of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Actually, the Japanese citizens were less guilty…they were just living innocently in their own homes, on their own land.
Posted by: rick22407 | April 29, 2009 9:51 AM
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that outrageous, ludicrous, 22,000 death figure is as believable as the 6,000,000 MILLION FIGURE.only israel has the nerve to make such easily refutable claims,jewish ability to manipulate numbers is a trademark of that people
Posted by: yorkville7 | April 27, 2009 8:44 PM
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"The Defense Ministry said that since 1860, when the first Jewish settlers began establishing Jewish neighborhoods outside the Jerusalem city walls, 22,570 men and women have been killed in defense of the Land of Israel". jpost.com
1860! sort of ruins the whole article, doesn't it?
Posted by: joeweiser | April 27, 2009 7:38 PM
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"Isn't it fundamentally different to die while serving in uniform and under arms than to be murdered while walking down the street or eating a slice of pizza?"
In asserting that these two deaths are "fundamentally different," Rabbi Hirschfield, you are making a judgment on the relative value of the two lives involved. Your statement cannot be read otherwise.
Posted by: kjohnson3 | April 27, 2009 3:24 PM
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IAMWEAVER - "since Israel at least makes some attempt to minimize "civilian" casualties."
With White Phosphorus in the middle of town, for example? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6150430.ece
If Israel "tries" to minimalize civialian casualties, then they should value all of them and when celebrating Yom HaZikaron, Israelis can mark the deaths of all those who have died, INCLUDING Palestinian and Lebanese civilian victims of terror, those killed by the IDF.
Posted by: dblakeross | April 27, 2009 3:16 PM
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I doubt it, WMarkW, since Israel at least makes some attempt to minimize "civilian" casualties. That said - when fighting a "War Against Terror", at what point does a civilian become a target...
Posted by: iamweaver | April 27, 2009 1:32 PM
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Doesn't Israel consider every citizen to be a "soldier of the state" when dealing with enemies?
Posted by: WmarkW | April 27, 2009 12:09 PM
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Mr. Hirshfield's distinction is fancilful. Victims of Arab and Islamic terrorism, who are remembered at Yom ha-Zikaron, weren't "in the wrong place at the wrong time". The beast that took their lives didn't do it by mistake. They were murdered because they were Jews and lived in Israel. I don't give a damn for those who admire the goal of the killers - to get rid of the Jewish state - but are queasy about their methods. The serarate ceremony and memorial for the victims was enacted not so long ago by demand of their bereaved relatives. To request from them, as Mr. Hirshfield does, to put their grief in abeyance in order to satisfy a few hypocrites is, in my opinion, a gross betrayal of Jewish solidarity.
Arik Elman