I installed "RedAlert" on my iPhone, which is a free app. It alerts me whenever there is a rocket or missile alert, and where the missile or rocket is headed. I have it set to "all areas."
One might think I have this app because I am primarily worried about my family and friends in Israel, but that is not the reason. If that was so, I certainly wouldn't have it set to "all areas."
My family and friends in Israel are in the hands of G-d. They are protected by those in whom G-d has placed knowledge, skill, and understanding. I am not worried for them.
However, I am worried about Israel in general. I am worried that our Sacred Land, a place that cradled the three religions of monotheism, has been attacked by terrorist thugs intent on the international equivalent of "suicide by cop." They have nothing to gain but the pictures of dead civilians they wish to use for their sick PR campaigns to get more money, weapons, and power while they sit in 4-Star hotels in Quatar.
Every time the alert goes off, I say a little prayer for the success of the IDF, and the mental health of our soldiers being so cruelly used by these terrorists. There is a very big difference between those who kill to protect and preserve their nation and those who kill to spread lies and collect money.
Every time I see a picture--real, cinematically produced, or recycled--of a dead child or adult, I am sick to my stomach that terrorists and terrorist supporters would use these victim's deaths toward the cause of terrorist sympathy. Those who share these pictures have no morality, no ethics, no respect for the dead. It's a macabre, sick, and twisted view of the world that would broadcast the faces of the children they have maimed in order to collect money and political support.
Please notice that Israel never shows the bodies of her dead. We show their school photos, we show them when they were alive and well. When we show a picture of a terrorist attack, we show objects--blown up busses, destroyed homes--but never the dead.
We revere and respect life because we are a religion of life. To show someone dead is the ultimate disrespect to the deceased person and, more importantly, to G-d from Whom Life was given. To show death is to disrespect G-d.
So, we may lose the PR war, we may have to sit idly by while the world screams that we are murderers, but we keep our humanity, our respect, and our reverence for G-d.
In the end, I don't care what they they scream. The war is not won if we give up the reason we fought in the first place: to maintain our way of life, our national identity, and our faith in G-d.
Meanwhile, the alarm is sounding again, and I must leave to say a prayer.
