ACCORDING TO MY CALENDARS, March 31 is Memorial Day in the U.S.
As I think about it, I listen to war planes flying overhead.
Going where?
Doing what?
I’M KEYING THIS IN YAVNE ISRAEL, a community between Tel Aviv and Ashdod (https://tinyurl.com/rjzsfwvh).
The apartment in which I sit has a “safe room,” a “mah-mahd” into which I, my Spouse, our daughter, her husband, and our three grandchildren were forced flee while unguided rockets (mortars) were sent from Gaza.
The room is maybe10 * 12 feet total. Oh yes, there also is a 75 pound lap dog that squeezes into the room. It’s “cozy.”
| In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. |
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. |
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. John McCrae |
AS A CHILD I remember the poppies passed out or sold by the American Legion Auxiliary ladies. I also remember that soldiers’ graves were decorated with small American flags. We weren’t so far from war back then.
Flags still decorate graves at VA cemeteries and some Americans who died in the service of their country.
- Truth be told, American went from war to war to war — WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and “minor skirmishes” in different parts of the world.
Even then, Americans were dying on foreign soil just because they were there, e.g., Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers bombing, 25 June 1996 for which Hezbollah Al-Hejaz claimed credit and which a U.S. court found missile-provider Iran liable. See https://tinyurl.com/w3btduzx).
Both Hezbollah and Iran still are in the murder business even though the U.S. government is kowtowing to the ayatollahs — again.
Vietnam changed the attitude of Americans toward its soldiers, both volunteers and drafted. I think that was the beginning of the end of Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day in the States.
Sirens get attention
Here, on Israel’s Memorial Day, a siren is sounded mid-day.
It’s the same siren — at least to my ears — as the sirens that gave us a 60-second alert to get hunkered down in the safe room.
On Memorial Day, when the siren sounds, 99% of Israel comes to a stand-still.
People stop their cars in the middle of the road, get out, and stand quietly until the siren sound dies away. Then they get back in and proceed on their way. No honking horns, no expressions of anger for the journey’s interruption.
Business stops cold. Government clerks stop clerking and those in line stand quietly.
I watched as a taxi was delivering a passenger.
When the siren went off, both the driver and the passenger got out and stood by the vehicle until the siren stopped. Then the passenger went to her destination and the cabbie got back into his cab and was off to look for another fare.
There are a few people in Israel, leftists Jews and a few — not many — Israeli Arabs (including a few Members of Knesset) who would like to see Israel’s demise who refuse to honor the siren. Interestingly, not one of these people is prepared to move to “Palestine” or Gaza and Hamas’ rule, or, for that matter, to any of about 50 Muslim-dominated countries around the world.
America has its share of people who hate the country that protects them and provides opportunity for them.
Some are in Congress, some are “entertainment influencers,” some are academics who teach things about which they know nothing, e.g., Israel is an “apartheid state.” (https://tinyurl.com/yf6526z8)
A few promised to move away if an election did not go as they demanded; unfortunately for America, they reneged and stayed.
Too close to war
Almost every Israeli family has lost at least one close relation to the on-going attacks from Israel’s neighbors, by direct combat, by suicide murderer, or a crazy who wants to die for Allah.
(I don’t see any Muslim politicians, in Israel or elsewhere, that are prepared to die for a cause. Poor, uneducated, unemployable people, promised a permanent stipend for their survivors by the politicians, sign up.)
By contrast, in the States the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was front and center as he tried to bring racial peace. How many politicians — anywhere — would do the same for their cause?
Perhaps because every Israeli family, save for possibly the newest immigrant, has suffered a loss during a hot or “cold” (terrorism) war, Memorial Day in Israel is treated with the respect it deserves.
It is a somber day, one of reflection and one of hope.
Maybe, someday when peace with Israel’s neighbors has gone on for a generation, maybe Israelis will become Americanized and insist on a day off to bar-be-que or go to the beach. (Unlike he U.S., Israel Memorial Day is not a holiday from work.)
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