Today is Memorial Day in Israel – known as Yom Hazikaron in Hebrew. It is the day that we honour the memories of nearly 23,000 soldiers who have been killed in Israel’s wars over the years, and also the victims of terror who are also war casualties.
A little more than a week has passed since we celebrated the event which, for thousands of years, was regarded as the biggest miracle in Jewish history. This was the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea to allow the Children of Israel an escape route from slavery in Egypt. The festival at the end of Pesach marks this occasion.
The civil war in Syria is already a year old. The “Arab Spring” started in 2011, and we are already in the Spring of 2012. If we believe those in the know, the Syrian civil war could last for another 6 to 12 months before any sort of final solution is reached.
The spring has come, and Pesach is suddenly upon us. It is astonishing how easy it is to shift attention from all the issues relating to Israel’s safety and security, to the seemingly mundane activities relating to preparation and separation for Pesach.
I did write a blog last week, which I was unable to post due to technical problems incurred while I was travelling. It covered the hideous story of the murder of the innocent victims, particularly young children, at the Jewish school in Toulouse.