By Esther Korson
Yep, it’s that time of year again when we celebrate as a nation and as a people the miracle of our salvation from the hands of Haman and Persia, centuries ago, thanks to the intervention of Esther. It’s truly a joyous holiday, where people dress up in costumes and give food parcels to one another. The Scroll of Esther is read aloud in the synagogues. People bring noisemakers with them, and whenever the name of “Haman” is mentioned, people make a racket and ‘Boo!’ loudly. It’s a fun time in every way!
But wait just a minute here! Isn’t that supposed to be an ancient holiday? A victory from long ago? Then why does it sound so eerily familiar? Didn’t we just capture a shipment of missiles that was supposed to endanger the heart of our population centers? Aren’t we threatened by annihilation by yet another Persian regime? Wasn’t it just yesterday that 70 rockets were fired at our southern cities? Don’t we have a huge population within our very borders who refuses to recognize our right to exist—as a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people? Don’t we still have enemies on every border who would love to see us simply disappear?
When the red siren alert system sounded in our southern cities yesterday, people had around 15 seconds to run for shelter. Children had to sleep in safe rooms. Any schools that did not have rocket protection facilities were cancelled yesterday. Do any of you have situations like that in your countries? Every missile that was sent was meant to kill or injure innocent Israelis. It is once again God’s wonderful protection that, even though some fell in populated areas, no one was killed—and no one was injured!
From my home in Jerusalem, I can see Jordan. Plus—I can drive from home along the Mediterranean coast, up to the Lebanese border, over to the Syrian border, along the Jordanian border, down to Eilat to the Egyptian border—and then home again in the same day, with some hours to spare! That’s how close our enemies are! Do any of you live in similarly hostile neighbourhoods?
Well, on this Purim day of celebration, I’d like to take you with me to just one of our borders—to the border with Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited that border two weeks ago and made the following report in his speech to AIPAC last week in the United States. “I’ve come here today to draw a clear line—you know that I like to draw lines, especially red ones—but the line I wanted to draw today is the line between life and death, the line between right and wrong, the line between the blessings of a brilliant future and the curses of a dark past. I stood very close to that dividing line two weeks ago…”
At that time, he visited an Israel Defense Forces Field Hospital that was set up over a year ago on the Golan Heights—to treat wounded Syrians who turn up at our border fence in need of help! Syria has remained an enemy of Israel in every way—and yet—Israel set up a hospital to help people injured in the Syrian civil war! As Netanyahu explained, “Now, that field hospital wasn’t set up for Israelis, it was set up for Syrians. Israel has treated nearly a thousand wounded Syrians, men, women, and many children. They come to our border fence bleeding and desperate, near death, and on my visit I met two such Syrians,” Netanyahu reported, “a shell-shocked father and his badly wounded 5 year old boy. A few days earlier the man’s wife and baby daughter were blown to bits by Iranian bombs dropped by Assad’s air force. Now the grieving father was holding his little boy in his arms and Israeli doctors were struggling to save the boy’s life. I heard from them and from the other patients there what all the Syrians that come to be treated in Israel are saying. They all tell the same story. They say, ‘All these years Assad lied to us, telling us that Iran was our friend and that Israel was our enemy. But Iran is killing us and Israel is saving us…’ Syrians have discovered what you’ve always known to be true. Elsewhere in the Middle East is brutalism and barbarism. Israel is humane. Israel is compassionate. Israel is a force for good. That border that runs 100 yards next to that field hospital is the dividing line between decency and depravity, between compassion and cruelty. On the one side stands Israel animated by the values that move us to also treat thousands of sick “Palestinians” from Gaza. They come to our hospitals and we treat them, despite the fact that terrorists from Gaza hurl thousands of rockets at our cities. It’s these same values that inspire Israeli medics and rescuers to rush to the victims of natural disasters across the world. The other side of that Syrian dividing wall is steeped in bloodshed and savagery.
Sometimes Syrians are shocked when they recover and find themselves in Israel, but are immediately reassured by the other Syrian patients there. When they are healed and returned to the Syrian side of the border, there can be no signs whatsoever that they were treated in Israel, as it would endanger their lives. But each and every Syrian civilian who received such loving care in Israeli hospitals will carry that memory in their hearts for the rest of their lives…
That’s my Purim message for you…
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