We need to be badass. It’s what I thought as I read a lamentable quote from Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), in the Jerusalem Post.
“As we speak, Israelis are living in a constant state of fear. And lone, disaffected Palestinians are taking matters into their own hands, carrying out brutal acts. Some would say that there is no way to have constructive talks in this environment, but I believe now is precisely the time for dialogue.”
It’s what I thought when I read this blog by a friend that is all about fear.
“It got to the point that I was afraid to think. Afraid to say that it’s okay to go somewhere, because maybe my saying someplace is safe will just prove to me that it isn’t? Ra’anana was safe… until it wasn’t, with two attacks in one day. Har Nof was safe… until it wasn’t, with the most gruesome terror attack I’ve ever heard of.
I had to go grocery shopping; we were running really low on supplies. I decided not to go to the shuk in Jerusalem like I usually do, and instead go to the nearest Rami Levi. Because… because… I couldn’t even say the words. I couldn’t say that Rami Levi was safe, even though as far as I know, in the 9 years since I’ve lived here there hasn’t been even one terror attack there, despite Arabs and Jews shopping side by side there for years. Because what if… what if my merely voicing that it was safe would somehow cause it to not be safe, to prove me wrong, just like I was with Pisgat Zeev, the String Bridge, and Geula…”
It’s what I thought when I read this piece by Eeta Prince-Gibson in the Forward.
“The fear is getting to me, gnawing away at who I am and who I want to be.”
No, no, NO! I want to shout at them. This is exactly what they want, “they” being the terrorists who think that if they scare us enough, we will go away and let them have our land.
Absolutely NOT. We will NEVER let them have our land, our indigenous territory gifted to us by God and history. They will never win.
We must not give an inch. Not an inch of land. And we must not show them an ounce of fear.
And to not show fear we must not be afraid.
That is what they want. That is what they want with their cruel gleaming knives and their hate. They want to make us cower. They want us to be ghetto Jews.
They want to win.
But we are stronger than that. We are stronger than them.
We have outlived all our enemies. And we will outlive this enemy, too.
This is our lot. It’s a heavy burden we carry, but we must carry it with aplomb, knowing that we are elected to do so, bidden to do so by right.
It is our land and we must be so badass.
So badass.
Stand in front of a mirror and practice saying these words, “I am so badass.”
And say them until they mean something.
Because we are the front line of our people.
And it has fallen on us to survive.
