Israel Remembers

President Shimon Peres said, “We are ready to pay for the day of peace, for smiling children, be they Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, or Syrian…We dream of peace, without accepting dictates of surrender. We desire a handshake, but our enemies know we can pull the trigger in defense. We want to end the wars and continue the Zionist movement’s vision, but our enemies realize that, if cornered, that vision will be carried upon the points of our bayonets, until peace comes.”

Addressing bereaved families, he said, “Soon you will return to your empty homes and to the pillows that are wet with tears. And in the morning, fatigued by the dreams of the night, you will take the photo albums that are partly yellowing out of deep drawers, and try to remember, and here and there a smile will come to your face while seeing one photo or another, but soon after, the tears will replace the laughter.”

Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi talking to new IDF recruits Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi turned his attention to Israel’s youth: “We have something to be proud of. The State of Israel, on the brink of its seventh decade, is a free and independent country that absorbs immigration. It has a powerful, large and deterring army that adheres to the value of being a people’s army and grants equal opportunity to all. It is an army where most Israeli youths serve in, due to a sense of mission and willingness to contribute. However, with a sober look at the future, and for the sake of the state’s continued existence, I believe this is not enough. We should unite as a country and as a society and go back to our roots.”

Just prior to this event, Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar threatened more casualties: “If Israel has 200 nuclear warheads, the Palestinian people have 200,000 suicide bombers, waiting to blow themselves up in the presence of Zionists and be martyred.”