Tragedies and Miracles

The Arab terrorists who planted that bomb at a popular bathing spot clearly intended to take many more Jewish lives on Friday. It is a miracle that the father and brother of tragic Rina Schnerb z’l survived this explosion.

As is always the case, the security services will very quickly find the perpetrators and it is my sincere hope that they will resist arrest and be cut down in a hail of IDF firepower to avenge the death of this sweet and innocent teenager, who had only just passed her 17th birthday.

There can be no doubt that, after a weekend of dignified silence, the Israeli airwaves will soon resound with political punditry over the government’s lack of force against Hamas and the PLO and that only Netanyahu stands in the way of the total destruction of them both.

The loss of even one Jewish life – especially one so young – is one too many. But it’s worth taking stock of just how quiet things have actually been over the past three to five years. Yes, there have been isolated terror attacks like this one and bursts of rocket fire from Gaza, but the actual death and casualty numbers among soldiers and civilians seem to be at an all-time low.

It is almost as though there is a lid being clamped down on the Middle East pressure-cooker. And while this relative quiet is maintained, two things are happening. One is the inexorable withering of the Palestinian narrative and its sources of funding. The other is booming tourism and economic investment in Israel.

When you look at Israel, surrounded by mortal enemies, with its Jewish citizens living tooth-to-jowl with tens of thousands of viscerally incited Arabs, it is an open miracle that it sees less terror attacks than there are fatal stabbings in London or shootings in Chicago.

We must all mourn for what happened.
But we must also give thanks for what did not happen.