4 Coffins

 

20^th of February 2025

505 days of pain and disbelief

 

Shabbat Shalom, if one can honestly call it that

 

I have some Hebrew words for you, words that are on the lips of all Israelis today.

עצב, כאב, השפלה, נפש שבורה

Sadness, pain, humiliation, a broken soul

 

Humanity has reached depths of depravity that no rational human being believed. Israelis are seething with anger, those of us who have watched the domino effect of ineptitude and sheer corruption of morality whereby every decision since well before the 7^th of October led to this ghastly day. The inability of Western nations to recognise who is the enemy of all humanity and who is fighting that enemy alone and lonely. The hate teaching has taken its toll on the people of Gaza too. Nobody, but nobody wants them, they are considered the psychological lepers of the world bringing only death and destruction with them.

 

Hamas was too afraid of bad publicity to give the babies tiny coffins for their macabre ceremony. As the four coffins are taken in four vehicles through the streets of Israel to the forensic identity centre,  people line the route silently holding Israeli flags; standing on bridges over the highway, in pouring rain and hail, determined to pay the families last respects. Oded Lifshitz, 84, Shiri Bibas and her two babies Kfir and Ariel.

 

I don’t know if you know but most of the kibbutzim along that beautiful and fertile strip of land of the Western Negev were founded predominantly by Jews from Argentina and other Latin American countries. They came with a deep commitment to the soil and to peace. They were the ones who fought to bring cancer patients to Israel for treatment; they are the ones who extended the hand of friendship to the Gazan workers who tended the land beside them; they are the ones who believed that kindness would bring peace – and it was those very workers who mapped their villages and houses while receiving good will. And yet, and yet, the families of Oded Lifshitz and the Bibas family have begged for restraint and refuse to call for vengeance. That is the ultimate spirit of Israel.

 

Natan Alterman wrote a poem that still rings true today

 

The Silver Salver by Natan Alterman 1910-1970, the official poet of David Ben Gurion

 

And the land grows still, the red eye of the sky 

 slowly dimming over smoking frontiers

As the nation arises, Torn at heart but breathing,

To receive its miracle, the only miracle

As the ceremony draws near, it will rise,

standing erect in the moonlight in terror and joy

When across from it will step out a youth and a lass

and slowly march toward the nation

Dressed in battle gear, dirty,

Shoes heavy with grime, they ascend the path quietly

To change garb, to wipe their brow
They have not yet found time.

Still bone weary from days and from nights in the field

Full of endless fatigue and unrested,
Yet the dew of their youth. Is still seen on their head

Thus they stand at attention, giving no sign of life or death 

Then a nation in tears and amazement
will ask: "Who are you?"

And they will answer quietly,

 "We Are the silver salver on which the Jewish state was given."

Thus they will say and fall back in shadows
And the rest will be told

In the chronicles of Israel

 

I dedicate this song to Shiri Bibas who tried so hard to protect her little ones.” Bo’I Ima” Come Mother and Sit by Me Just a While https://youtu.be/qetzeHGADes?si=0tVX0ZLaJcrEMbgw

 

With heavy heart I wish you Shabbat Shalom. Perhaps, perhaps the six who will arrive home on Shabbat will ease the pain, just a little

 

Sheila