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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-817614
Balancing Tragedy and Joy with Unbreakable Spirit
(Jerusalem Post) Gil Troy - Since Oct. 7, we have lost too many friends, attended too many funerals. We've seen parents burying children and grandparents burying grandchildren. Since Oct. 7, many of our children and neighbors have been deployed, fighting for Israel's existence and to guarantee that the kind of barbarism Hamas unleashed never occurs again. Fighting to restore deterrence is not vengeance; it's an essential and legitimate battle aim. During this year, three of our children wed. At each wedding, the list of fallen friends the couple memorialized under the huppah grew. As a dad, I know my kids only share some of their brushes with death. As a historian, I know that the difference between telling a great war story and getting a dignified military burial is a matter of millimeters - and sheer luck. Israelis' collective commitment to keep marrying and having children is a profound choice. We're obligated to support, love, and rebuild because, as Bernard-Henri Levy writes in his new book, Israel Alone, "Tragedy is Greek, not Jewish." The writer, a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University, is a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute.