For the second year in a row, Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial Day) will mark the deaths of all those who have died, including civilian victims of terror. And despite having losses to remember from each group, this blurring of lines strikes me as a poor idea with potentially dangerous consequences.
Israel, like any other nation has both the right and the obligation to mourn those men and women in uniform who have sacrificed their lives for the safety and security of the citizens of Israel. But we ought not to confuse the issue by layering on our desire to mourn those civilians who died simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are not the same and should not be seen as such.
« 100 Days of Obama Foreign Policy | Main | Pat Buchanan is Slipping, Poor Thing » On Israel's Remembrance Day28 Apr 2009 10:39 am
Brad Hirschfeld makes a good point about the importance of remembering civilian deaths and military deaths separately:
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