Rachel, weeping for her children

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An online friend just commented on the first blog I wrote following the death of my mother back in April.

Reading his comments and then re-reading those words I had written nearly nine months ago brought back afresh the pain and anguish I felt at losing her.

As I revisited that passage, any healing scabs that had covered that wound melted away and once again I was brought down to a blubbering mass of tears.

Those deep cuts are easily re-opened and the sorrows are made fresh with such ease.

As I write this, eyes again red from tears, I can't help but think of those countless others whose lives are caught in traumas and suffering losses far more severe than mine.

My mother, at least, lived a long and fruitful life.
So many others don't.

The carnage wrought by the American invasion of Iraq brought untold sorrow to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families. We're still counting the losses.

The current Israeli invasion of Gaza is doing the same to hundreds there.

Many Palestinian families who, just a month ago, could never have imagined losing a single child now are busy burying two or three. In some cases, entire families have been killed. The destruction of much of Gaza doesn't just look like a war zone, it looks far worse.

Israel has invaded Gaza for purely political purposes by an insecure regime worried about upcoming elections, not because of any plan or consideration for dealing with the aftermath or carnage, much like Bush's invasion of Iraq was wrought by an insecure and vindictive man who had no exit strategy and no real plan on dealing with the ensuing havoc he caused.

Both invasions were the product of opportune timing more than of a strategic goal or planning for the aftermath.

Experts and observers everywhere recognize that Israel's audacious move is critically timed ahead of upcoming elections there, and a change of administrations here.
Israeli leaders know that Bush will do nothing to stop the killing.
Obama, they fear, might.

And so, with another week and change to go, Gaza is reduced to rubble.
The death toll, once counted in the tens, is now in the hundreds and soon to surpass a thousand.
All to advance the political agenda of madmen.

Israelis cannot now claim to be the victims of Hamas' Katyusha rockets any more than Americans could be seen as victims of Islamic terrorists following our misadventure into Iraq.

Gaza has now become a latter-day Ramah, a killing field full of sorrows and weeping.

"Rachael weeps for her children..
She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more." Jeremiah 31:15

That weeping will soon turn to bitter and lasting outrage and no one will be the better for it.

The memories of those deaths will not be soon forgotten, just as the death of my mother is still fresh in my soul.

A legacy of anguish and sorrows lasts well beyond the moment.

Just ask me.
I know.