Every year I stand at the siren and I am free from cynicism.
Looking at the black-and-white photos for the thousandth time, which is always also the first.
Looking into my children's big eyes, and so, one day a year, my priorities become clear and orderly.
If there is one idea that can be defined as the founding lesson of the Holocaust, it is the one embodied in the phrase "never again."
We have all vowed to save our children from hell, to live in this world and not to die on another planet.
But with all due respect to the feelings, it is worthwhile from time to time to stop and re-examine ourselves, how much we are really committed to our children and whether we are worthy of the deposit entrusted to us by the families murdered in the camps.
"Never again" loses its value if it has no practical meaning to life, if it is just a slogan.
I have a personal duty to ensure that the extermination of the Jewish people does not happen, and moreover, to ensure that "we", that is, the State of Israel, will also be committed to "never again", which will always have the power to prevent the extermination of the Jewish people.
Do I live up to this commitment?
August 5, 1945 was a lovely day in Hiroshima, just like today in Kfar Saba or Modi'in.
The reality on the streets of the Japanese city, it is worth remembering, fermented in full colors, not in black and white.
People took their children to kindergarten, went to work and complained about the city clerk.
None of them imagined that the next day there would be nothing left of all this except toxic shadows and radioactive dust.
The idea that a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the city the next day was foreign and strange, just like the idea that a missile carrying a nuclear warhead would land on Petah Tikva tomorrow.
"There is nothing to compare," experts would say, "the United States of 1945 could afford it, but today's Iran would not dare." December 1941, Pearl Bay, Hawaii.
At 07:55 the command "Tora! Tora! Tora!" Was heard on Japanese radios, and the gates of hell were opened.
The estimates at the time were that a direct attack on U.S. soil would mean a kiss of death for the Japanese Empire. Well, the estimates were correct - it was indeed the end of the empire. The Japanese knew everything, and yet they attacked.
How serious are we when we say "never again"?
Do we understand the meaning of "forever"?
Do we recognize the consequences?
Maybe "Never Again" is just a mantra?
Lip tax, click-bait on the lacrimal gland?
I am familiar with the claim that Israel is a pawn in the international arena and that we have no room for maneuver after the greats have finished speaking.
I deny this claim.
In the past, we have succeeded in translating Israeli audacity into military and international moves that have left the world wide open.
The problem is not what we can do, but what we want.
I suggest making a mental calculation and renewing the vows we made to our fathers and children, otherwise - what are we worth?
Were we wrong?
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