Opinion | Between Tel Aviv and Elad: The War is Against All of Us Israel today

I could not help imagining my boy or girl in the park where the attack in Elad took place last Thursday.

Grass, trees, a swing or two, a standard park like no other in every neighborhood in Israel.

A playground, a pastoral corner of tranquility that instantly became a horror movie.

The boy, the boy, who screamed: "Come quickly, my father is dead."

The cell phone that rang and rang under the pure white nylon of ZAKA, the words "Dad," "Mom," and "My Beloved Wife" flashed across the screen in a chilling message. Who will be next in line.

Public figures in the State of Israel have liked to call us tribes in recent years, but they are wrong.

We are not a collection of tribes, but one tribe, one people, united entirely in moments of crisis and moments of joy.

We like to say how polarized we are.

Collectively claim that the ultra-Orthodox do not stand by the siren or that the secularists do not respect the chametz on Passover.

But the recent attack has proven more than ever and in the most symbolic way how much we are with one.

Two terrorist terrorists with axes in their hands interrupted the Independence Day celebrations in the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad in one fell swoop.

These were not huge celebrations like in Tel Aviv or Modi'in, but they were definitely celebrations.

Children rejoice in the streets, adults and babies in their arms go for a walk.

Celebrating the joy of the Land of Israel on their way.

The attack cut off not only the lives of such precious people, but also the imaginary boundaries we place on a daily basis "between us", between the ultra-Orthodox and "everything else."

74 years after the establishment of the state, bereavement once again united the Jewish people.

Haredim and secularists, Mizrahis and Ashkenazis, gathered in gloomy grief over the war waged by our ancestors and we are also waging it.

On Memorial Day, 1,200 ultra-Orthodox gathered at the Shlomo Hall in Jerusalem for a memorial event for the ultra-Orthodox soldiers who fell in battle.

On the eve of Independence Day, the founder of "Shalva" Kalman Samuels stood with a suit and black cap and sanctified the image of the country.

And in Elad the blood of Jews, Israelis, was shed.

The road is still long, and this year too there were extremist ultra-Orthodox who tried to despise Independence Day, but the trend is clear.

They stand on Remembrance Day or recite Psalms, celebrating on their way to Independence Day.

Celebrating together, hurting together.

The terrorists sent a sharp message to the Jewish people: the war is not against Judea and Samaria or on the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

The war is against all of us - in Tel Aviv and Elad alike.

Blood in blood touched.

Were we wrong?

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