War

In Israel, you could see soldiers almost everywhere, some women but mostly men, dressed in uniform, armed, waiting for the bus or trying to hitchhike a ride to their base. My parents would stop the car to pick one up, especially when it was cold or raining, and they would even get off our route to take him to his destination faster. Every year we celebrated Independence Day. My parents loved to sing, and they would gather all their friends to sing along in our living room. Some of those songs were about men who died in battle, about medics risking their lives in battle to treat a wounded solder and about mothers who still wait for the son to return. In Israel, the national Memorial Day for all the war casualties takes place the day before Independence Day. At 11 AM, people would stop and stand solemnly for 2 minute in memory of the dead. Traffic would stop completely; all you would hear is a siren echoing with the sobbing [mothers] in the cemeteries. If you haven’t lost a relative o...