22,570 Lives for Israel

22,570

The siren sounded and everything stopped.

The cars pulled to the side of the road.

People in restaurants, offices, living-rooms, parks...everywhere in Israel... we all stood up, and stopped.

There was no call for discussion as we observed Yom Hazikaron (Israeli memorial day). We talk, so that meaning can be flushed out, and shared collectively. Today there was no need.

There was no need for sentimentality. It was a fact that we were recalling. A number we have counted. A loss that has been tallied and totaled, and today remembered.

22,570.

The number of those who have died in the service of Israel. Soldiers fighting in wars, and civilians living in wars.

133 new deaths added just this year.

Numbers are real.

22,570 names. 22,570 mothers. 22,570 voices. 22,570 bodies. 22,570 dead.

That is what it has cost. That has been the price we have paid for our homeland. That is our debt.

22,570 lives for Israel.

Today we remember.