A mother in Israel can teach the truth to the entire Western world.
Last week, I paid a shiva call to the Buskila family in Kiryat Gat. After eight months of uncertainty, former hostage Amit Buskila was finally laid to rest. On my way there, I heard on the radio that the international court in the Hague was seeking to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu for war crimes, that the European Union had expressed its condolences for the death of the Iranian president, and that the UN had marked his death with a moment of silence. It is, indeed, a topsy-turvy world.
But Ilana Buskila, Amit’s mother, isn’t confused at all. That is what she told me:
Every day of life is a precious gift. I was privileged to have a gift, my Amit, for 28 years. She was an innocent girl who was murdered by Amalek. I believe that Amit was protecting us, protecting me. The terrorists would have reached Kiryat Gat if they hadn’t been delayed for so long at the Nova music festival.
Amit was murdered just because she was a Jew. A rabbi explained to me today that she has risen to the highest level of heaven, as a martyr of the Jewish people. Her last words on the phone with her uncle were: “Shema Yisrael.”
For eight months, we didn’t know that these were her last words; we thought she was still alive. We had an additional eight months of strength, of prayer, of unity … There was nothing we didn’t do on her behalf. People transformed their entire lives for the sake of Amit Esther bat Ilana, and people will continue to do good deeds in her memory.
We consider it a great chesed that her body was recovered and returned to us, and are deeply grateful to all the people involved in this operation.
The only moral thing to do now is to erase this evil from the face of the earth. They are absolute evil, and my daughter was all light, pure gold.
A thousand international jurists and foreign diplomats will never achieve Ilana’s moral clarity and pure faith. In the end, this truth will prevail.
“Holy Stickers” Around the World
A week ago, I wrote about the “holy stickers” that can be found all over Israel, pictures of those who lost their lives since Oct. 7 along with a phrase that captures their essence. Today I received a message from someone who was moved to see these stickers, as well as posters of the hostages, on the wall surrounding the ancient Jewish cemetery in Prague. “Unlike elsewhere in Europe, here no one is taking them down; to the contrary, the Czech Republic supports Israel and is not afraid to show it publicly,” she wrote.
The Real News
The attached photo shows thousands of French Jews crowding the recent aliyah fairs held last week in Paris, Marseilles and Lyon. Some 1,500 people registered for the events, but in the end,almost 3,000 showed up! Students, young couples and families are uprooting themselves from all that is familiar and putting the process in motion to settle in Israel. This just goes to show you that the daily headlines often conceal the deeper, more significant news. Welcome to our dear brothers and sisters from France!
Translated by Yehoshua Siskin, Janine Muller Sherr
Want to read more by Sivan Rahav Meir? Google “The Daily Thought” or visit sivanrahavmeir.com
Sivan Rahav Meir is a primetime news anchor on television and radio. Her “Daily Thought,” translated into 17 languages, has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. She has a weekly podcast on Tablet, called “Sivan Says,” and has published several books In Hebrew and English. Sivan was chosen by Globes newspaper as Israel’s most popular female media figure and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews worldwide. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband Yedidya and their five children.
