An Israeli mother gives an extraordinary gift of love to the troops

 Andrea Widburg - American Thinker

And before any leftist cries “genocide,” note that Mrs. Haim does not say “Muslims,” “Palestinians,” or “Arabs.” Instead, the target of her wrath is a specific political and military group driven by a genocidal ideology. Just as no one would have faulted people during WWII for wishing that the name and memory of the Nazis would be wiped off the face of the earth, she offers the same prayer for the evil that is Hamas. She’s absolutely right, showing a perfect balance of compassion and wisdom.

"Last week, news broke that, in the fog of battle, Israeli troops accidentally killed three hostages. Now, the mother of one of those hostages, despite her own grief, has recognized that the soldiers involved must be suffering terrible psychological agony, and she has reached out to them with love.

"The story was truly dreadful. In the heat of battle, Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot three hostages under Hamas’s control. The Israeli military stated that the three were shirtless and waving a stick with white fabric as they ran to Israeli soldiers. They also explained what may have happened: “The IDF official said that at the time, Israeli ‘forces were under pressure’ with Hamas fighters engaged in ‘a lot of deception.’”

"I could instantly imagine the scene. It’s urban warfare on the enemy’s turf. There would have been a fierce fight with Israeli troops under fire from multiple directions. They would have been aware that Hamas fighters use suicide tactics in battle, which would see them getting as close as possible to the troops before detonating themselves." . . .

"What I cannot imagine—indeed, my brain shies away from imagining—is the psychological pain the troops involved in that shooting are feeling. As has been clear from October 7, Israelis view themselves as a family. Every person who died and every hostage seized was a person stolen from that family. And to introduce into all this emotional agony the knowledge that three of your family members were on the verge of rescue, only for you to have killed them, is a pain beyond comprehension.

"But one person did comprehend it. Iris Haim is the mother of 28-year-old Yotam Haim, one of the men who made that unsuccessful break for freedom—and she had a message for the soldiers in the Bislach Brigade, Batallion 17, which, however accidentally, was directly responsible for her son’s death:. . ."