In an emotional event that took place today (Sunday), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with representatives of the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization.
The meeting, before the Day of Remembrance for the Fallen in Israel's Armed Forces and Victims of Hostilities, dealt with coping with the heavy loss and the importance of sacrifice for the continued existence of the state.
Netanyahu chose to open with his personal story about the loss of his brother, Yoni Netanyahu, in an attempt to provide comfort to the young orphans: "How do you live with grief? It's very difficult, and I can tell you that we all feel it. I lost my oldest brother, and it was as if someone took an axe and took off my arm and my leg.
""Then someone came to me during the shiva, and he told me that he had also lost a brother, he was a bereaved brother. He told me: 'I know you won't believe me, but the suffering you feel now, it won't be as intense and as painful as you feel now, and there is life after this.' There are also new realms, and you will have a new life and there will be new joys. There will be joys. I know it's hard to believe right now, but there will be.
""But the biggest thing I can tell you - it's not in vain. It's not in vain, because without them we have no existence. And we are here, and it's thanks to the heroes, our chain of heroes. Therefore, your parents are heroes, and you, with the pain and the memory and the loss, have one thing you know - your fathers are the ones who guarantee the eternity of Israel.".
Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO
He paid attention to each of the family members and even pointed out a drawing of an elephant by Shaked Meir, the son of Major (retd.) David Meir, who fell in the battle for Kibbutz Be'eri.
This year's meeting takes on added significance given the increasing number of widows and orphans who have joined the bereaved family in recent campaigns.
""Your parents are heroes," Netanyahu said, "and the resilience you demonstrate is an integral part of the resilience of the entire State of Israel.".
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