I have no more yellow ribbons. It’s Friday morning, I am standing on my corner at the entrance to Binyamina –almost 10:45; and I have run out of ribbons for remembering. How could this have happened? He was supposed to be home. I still have another 15 minutes at my corner…
Elections are approaching –soon…very soon –too soon. We just ‘finished’ a war that has not ended. It will probably never end – not in my lifetime anyway. What to do? What can any of us do? I have run out of ribbons.

Dear Tsipi, Dear Ehud times 2,
Thank you for leading us in and out of this war, again…I have a question, “How can it end? We forgot someone!”
Sincerely,
Beth
Mother of 2 plus 1

Three leaders are vying for our vote. Our elections are not as ‘black and white’ as Obama versus McCain. Really, No joke intended. I am so very serious. These leaders, Tsipi Livni, Ehud Barak and Bibi Netanyahu, have all lead us before. Each one in his/her own way, for better and for worse simultaneously and separately. How can we choose? Three leaders…What is the choice?
One promises the return of Gilad Shalit, possibly even before the next government comes to be. How dare he? A political move – a political game – emotional manipulation…How can he play so cruelly with our maternal need to return the boy/soldier home? How many times have we been promised? How long has this been going on? 953 days and nights and still we are counting….953 days of promises and false hope. How dare he?
Ehud 1, do you really think you’ve finished something? Do you really feel that we’ve accomplished something? (And yes, we, means me too. After all, I am quite proudly Israeli; an Israeli with soldier boys for sons.) Funny, in the news this morning they said a rocket fell in the playground of a kindergarten. Rockets falling again (or is it still?)! Ehud 2, Mister Ministry of Defense, you sir are not defending!!!! Not now…well…maybe! You are the Minister of Defense. Wake up! Gilad Shalit is not home. He is your soldier even more then mine. You forgot him and yet you use his name to stir emotion. Rockets are still falling. You forgot him. I am out of ribbons and he is not yet home!
Another candidate, another promise, “We will never give up Jerusalem! We will never retreat from this Land of Israel!” He says, ‘We should never have withdrawn from Gaza.” He says, “I did not support the withdrawal from Gaza.” He says. He lies. He did. He speaks so eloquently in English. In the foreign press in English, he almost makes sense. Not in Hebrew. He is like them when he speaks. Different languages spoken; different words used; very different meanings. Listening to these different versions of the same events makes for a very confusing campaign.
Dear Tsipi,
We forgot someone. I know that you ARE THE MOTHER of a boy soldier. I know you are a mother of sons and daughters. I know that you struggle more then the others. You have no choice. You are a woman in this man’s army; in this man’s world. I beg of you. Please continue to struggle –FIGHT! Fight some more. Draw on you strengths, your experiences, your instincts, your composure, your diplomacy, your straightforward thinking, your anger, your courage, your sense of right and wrong –of RIGHT! We forgot someone. Gilad Shalit waits in the dark. He waits for us.
I know there are other issues. I know. I live here too – on this planet and in this country. The economy –what economy, what jobs, what money (who really had any to lose in the first place)? How presumptuous of you all. When your cupboard is empty and they’ve come to take your car, your home, what’s a billion dollars anyway?
The environment, the water –where’s the rain? So much war, so much, so little…We almost forgot about the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), drying into a pond that can’t possibly water our children and feed our fields. The air –we choke on the fumes that we’ve all blindly put into the atmosphere…
Forgive me my fellow human beings. Forgive me for seeing the world through this narrow vision that you must all believe I have come to possess.
Our elections are approaching. Gilad Shalit is waiting and so are we.





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