On May 8, 2001, Sherri Mandell's son Koby was stabbed and beaten to death near his home in the Jewish settlement of Tekoa. He was 13 years old.
In an op-ed in this week's Jewish Exponent, Mrs. Mandell responds to the humanitarian posturing of Eve Ensler, the (Jewish) playwright and author of "The Vagina Monologues," whose recent trip to Israel with actress Jane Fonda made headlines. But one cannot afford to be generous to evil. And that is why I question Ensler’s actions here in Israel. I believe that when people like her refuse to unconditionally fight terror and instead try to understand Palestinian pain as the rationale for terror, they do more harm than good. Terror is not about Palestinian pain; it is about Palestinian hate. The fundamental step that needs to be agreed upon is for the Palestinians to stop supporting, nurturing and celebrating the murder of innocent Israeli civilians. Without that basic agreement, an agreement that is about the sanctity of life itself, there can be no Hollywood happy ending.Ensler believes that people here “think that if they let themselves cry, they will forever, that they will never stop crying.†I am not terrified to grieve for my son’s murder. I grieve every day. So do the women who come to our retreats. But we refuse to let the terrorists win by becoming bitter, angry, hating people. We don’t encourage our other children to avenge the murder of our children. We try to live lives that are more loving and more generous.
