Coronavirus and Remembrance Day: The mourning after?

Only if Israel succeeds in taking the steps necessary to test, isolate and ultimately control the spread of the contagion will families be able to visit their deceased loved ones next Remembrance Day

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
IDF soldiers place Israeli flags on the graves of fallen soldiers at Mount Hertzl ahead of Israel's Memorial Day (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
IDF soldiers place Israeli flags on the graves of fallen soldiers at Mount Hertzl ahead of Israel's Memorial Day
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The families of soldiers who perished fighting for the State of Israel will endure a very different Remembrance Day this year, clouded by the coronavirus crisis here and around the world.
While the coronavirus dominating the headlines has resulted in a general complacency about the more traditional threats to the Jewish state, neither COVID-19, nor anti-Israel terror is going away in the foreseeable future.
While this week’s headlines focus on the re-opening of the economy and the decreasing number of patients on ventilators, many medical experts believe that the country's relaxing of restrictions was premature and that Israel will see a second round of coronavirus cases, even this month. If not, and the country benefits from the predicted six-week virus cycle or the warming weather, worldwide expectation is that there will be a second, even more deadly wave by winter.
But Israelis should be used to recurring threats and fighting IDF operations and wars. In Israel’s 72 years, the next fight was always around the corner.
Twenty-four hours after Israel declared independence, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded the newly formed Jewish state. The War of Independence lasted 15 months and claimed more than 6,000 lives - nearly 1% of the young country’s Jewish population at the time.
By 1967, hopes for tranquility were dashed once again, as Israel understood that its hostile neighbors were planning yet another war to destroy the country. Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt in the South, and counter attacks against Jordan in the East and Syrian forces in the North.
After only six days, the Jewish State of Israel took control of the Jewish biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, and secured Gaza, the Sinai peninsula and the Golan Heights. The country’s small but powerful army managed to reunite the holy city of Jerusalem, which had been divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule since 1949.
But the terror continued with the 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 Operation Peace for Galilee, the First and Second Lebanon Wars and the two most recent major Gaza operations. There was a First and a Second Intifada, as well.
Today, Israel continues to face threats from all sides. Even during the coronavirus crisis, the IDF has reported that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group is stepping up its front on the Golan Heights.
“We will not allow the establishment of an advanced Iranian base in Syria,” Defense Minister Naftali Bennett warned on Sunday. But he stressed that Iran continues to send forces to operate in Israel’s war-torn, northern neighbor.
Hamas in Gaza has warned that if the coronavirus erupts in the enclave of two million people, it will blame the Jewish state. Last week, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said that if Israel did not ensure that more ventilators were delivered to Gaza, then the terrorist organization would “take them by force… and stop the breathing of six million Israelis.”
Although the Gaza border has been quieter as Gazans isolate from the virus, the “Marches of Return” will come back if the coronavirus cloud is lifted.
Similarly, Palestinians in the West Bank have threatened an escalation of terror if the government moves forward with an annexation plan in the West Bank.
Professor Dan Ben-David of the Shoresh Institute said that any lull in the COVID-19 pandemic should be seen merely as a ceasefire – and should be taken advantage of by health and other officials to prepare for the next round.
Only if Israel succeeds in taking the steps necessary to test, isolate and ultimately control the spread of the contagion will families be able to visit their deceased loved ones next Remembrance Day.


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