Livni to bereaved families: Gov't owes you better future

At Afula ceremony for Israel's fallen, opposition leader says "We are obligated to remove trauma of war and terrorism and to bring peace."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Livni 311 reuters (photo credit: reuters)
Livni 311 reuters
(photo credit: reuters)
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Monday addressed the audience at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Afula, telling bereaved families the nation's leaders owe them a better future.
"We are obligated to preserve the security of the state, for which the fallen gave their lives. We are obligated to do everything in our power to remove the trauma of war and terrorism and to bring peace."
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"The desire for peace is not Israel's weakness, but a source of its strength, a common ground that unites us. Even in time of war, soldiers and their families know that the struggle is a struggle of 'no choice,'" Livni said.
She stressed that "In these days, when it seems that the world shuts us out, the power to struggle on is in us as is the power to accept decisions necessary for peace."
At the start of the ceremony, Livni said, "I came here on this Remembrance Day, to the cemetery in Afula, to bow my head in front of you, the families of the fallen."
"I came to tell you what the rest of Israel's citizens and the Jewish people want to tell you, that Remembrance Day is a special day in which there are no divisions, in which the people of Israel are united around you and with you," Livni said.
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She added, "With you are the parents of the fallen that have paid the most terrible price and are suffering a pain that is hard to conceive of, a pain which each parent tries to avoid from the moment they huge their newborn."
"With you are the children of the fallen, some of you got to know your fathers, and you keep in your hearts the adventures you were able to share together," she continued.
With you are couples, widows who lost a great love and a partner for life, a life you dreamed of together, and with it a future family that will never be."
"Dear families: There is not formula that can ease your pain on Remembrance Day, but know that this pain is truly shared among us all," she said.