Today is Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. The following story of a mother, Miriam Peretz, who has lost two sons, is a powerful one for many reasons. I am less certain about the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking at the official ceremony on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl – the Israeli version of Arlington National Cemetery, Netanyahu spoke of soldiers and victims of terror as a single group. Does that really make sense?

Do we really want to combine the mourning of soldiers who dies fighting for Israel with murder victims who died simply because they were in Israel? Does that not, in some weird and unintentional way, play into the contention that all people in Israel can be viewed as combatants and therefore as legitimate targets?
Should victims of terror be mourned the same way as we mourn fallen soldiers?