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A message from David Hatuel: Choose life

טלי חטואל ובונתיה

Translation by Yehoshua Siskin

What does David Hatuel wish to tell us? Yesterday as part of "Operation Shield and Arrow" in the Gaza Strip, arch-terrorist Jihad Ghanem was eliminated. Among the many terrorist acts for which he was responsible was the murder of Hatuel's wife Tali and four daughters -- Hila, Hadar, Roni, and Meirav -- 19 years ago.
In response to this news, David Hatuel wrote to me as follows:
"Certain feelings overwhelm me. On the one hand, there is a feeling of relief. On the other hand, there is an uncomfortable feeling of going back in time to the 11th of Iyar 19 years ago, the day that I lost my entire family.
During the period of mourning for my family, I made a goal for myself to choose life. As God says in the Torah: "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life so that you and your offspring shall live." While our enemies try in every way to increase evil in the world, to kill and murder us, we are commanded to choose good, to choose life. There was no promise that this path of striving for good would be easy, and sometimes it has been unbearable for me. But persistence in following this path leads to sanctification of life, to seeing reality from a proper perspective, and to adding good to the world.
I received the news of the terrorist's demise hours before the marriage of a friend's son. The wedding was supposed to take place in a community on the border with Gaza, but due to the military operation there it was decided to move the wedding to my community of Karmei Katif. While we were occupied with moving the wedding to our community and increasing goodness in the world, I received news of the elimination of the terrorist who murdered my family. A few hours later, I attended a wonderful wedding with lots of mazal tov.
We live by our eternal values and not by the values of murderers. Our action against the terrorist was not about revenge. It was about faith in the justice of our cause, about appreciating the holiness of life, and about not allowing a place in our world for evildoers. I thank God and the security forces. They took evil out of the world, creating a new place for good. The world is thus a little better today than it had been before.

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