One simple but stunning statistic to conclude our week
The tides are turning, we hope and pray, and though there are many reasons, this is one.
Towards the bottom of today’s post, you’ll hear a very brief snippet of a longer conversation we’ll post next week with Professor Moshe Koppel, an Israeli public intellectual, an author, a computer scientist and one of the architects behind the central ideas of the judicial reform proposals.
You will hear that Professor Koppel is very, very optimistic about Israel’s future—in fact, our conversation left me deeply inspired.
There are many reasons for the change in Israel’s fortunes over the past few weeks. Much of what has changed is due to us, some is because luck has come our way, and some of our readers and listeners may see God’s hand at work. When it comes to theology, we all think about the world very differently.
But no one can deny the extraordinary nature of the one statistic that we’re sharing today. Yehiel (Chili) Tropper, a Member of Knesset in Benny Gantz’ National Unity Party, shared in this (Google-translated) Facebook post below a stunning number.
18,000 soldiers have been wounded in this horrific war.
Of them, 1500 were treated, went through rehabilitation, volunteered to go back into combat and were wounded a second time.
Think about that number. It doesn’t include all the wounded soldiers who went back into combat and thankfully were not hurt again.
1500 were wounded twice, the second time because they’d insisted on returning to the battlefield after they’d been treated for the first injury.
It’s really kind of unfathomable.
It’s one indication of the nature of this generation that will be key to the future of this now rebounding country.
Professor Moshe Koppel, as our readers and listeners may recall, is an important Israeli intellectual, a professor of computer science, an author, and is perhaps best known in some circles for his role in being the intellectual architect of some of the main ideas behind Israel’s judicial reform process, which we discussed with him when that issue was the hot topic in Israel.
I got together with Professor Koppel, for whom I have boundless admiration even, and perhaps especially, when his views differ from mine, to hear his take on a variety of issues, including judicial reform a year and a half later, and of course, “the state of the state.” How are we doing?
I found his response, which we’ll share in full in our podcast this coming week, inspiring and moving. We share a brief snippet with you as part of today’s post of ending this week with gratitude and optimism … the full conversation will appear next week.
