Op-Ed: Defining a Nation
Naomi Ragen
Naomi Ragen is a best-selling novelist and columnist who has lived in Israel since 1971.
The police even wanted to give the child a funeral, since no one else had claimed the body.
And yet, the tragedy of four-year-old Rose Pizem, whose angelic face, blue eyes and sad smile, was a permanent fixture on the front pages of Israeli newspapers for weeks, pushed all that aside, entering the hearts and minds of the nation like few other stories in recent memory.
The tale began when Rose's paternal great-grandmother alerted authorities that the child had gone missing. The subsequent investigation had the country reeling. Rose's mother, 23-year-old Maire-Charlotte Renaud had appartently left the child's father back in France and was living in a love-nest with her father-in-law, the child's grandfather, Ronnie Ron. An apparent disturbance to their love-nest, little Rose was allegedly treated cruelly by the couple.
After intense interrogation, Ron finally admitted to killing the child "accidentally" while "disciplining" her. He then put the child's body into a suitcase and threw it into the Yarkon River. Changing his mind and his story numerous times, Ron refused to tell police where to look. But after a relentless search, which included many volunteers who dived into the polluted river numerous times, the suitcase and its piteous contents were finally located.
Police investigators said they felt a sense of deep relief. "This is the first time in my life that I took an investigation home with me," detective Ravital told Haaretz reporter Ronnie Zinger-Cheruti. Rose's portrait, which hung in the police station for weeks, gave hardened detectives no rest. Chief Detective, Nissim Mor, said that the police even wanted to give the child a funeral, since no one else had claimed the body. Many of the detectives' eyes filled with tears as they spoke about their own children waiting for them at home.
The detectives are not alone. There is a sense of national mourning over this little girl, and several other children recently murdered by their parents. Nothing could shock Israelis more. This is a country that loves children - their own and everybody else's. If an Arab child is accidentally killed, even in a justified defensive action, voices are always raised wanting to clarify, to investigate if it was absolutely unavoidable. Children have always been the strength of Jewish survival. Even in Egypt, our enemies sought to destroy the nation by taking away the babies.
On Shabbat afternoon, I attended the brit milah of my dear friend's grandson. The young father spoke movingly of 
This is a country that loves children - their own and everybody else's.
his and his wife's decision to name the baby after his great-grandfathers, both of whom were named David. The father pledged to the tiny son in his arms to give him everything he might need to live and grow and be happy. And as the family gathered around the newborn, creating a circle of love and warmth, I was once again reminded of the blessing made over the Jewish people by the Gentile prophet Bilaam, who intended to curse them, but just couldn't help himself: "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel."
I thought of this today when I was going up in the elevator after finishing my supermarket shopping in a local mall. A young father wheeled in a toddler. As we went up, I saw him stroke the child's silky hair over her forehead, gently, again and again. As we approached our floor, he said: "Look! One, two, three. Wallah!" as the door opened. The child laughed with a joy that was reflected fully in her father's face, which beamed with love.
Sometimes a nation is defined by its heroic acts; and sometimes by its reaction to the most sordid crimes committed by those who live completely outside its social norms. It is sometimes the exception which makes us appreciate the rule.