Miriam Peretz, who lost both her sons during their military service in the IDF, spoke to Israel National News on Tuesday after she paid a condolence call to the Paley family, whose two young sons were murdered in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem this past Friday.
"I came to comfort the family, there were hundreds of people there and it was hardly possible to get close to the mother. Everyone wanted to get close and say something to her. I said a few words and I wish I had the opportunity to say a lot more to strengthen her. It is this dear mother who is strengthening the people of Israel. With all the children around her, she is holding in her hands the photos of her sons, those angels, while her husband is still fighting in the hospital, and she continues and she tells me, 'Thank you for coming, thank you for coming,'" recalled Peretz.
"I arrived there straight from the hospital, where I visited paratrooper Nadav Chaim ben Irit Chaya who was wounded by a terrorist in the City of David during Shabbat. I was with his family. From there I arrived, in the haredi neighborhood where [the Paley mother] lives, with the casualty officer of the paratroopers, and you should see how they welcomed us there. I told the mother that this is the real face of the people of Israel and this is their unity," she added.
"We have the same troubles and a common enemy and we should wish for the day when there is peace and we won't have to bury our children, but look at this togetherness. I regret that we are only together when we are burying people and when people are dying, when there is war. I wish we would always be together, even on our non-eventful days, that we could be together, respect each other, and speak of good things, as we did yesterday," she concluded.