Miriam Peretz in a Special Story: "I Felt It Was a Moment of Grace"

Miriam Peretz continues to stir the people of Israel. A personal story she shared last week, while in Ma’ale Adumim, teaches us all how to listen to others and love.

"Two days after Eliraz fell, numerous media outlets came to our home. One of the journalists approached Elyasaf and asked him: 'Did you read what was written about you in Haaretz?' Elyasaf answered that they hadn’t, as they were sitting shiva and occupied with receiving thousands of comforters," Miriam recounts.

"The deputy editor of Haaretz wrote that you are a jihad family, raising your children to die for this land, and that he is unwilling to live in the jihad state of the Peretz family.

Miriam quotes her son's reply: "Elyasaf answered the dozens of reporters waiting for a sensational headline: 'Tell Uri Tuval that the Peretz family will continue to fight for this land, so that Uri Tuval can continue to freely express his opinions here!"

"After they did not receive what they wanted, they turned to me," continues Miriam, explaining her response to the reporters: "At our home, we traditionally open a table on Shabbat, and during the meal, we argue about current events. Tell Uri Tuval that I invite him to a meal at our place".

The story did not end there. "Days later, Uri was hit from all sides. 30,000 subscribers left the newspaper. It still did not make him retract.

"A week later he called their home and the grandson Or Hachad Uri-El, the son of Eliraz may Hashem avenge his blood, answered the phone and greeted 'Shavua Tov'.

"Uri Tuval heard him and was amazed, and I felt it was a moment of grace. He asked for Grandma and apologized for his words.

"I answered that he didn’t need to apologize. Hashem allows us all to forgive our sins, and we won’t forgive our brother?

"It was a test for me," Miriam recounts, "whether I could take one trait of my son Eliraz, as I requested at his funeral, and apply it.

"We met at my place four times. When eyes meet eyes, when heart meets heart. In the end, Uri said: 'We are brothers! Where does this hatred come from?'

"And there I discovered that we have much in common, and that Uri too is an IDF orphan. But he never got the chance, like me and Eliraz’s children may Hashem avenge his blood, to know his father. He died when Uri was in his mother's womb.

The great woman continues to describe her ongoing efforts: "When I reached President Peres, at the end of the shiva, I asked him to issue a statement to all Haaretz subscribers: 'Retract and don’t leave the newspaper. Why did my son fall? To fire the secretary? To fire the printing workers? What was this death for?'

"Uri Tuval has become a close friend of our family," adds the bereaved mother. "He was fired from Haaretz and we agreed among ourselves on one thing: if one day the Israeli government decides to evacuate Shlomit and Eliraz's children from Eli, and he is sent to cover the evacuation, I ask him to stand there and state all his positions in favor of the action, but at the same time to feel compassion; that something in his heart connects with Shlomit and me.

"Because we can build a wonderful country here," Miriam concludes her words, "and disagreements - their role is to lead us to better places, if only we listen, if only we truly love the other, if only we respond with restraint, as Eliraz would act".