Ifeanyi Chukwudi

About six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. This horrific experience was a big blow to the Jewish nation, but has served as an anchor for the growth and sophistication of the Israeli military and intelligence system.  The Holocaust and continued hostility by surrounding Arab nations creates a sense among Israeli leaders that the Jewish people would always be under threat of annihilation, and just as in the Holocaust, no one could be trusted to come to their rescue.  The state of Israel would go on to prove to themselves and to the world that never again would Jews go through such slaughter, and that Jewish blood would never again come cheap. The nation’s highly effective military and intelligence network is proof today.  Israel’s intelligence community (the Mossad, Shin Bet and the IDF) is arguably the world’s most sophisticated. A saying of the Talmud has evolved into a sort of Intelligence creed: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first”....

This is the beginning of a new tradition, one which I hope to stay true to. Birthday celebrations have never been a thing. I’d never even had a birthday cake up until last year (Thanks to FECAites for the surprise).  I usually wake up to text messages from my mother; she would rain blessings on me. She could never forget October 13th, actually. It was three solid days of labour for her. She was billed for delivery through C-section, but her husband’s family said “No, we don’t do that in this family. You must give birth like the Hebrew women”.  Although, she is Igbo and not Hebrew. Funny, right?  Three days down with no approval from the family for an operation, the doctors gave up and life was slipping out of her. I miraculously came through on that 13th morning without an operation. A certain nurse who was not on the morning shift that day just decided to come in so early that morning. She saw this black woman still there after three days and decided to give one last try...