Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu met Sunday with widows and orphans from the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization just hours before the start of Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror.

During the meeting, Netanyahu spent time speaking with the families and offering comfort. At one point, in a quiet and personal moment, he sat with one of the orphaned children and drew him a picture of a giraffe and an elephant, an act that reflected the tone of the visit as he sought to connect with the children on a human level.

Netanyahu also shared his own experience with loss, speaking openly about the pain of losing his brother and trying to relate to the families gathered before him.

“How do you live with the grief? It’s very difficult, and I can tell you that we all feel it. I lost my older brother, and it was as if someone took an axe and cut off my arm and cut off my leg,” he said.

He recalled a moment from his own shivah, when someone approached him with a message that stayed with him.

“And then someone came to me during the shivah, and he told me that he had also lost a brother—he was a bereaved brother. He said to me: ‘I know you won’t believe me, but the suffering you feel now will not remain at this intensity and with the same pain that you are feeling now, and there is life after this.’”

Netanyahu acknowledged how difficult that message can be to accept in the moment, but emphasized that life can eventually rebuild.

“There are also new horizons, and you will have new lives and there will be new joys. There will be joy. I know it’s hard to believe right now, but there will be.”

He added that the sacrifice of their loved ones carries enduring meaning.

“But the greatest thing I can tell you is—it was not in vain. It was not in vain, because without them we have no existence. And we are here because of the heroes, our chain of heroes.”

Turning to the children, Netanyahu stressed the legacy left by their parents.

“Therefore, your parents are heroes, and you, with the pain and the memory and the loss, have one thing that you know: your fathers are the ones who ensure the eternity of Israel.”

{Matzav.com}