I am increasingly finding it difficult to separate myself from the plight of Israel and the decisions and choices of her leaders this summer. I ride to work with NPR blaring away, telling me how sad and tragic the situation is for the Lebanese and you know what? I couldn't give a damn. I really couldn't. Because all I can think about are the people on the busses that blew sky high when a terrorist dressed as a religious Jew boarded the bus and detonated himself. Or the folks sitting at their seder table who suddenly were blown to bits when a woman in a thick coat walked into the hotel where they were celebrating.
I think of all of them and of the thousands more who lived, terrorized, all these years and no one outside of Israel did a thing.
And as I listen to this drivel about how cruel and inhuman the Israelis are and how since 300 and some civilians have been killed on one side, that makes the 200 and some killed on the other side irrelevent because they belonged to the AGGRESSOR...I can't help but be mad.
In my head I think that bombing a people really not directly involved isn't a necessarily a right or just thing...but in my heart, I know that they're just as responsible as the closest Hezbollah member is...because they allow them to live among them, to seek shelter, to use them as a shield.
If everyone can run away and say, "It isn't my fault because I didn't launch the rocket even though I allowed the rocket launcher to sleep in my house," then no one is responsible and everyone is responsible.
Me? I find it hard to separate my identity as a Jew from my feelings about Israel and her right to a peaceful existence. I feel like because I AM a Jew, I am in for a penny and in for a pound regardless of the outcome.
I don't want to watch the news...not that I don't want to know what's going on, but because I cannot stand the slanted, pro-Palestinian western media. "Look at the big, bad Jews and what they do to the poor little, hut-living Palestinians!" They don't talk about all the concessions that were made for them or how freely they come and go in Israeli society for the most part - no, it is best to show the downtrodden underdog being bullied around by the Jew in the tank who has no heart...no soul.
Well, MY Jewish soul cannot stand that. It rips me apart. So...right or wrong, I am tied to my homeland and to the hope that THIS time...it will finally work.
4 comments:
Well said, really well said.
I hear you, Z. I listen to National Palestinian Radio (NPR) and cringe, too. I just want this all to end. Soon. But not until the job is done.
Hi! I believe G-d speaks to the ends of the earth and speaks to his people. I have been trying to connect with Jewish people for about a year and a half online, I "listen" often to IsraelNationalRadio often. I don't know if a highspeed connection(to befriend) is possible, but I have just met a jewish man in our Holy Scriptures study group here in the west. I spoke briefly with him. My wife and I are new to this group. I asked for prayer that night within the group, I told them I was shipwrecked within myself.......I just wept after that....I just broke into tears. Some frustrations and anger about life in general were being released. The Lord revealed to me through his word my waywardness in PROVERBS, this is were I come to humility, to have the Lord search me and come into the inward brokeness, for reconstruction and self examination. I was found out by PSALM 33:1; Good people, cheer God! Right-living people sound best when praising. PSALM 76:10; Instead of smoldering rage- God praise! All that sputtering rage- now a garland for God! This PSALM struck like a rocket and snuffed the rage. I love it when the Lord "chills" it! All I have to do now is keep pouring water(his word) over it! Then I was lead to ISAIAH 30:15; the part that said; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." And many more scriptures about quietness and strength. What a loving Father when he quiets us.....to hear His tender words, and speaking to his children. I know that the Jewish people are in the nine days mourning. I have been doing some of the things, such as no giving of gifts. I was listening to IsraelNationalRadio while working on a painting for my father, and they were speaking of the nine days. This painting has some significance for me in knowing about the house of Jacob, Jacob renamed as Israel and how God loved Jacob in GENESIS, how Jacob has been pursued and cut-off from the street as if he were like a boy.....to keep him from playing. My late grandfather's name is Jacob and he had faith in God. Lord willing, my father will be visiting on and about the end of the nine days, and the painting is a picture of Jacob's House in South Dakota, USA. I really like how it came out....the house and barn stands together strong, it stands alone in a field...and looks like the spring season, with a wispy white cloud above it. I see this as a picture that really brings me through thus far, and what God is about to do in sending the Messiah, as He(HOLY SPIRIT) said to me with a still small voice;"HeavensRighteousness." I feel the ALIYAH!...............all the way from the west here, and KUMAH!(ARISE!), but we are low now , in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. I pray that you will befriend me as a Christian as the Lord brings the Old Testament people to be one with the New Testament people....to become united as one. ISAIAH 35:8; And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way, Shalom for Jerusalem(Ariel) , Garry
Hey, nice to read your blog again-
I started reading #83 when I was in Israel- its very powerful and it reminds me that hamas and hezbollah will be destroyed- all of them- whenever HaShem wants them be destroyed- of course we'll be the ones who will actually do it on this earth- and may it be soon
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