Curb The Nitpicking It is Not the Time to Fight Among Ourselves: Jack Engelhard
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15410#.U9dobGOCUtV This might not be the best time for family gatherings. Uncle Norm says, “Let’s crush them.” Young Jake, home from school, hotly says that if Israel had given up the “settlements” there would have been no problem. The Arabs want peace. His professor says so and his professor knows best. The table erupts. Grandma says, “Let’s eat.” I’m with Grandma. There’ll be plenty of time to settle scores amongst our own when this is all over and Hamas is finished. King David took care of business that way. Israel is at war. We are all at war in case you haven’t noticed. The world is coming at us from all directions, overhead the missiles, underneath, the tunnels. They’re breaking our windows again throughout Europe and it’s starting to happen even here in the United States. The news media are screaming for our blood, wherever we live.
Resolved: Only our IDF guys are the absolute heroes. The rest of us do the best we can.
In a time of war it gets simple. You’re with us or you’re against us…and if you are truly part of the Covenant, muzzle the dissent, please.
Morale is crucial and a loose lip is dangerous.
Resolved: Only our IDF guys are the absolute heroes. The rest of us do the best we can. How about we curb the nitpicking? Save it for later.
Going after Donner and Blitzer and Geraldo and Jon Stewart and all the rest – that’s different. They’re the enemy. I’m talking about between-friends.
Mayor Bloomberg took some flack for losing his temper on CNN. He knows CNN for what it is. So he lost his cool. Do you mind!
From me you will get no rules of behavior on what can or what cannot be spoken at this hour of battle. First of all, I am nobody. Second, I hate censorship. Listen instead to King Solomon who teaches that there is a time for everything – a time to speak up and a time to shut up.
So as for me, I am not comfortable with public complaints from within the family about Bibi’s performance in conducting this war. Later, okay?
Over on Facebook some “friends” say they are tired of reading so many articles. They want action instead. Nu? Are you unaware of the power of words? One headline in The New York Times is worth 10 Arab Divisions and million bullets for the other side. Some of us, when we were younger, paid our dues militarily. Now we serve on this front. Language – this too is an army.
Solomon says that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
We choose life when we write. Inadequate as we are, we choose to uplift and to bring clarity. I have already said, “Writing is prayer.”
Everything I write is prayer. Same for you, I imagine.
I understand the feeling of helplessness. I recognize the frustration. What’s taking so long? Why can’t we finish off Hamas/Amalek once and for all? Think for a minute of what our sages say – to imagine the world at 50-50 between good and evil. A single act, a single word from any one of us can make the difference.
Days ago – and this is breaking news – we asked why CNN isn’t showing us the tunnels. Blitzer is now giving his viewers the eye-opening tour.
Something happened!
Next and most controversial into the complaint department is this – what rights do you have outside of Israel to speak for Israel?
“You should be making Aliya,” we are told. Only then can you talk.
Can we suspend this argument for another day – even though you are right? Yes you are right, but do you really want us to clam up?
I should note that even at this distance we risk our lives when we write in support of the Jewish State. They’re after our hides everywhere.
To our enemies, we are all targets. We are all Israel.
We should be intelligent enough to figure this out for ourselves as we use whatever God-given weapons we have to stand resolutely with the IDF.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
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