Enough! by Jim Fletcher
About 10 miles northeast of Jerusalem sits the Israeli community of Ma’aleh Michmas. To the international community, this place is a “settlement” (emphasis on the “sssss”). In the Bible, it is mentioned in 1 Samuel, Isaiah, and Ezra. The ancient Israelites fought the Philistines there.
This week, a resident of Ma’aleh Michmas fought modern enemies, the Palestinians, at a market, in the homeland of his forefathers.
Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a combat sergeant with the Nahal Brigade, was stabbed to death by two Arab teenagers as he intervened in an attack. The 21-year-old leaves behind a wife and baby.
The demons that walk up and down in the earth today manifest in myriad ways. For Yanai and Yael, the fiends have stolen their future. When Yanai heard the commotion at the market, he left his baby daughter, Neta, with his wife. He was stabbed as he tried to save others. At his funeral, Yael pierced the veil now between them:
“Give me the strength to look Neta in the eyes and tell her that everything will be fine. I promise to take care of her as best I can. I am sorry that we did not have a chance to realize our dreams.
“I love you and I already long for you.”
The young husband and father was taken to a hospital, where doctors tried for hours to save him. Incredibly, his murderers (I couldn’t care less that they are both 14) are being treated in two Jerusalem’s medical centers; Sha’are Tzedek and Hadassah Ein Karem.
I wish they weren’t. I have to be honest.
I wish the Weissmans were able to return home and spend the next 60 years together.
Yanai was laid to rest in Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl military cemetery. I’ve been there many times, walking among the tree-shaded tombs that hold the remains of Israel’s fallen warriors.
Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl
Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl
For a quarter-century, the international community has fed the fantasy that the Palestinians want to, or can, co-exist alongside a Jewish state. Arabs have been murdering Jews in the region for 100 years. They have no intention of stopping.
We are at a tipping point. It has been obvious for some time that Jewish life means nothing to most decision-makers within the international community. Only occasionally will a head-of-state or diplomat side with the Jews (as Germany’s Merkel did this week in refusing to normalize relations with Iran so long as the state sponsor of terror refuses to recognize Israel). More often, there are immoral, repugnant statements issued, such as those recently by Ban Ki-Moon, who justifies Palestinian murder of Israelis. The UN Secretary General!
I’ve had enough.
I’ve had enough of hearing about another Jew being murdered. While the world stands on a street corner and sucks its teeth and grins. As an evangelical Christian and long-time supporter of Israel, I think of my own community’s (lack of?) response.
In the last few years, there is a growing number of evangelical “leaders” in the United States who advocate for the Palestinians. As dupes of totalitarians usually do, they pay lip service to Israel’s right to defend itself. As apologists for murderers and a Palestinian culture of murder and death, they host conferences and speak gravely of the “Occupation” and they blog about alleged IDF war crimes in Gaza, while providing zero documentation.
These mendacious enablers speak honeyed words and then go silent when a Jew is murdered anywhere in the world (but especially Israel, “occupied” as it is). Lynne Hybels, co-founder of the ultra-powerful Willow Creek Association, is an influential water-carrier for the PLO. I’ve heard her presentations: the Israelis steal water from the Arabs, etc. Her friends lament the “giant, open-air prison” of Bethlehem, claiming it is surrounded by a huge wall.
This kind of lie—I’ve been to Bethlehem many times and have never seen a wall that encircles the biblical town, now under the control of the villainous PLO—is repeated endlessly to American church audiences, and 99.9 percent of those listening aren’t aware they’re being lied to. Many wouldn’t care, because in the court of public opinion, the Jews have always had both arms and both legs tied behind their backs.
Lynne Hybels’ own spiritual evolution is a fascinating read, and she has stated that for her, Zionism is just not something she can embrace.
Lovely. Just by (decidedly non-divine) fiat she simply waves away thousands of years of Jewish history, not to mention the Hebrew scripture. It’s all so arbitrary. And convenient.
And every time an Israeli is murdered, check the social media of Christians who advocate for the Palestinians. You’ll see that that day, they are tweeting and posting on Facebook about vacations, long walks on Lake Michigan beaches, a friend’s vapid new book release, or their passion for seeing capital punishment abolished.
Yanai, Yael, and Neta Weissman. (photo courtesy IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
Yanai, Yael, and Neta Weissman. (photo courtesy IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
What you won’t see is them lamenting the death of a Jew.
Further, they don’t acknowledge fundamental facts, such as:
•Israelis are not launching waves of stabbing attacks against Palestinians. In fact, except for isolated cases like Baruch Goldstein in 1994, Israelis don’t murder Palestinians. The reverse is reality. Palestinians are murdering Jews, and nothing justifies it.
•Far from being an apartheid state, Israel has inclusion for Arabs in government and other sectors of society. Is anyone aware of this?
•Israelis don’t starve Palestinians! Is anyone aware of the utilities and humanitarian aid Israel provides their mortal enemies? Is there any historical precedent for this whatsoever?
If you are spreading propaganda about Israel, you are tooling down a sunny highway with the top down. Conversely, it has been my experience that advocating for Israel is like pushing a boulder up a mountain.
The world is fatally sick. The terminal illness is Jew-hatred.
When my time comes, God forgive me for not doing enough to stand with the Jews. Be merciful to me for not advocating enough.
But please show no mercy to the enemies of your people.
I have had enough of watching young Jewish families torn apart while their killers are treated in Israeli hospitals.
And the world grins and sucks its teeth.
In my own circles, there are those who advocate a “softer” approach in making Israel’s case. We need to be winsome and engaging. Well, just like Lt. Jo Galloway in A Few Good Men, I strenuously object.
We are in the shape we’re currently in because we have been soft when it comes to jihadists and Jew-haters.
It doesn’t work.
So, I am literally sickened by the murder of Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman. I have had enough of hoping for better days and that we can appeal to our “better angels,” whoever they are.
I hate Jew-hatred with every fiber of my being. May I live long enough to see the day when no more Israelis are murdered.
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