RUTHFULLY YOURS

So Hyman wrote a piece about it and a reader asked in the comments section: “Why are you still there?!?!?!?!?!”

The question haunts her and in a beautiful piece published at Israellycool Hymans shares her answer. And it is deeply moving.

I live in Gush Etzion, part of the land liberated in 1967. The Hills of Judea. The usual rhetoric says I am an occupier. Jews living in our ancestral heartland are occupiers? Go figure. In fact the ENTIRE Middle East is on fire, because I might someday build a porch in Gush Etzion.

I’ll let you in a little secret. The Arab Israeli conflict is not about the “disputed territories.” They were trying to kill us before 1967, when interestingly enough, there were no Palestinians. It’s about Jews living, breathing, existing. (snip)

Since the day I landed and my feet touched the ground at Ben Gurion Airport, an invisible, but no less substantial, umbilical cord connected me to this land. When I leave Israel, the cord stretches, keeping me connected and nourished, though I may be far away. From the four corners of the earth, the Jews have come home. Read about the ingathering of the exiles in the Book of Prophets, it’s all there and my family is living it.

I thank The Almighty every single day for bringing us home. Every step we take is a giant leap for the Jewish people. The Jewish people who suffered the horrors of exile for almost two thousand years. The Jewish people who yearned, prayed, and begged to return to its homeland.

”Why are you still there?” The world is against us. A savage people yearns for our blood. A world is upside down and tries to erase our history and our rightful claim on our land.

Does the latest embodiment of Amalek, the ancient nation who sought our destruction, really think it can destroy us? Does the world really think we will leave? Every nation, every single one which pursued our destruction throughout the ages is gone. Destroyed, never to be heard from again. Somehow the Jewish people survived.

In its rightful land, the Jewish nation is thriving. Which country doesn’t use Israeli technology? What city, in its hour of need, has not been saved by Israeli doctors and field hospitals? In a section of the world filled with barbarity and savagery, Israel is a beacon of morality. An oasis of advancement and culture. (snip)

My son is now in Mechina. The preparatory year before his army service. People in the States ask me if I’m scared. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. I’m a mother after all. But I’m proud, so very proud, and I’m grateful.

Jews couldn’t protect themselves for two millennia. The IDF has a power from within, a strength and a shield from above. Tough times have descended upon us, but we will prevail.

“Why are you still there?” I’m living the dream! The real question is, why would I leave?

Hymans sums up the difference between Jews and Muslims in one expression that overflows with love. She is living the dream.

I hope and pray that Hymans, and all Israeli Jews, will survive this 21^st century threat. Because in addition to lunatic Muslims rampaging through the country wielding knives, prepared to die for the cause of killing as many Jews as possible, soon the enemy will have nuclear weapons. And they won’t be afraid to use them, loving death more than life as they are commanded to do. That is their dream; our nightmare.