I Must Declare (Part 2)

             Did you have younger siblings when you were growing up? I did. Did your younger brother ever taunt you by throwing his dirty socks into your bedroom? Mine did. Did you ever complain to your mother about your younger brother’s shenanigans, only to have her tell you, “Never mind him”? I did.

            Now imagine a more annoying scenario. Imagine a neighbor who decided to allow her dogs – who were kenneled outside 24 / 7 – to bark and snarl and attack each other at any time of the day or night. They would start to bark at midnight, or at 3 a.m., or even in the middle of the day. They would not stop after a few minutes; they would sometimes continue for hours. What’s more, these dogs inhabited a backyard that was seldom mowed, so that when you were mowing your own property, these animals often lunged at the fence, trying to attack you (but luckily could never quite manage vaulting the fence). I had such a neighbor.

            Now put yourself in the place of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have to run to shelters daily, sometimes hourly, because their Arab neighbors are lobbing bombs at them! Bombs that were not being provoked by military action on your part, or on the part of your government. The bombs that come randomly, but they come daily. Imagine being in the middle of cooking dinner when the alarm is sounded for an incoming rocket. Imagine being in the middle of changing your baby’s diaper; imagine being in the middle of a well-deserved nap. Now imagine that this scenario has been going on for years in the place where you have been peacefully co-existing with the people who live and work in your neighborhood. There is no other reason for the rocket attacks against you, except that you are a member of a certain religion. You are Jewish.

            I ask my fellow Americans if they can imagine such a thing. I ask them when a rocket landed in the parking lot of their grocery store. I ask them when they have had to interrupt their church service to head for the nearest bomb shelter. (Note: By law, every Israeli house or building has to have access to a nearby bomb shelter[i].) I ask when an explosion has rocked their favorite bakery or coffee place.

            No one in my state has ever experienced the scenario that I have just described. However, many, many people – even in America – blithely pass over the facts of the daily existence of thousands and thousands of peaceful, law-abiding Israelis, simply because they cannot imagine that such Jew-hatred exists. But it does.

            According to Wikipedia and the Jewish Virtual Library[ii], at least 6,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since 2005 (the year when Israel officially turned over the Gaza Strip to Palestinian self-government). None of these rockets were fired in retaliation of aggressive moves on Israel’s part. All were sudden, unprovoked events. Some of these rockets fell in unoccupied fields; some were intercepted by new technology that targeted the missiles in flight and destroyed them while they were in the air. Some hit houses, places of worship (including Christian monasteries), and shops. Some actually landed in the Gaza strip itself – so bad was the aim of their launchers!! Why are there not daily reports of these events?

            More importantly, why was there not universal outrage exhibited after the report of the slaughter of innocent Israeli (and foreign) men, women, children and babies on October 7, 2023? Why were there not cries of condemnation over the murderous, gleefully-filmed atrocities? Why did not more people immediately call for their governments to condemn Hamas in the strongest possible terms?

            I will suggest an answer: indifference. The same indifference that prompted an oft-weary mother to say to an aggrieved child: “Forget about it.” The same indifference that led a local government to ignore complaints of a years-long un-neighborly, unfriendly scenario that deprived innocent people of their right to sleep and the peaceful enjoyment of their property. The same indifference that has ignored rocket attacks and other destructive, anti-Jewish events (such as Hamas-supporting mobs on the streets of America) in the name of “getting along to get along.”

            I must declare that truth-denying indifference is headed your way shortly! And it will be worse than having to cope with stinky socks or forever-barking dogs!

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[i] “Merkhav Mugan.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkhav_Mugan

[ii] “Rocket & Mortar Attacks Against Israel by Date (2001 – Present). Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/palestinian-rocket-and-mortar-attacks-against-israel#2015

I Must Declare (Part 1)

Next week, the Christian calendar commemorates the Massacre of the Innocents. As you will recall, King Herod the Great (I hesitate to use that title, but that is how history remembers him) sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to slay every child under the age of 2 in order to "catch" the Baby Jesus and eliminate Him as a threat to Herod's throne. (I have often wondered whether girl toddlers were slain along with the boys -- or even how rough soldiers knew a 2-year-old from a 3-year-old!) The event is often passed over during the festivities of the Season -- but the ancient Church placed it there on the calendar for a reason. I will leave you to contemplate why, in light of what I am about to say.

For weeks -- ever since October 7th to be exact -- I have been contemplating my response to the unprovoked, coordinated attacks by triumphalist terrorists who lately committed unspeakable acts of depravity in the country of Israel (please note: they did not commit these acts on their own soil!). Too many people have sanctioned – even praised – these atrocities, and I was at first speechless at the mindless, animalistic response of so many. But I am beginning to formulate my rejoinder, and here is the beginning:

• v When have you ever seen a baby roasted to death in an oven, and thought it a “good thing”?

• v     When have you ever rejoiced to see the remains of a dead, raped woman?

• v     Would you sanction seeing a girl publicly beaten and thrown into a car on any street in America?

• v    Would you approve of a young, terrified teenager witnessing the deaths of his parents in any neighborhood near yours?

If you are revolted by any of these actual recorded (filmed by the terrorists themselves) acts, why do you not cry out?

Why do you not demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice?

Could it be that the baby’s demise is less shocking to a nation that regularly kills its unborn progeny – and hides these acts behind impenetrable walls of legalese and claims of “women’s reproductive rights”? (Note: The baby’s right to life is never mentioned!)

Could it also be that the dead woman’s defilement is less in your eyes than a porn star’s submission to actual rape (and sometimes, murder)? (After all, don’t we want real-life entertainment?)

Do gang members’ actions hold so much sway with you that “it’s no big thing” if you watch one more bloodied civilian? (You’re not the one feeling the pain, after all!)

Would you stand by if a child from your own children’s school were forced to submit to a beating on the playground – even one that led to death, as recently happened in a school in California?

I will pause to allow you to think about what I’ve just said.

_ _ _ _ _

Now that you’ve thought about how uncivilized all of this violence is, let me ask you a few more questions:

•       Who actually killed the dead hostages who are being returned to Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)? Would they be dead – or even in harm’s way – if Hamas hadn’t kidnapped them in the first place?

• v   Why do you not see any factories, farms, or businesses among the building blown up by the IDF? (Hint: People deprived of hope are much more malleable in the hands of terrorists, so no entrepreneurial endeavors are allowed in the Gaza strip, despite billions of our dollars invested in “humanitarian aid.”)

• v   When have you last seen rocket launchers and suicide vests stored in your church’s fellowship hall or downstairs janitorial closet, as they are in mosques and schools in the Gaza strip?

• v   Would you be happy if your local “leader” told you to stay in your house – and not get out of the way of an advancing army – because it would serve your leader’s purpose if you got killed?

Wake up, people – and start to speak out against this modern-day barbarism! If you were ever repulsed by King Herod's unfathomable murders, you must be repulsed by what happened two months ago!

I will say more another day.