Tears and Anger

This picture sums up the abandonment of the Gaza settlements:

http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/potw/current/index.html

Here you see the pain of the Jewish people as a Rabbi and an IDF soldier both tearfully hold on to the Torah, and each other as Atzmona is evacuated. At the end of the day, the picture is a poignant picture of the reality of being Jewish; we only have one another and the Word of God to hold on to.

There are many reasons to cry, here are but a few:

First and foremost I cry because I look at my people, who cling to God, yet still reject His Messiah. I realize that my belief in Yeshua Ha Maschiach puts me outside the fellowship of many of my own people, yet I cannot stop caring for and loving them. It is at times such as these that I feel my Jewishness burn at its brightest.

I cry because a professing Christian world leader has abandoned the people of God for political expediency; quite possibly to divert attention from a war going less then well. And we still have people in the US who will turn a blind eye to this because he promotes their 'special interests'!

I cry because a government that not only allowed, but promoted, settlers to go in and 'claim the land' has now completely abandoned these settlers. For millennia there was a belief that if we could only return to our land, and be self-ruled that we would no longer suffer the indignation of being people without a home; yet here we find a government, comprised of Jewish leaders, removing people from their homes, and forcibly destroying the towns that people poured thirty years of their lives into. Yes, they are paid for their relocation, but how do you pay for the lives lost in the struggle to make a home in the midst of your enemy?

I cry because the terrorists celebrate and laugh...

I cry because my people cry...

There are also some realities that I understand. I realize that I, as a Jew living in the US, have a very different perspective on the situation than my brothers and sisters in Israel. I can say many things, yet it is not I that put my children onto Egged buses every morning, praying that the bus will arrive at its destination in one piece. It is not I who has to contemplate going into public places, with the ever-present thought in the back of my mind that there may be a lunatic out there planning to detonate themselves in the very queue that I stand in, waiting to enter a nightclub, or restaurant. To put things into perspective; how long can a people be constantly terrorized, their children killed, and their peace shattered, before they say ENOUGH and are willing to try anything to stop the constant harassment? And it is not only the physical terrorists, but the mental terrorists, most notably the UN (and now the US) who are constantly haranguing the Israelis for any retributive strikes they make against the Palestinians.

If a terrorist kills 15 on a bus, that is freedom fighting; if the IDF levels a block of houses to expose bomb-making facilities, that is harassment of an occupied people. The UN has always consistently, and clearly, been against Israel. Israel has had very few friends in its history, the US being the most notable, and now they find that this friend has used coercion to force Ariel (the lion that no longer roars) Sharon to capitulate to the cutthroats and thugs that surround the nation of Israel. So, yes, many of the people in Israel are willing to remove the settlers. And they call this peace! The stock markets are up in Israel, and the hopes are high that THIS sacrifice will be the one which allows the nation to live in peace.

There are many newspaper columnists in the US and abroad who say it is about time that the Israelis get off the land that is rightfully the Palestinians! They say that Israel has illegally settled on land that is Palestinian. Ah, ignorance is truly bliss it appears! To be so ignorant of such recent history is somewhat surprising, but when it comes to Israel, revisionism doesn't even have the courtesy to wait a generation!

The Israelis were provided a homeland, and within hours of achieving statehood, they were attacked by the Arab nations around them. They survived, and were subject to constant harassment from these so-called neighbors. Then in 1967, they were attacked again, and this time they were able to regain Jerusalem and the Egyptian areas of Sinai and Gaza (and others), and the Jordanian area that is now called the West Bank. Funny enough, the Egyptians and Jordanians never saw fit to provide the Palestinian refugees with decent living conditions in all the years that they owned these territories.

So the areas where they 'illegally' have settlements were won in a war! Much like the US' illegal settlements in Honolulu, Harlingen, San Diego etc. How about we start removing the settlers from Brownsville, Texas next week? Would that work Mr. President? It seems to me that this would only be fair, right?

I started this post out with the intent to simply share my sadness, but it is followed so closely by my anger at a world which is clearly anti-Semitic, that I have a hard time stopping at a prudent point.