This blog is dedicated to Eden Attias who was 19 years old and was murdered this week. Eden was a soldier and was stabbed to death by another Palestinian 16 years old boy, whilst he was sleeping on the bus.
These are the facts. Now I shall look at them closer. Why am I writing a blog about this? Why is this soldier more important than other soldiers killed or injured in Israel this year? Well, I will admit that just as with Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped and kept prisoner for 5 years without visitation rights, when I look at Eden's picture all I see are my two yunger brothers.
Secondly, last night whilst browsing on Facebook I noticed a Christian friend of mine posted some news on the work of the Israel field hospital in Philippines with the comment "I can't say I've seen this in the news". Another Christian lady whom I do not personally know posted this as a comment "It is a shame they cannot extend the same compassion and serving attitude to the Palestinians!" I've proceeded to show the said lady only one of the videos on Youtube where Israel is sending trucks of aid to Gaza only to have Palestinians use the building materials to build tunnels through which they smuggle guns and rockets from Egypt and Syria or abduct soldiers such as Gilad Shalit. The lady was not satisfied with my answer (imagine my surprise) and posted this comment " You can't actively discriminate and see yourself in a holy war and justify it! No country including Israel should get away with human rights violations. It is also not in the news about the killing of children and people loosing hope! Having powerful allies is the only reason that Israel is not being universally condemned by the world! My view is as Christians we must speak up for the oppressed and silenced in any country. Palestinians have the same rights as any other person!"
When I read this I found myself with a dilemma. I mean where do I even begin? Shall I take a lawyer like approach and address each point? Shall I start with who is actively carrying out a "holy war"? Israel never called this a "holy war" they call it survival and a nicely lifted middle finger pointed at all those who dream about pushing them into the sea. My first conversation with every Israeli so far was "we want peace, we had enough of this" Hell, I have a Muslim friend who actively condemns what the Palestinians do http://unitedwithisrael.org/why-a-british-muslim-of-pakistani-origin-defends-israel/
Or shall I point the well intended Christian lady to the 22 UN resolutions against Israel by comparison to the 4 voted against the rest of the world and ask her whether she still stands by her comment that Israel is not condemned by the rest of the world? As some of you know I come from an ex-communist country. One of my pastors had his finger nails pulled out in torture. My mum was not allowed to go University because she was a Christian and my uncle whilst a soldier had a gun pointed to his head by his superior and told to shoot at the people during the Revolution. And these are only people that I know personally. Hundreds of thousand of people were killed in Romania and they conducted scientific experiments on abandoned children. I never personally heard about a UN resolution against Romania. Why not? Why just Israel?
I decided I will shorten my answer and I told the nice lady this: "Well X, this is where you and I are parting ways. I am a Christian girl too, and I absolutely agree that as Christians we must stand against abuses such as the ones you describe above. But before I start throwing stones as Israel and follow the general masses fed by the rubbish in the media, I decided to dig a bit further. It is easy to comment from far away in our cozy homes where we enjoy peace and a cup of tea. But take a look at what Israelis have to put up with. So far, only this year alone over 2,000 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel destroying people's homes and lives and this is a yearly occurrence http://www.idfblog.com/.../rocket-attacks-toward-israel/
This week an Israeli 19 years old was stabbed to death in his own country whilst sleeping on the bus by a 16 years old Palestinian who grew up watching this on his TV screen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIBNRVgq59Y
I am all for standing up for the oppressed, X. But I want to know first who the oppressed are. Please notice, I did not even make reference so far to what we are told in the Bible. But I can suggest verses such as Isaiah 40:1-2; Jeremiah 33:20-26, or the famous by now Romans 11. Unless you are of the opinion that The Old Testament is not valid anymore and is there only to make our Bibles thicker and make us feel better when we find verses like Jeremiah 29:11."
Nothing breaks my heart like anti-semitism in the church. I used to suffer so much because of it because I was literally broken in two between my two loves- my Christians brothers and Israel. I don't necessarily take it that way anymore. Yes, as Christians we are part of one body, but if I am called to be a hand I will never walk. I will touch. If I was called to be an eye, I will never hear. I will see. I don't have to feel the same way as the rest of my Christian brothers to be one with them (even though the large majority now support Israel). Jesus was a Jew and He still is a Jew. So rather then me being split in two I will leave this task to those who profess they love Jesus, but stand against His nation. All I will do is not keep quiet. For the sake of the millions that died. For the sake of my friend, Michal Reznic, who's grandparents and extended family was killed because Christians kept quiet. I will not shut up for the sake of Eden and his family, for the sake of Gilad and all the other Israelis who suffer. I will not keep quiet because my Father in Heaven commanded me "Comfort, comfort my people. Speak kindly to the people of Jerusalem." (Isaiah 40:1-2 a)
I will speak against the evil and hate indoctrinated into the Palestinian children, whose greatest dream is to become a martyr and take as many Jews as possible with them. Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6 that "Our fight is not against people on earth. We are fighting against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world's darkness. We are fighting against the spiritual powers of evil in the unseen world." (Ephesians 6:12)
As Christians, if we wish to fight against evil, we must remember that the worst kind of evil is the unseen one. It is the loss of innocence and destruction of purity. It is hate being pored into the heart of a child who should be playing and laughing, until that hate turns him or her into a murderer at 16. If we wish to stand against something, this is what we should be standing against. I for one will follow the hymn "Though none go with me, still I will follow" because my life will be forever united with Israel. I know no other nation loved by God so desperately and I want to love what He loves.
Children in Israel (the song is Ad Mahar(Until tomorrow) by Eviatar Banai)
אביתר בנאי - עד מחר - קליפ by ahoovati
Palestinian Children TV
As a result of the hate campaign on children, a kid stabs another to death. I am all for protesting when you don't agree with something. But there are other ways to protest as this 16 years old Jewish boy proves.
