Gaza Strip or Gaza chambers?

Hamas has yet again used another “humanitarian cease fire” to demonstrate their inability to act humanely. Instead of actually doing something to alleviate the suffering of all the palestinian POW ‘s trapped in Gaza, they went ahead and kidnaped another Israeli soldier.

This is a perfect time for all of my Jewish friends who have been calling for a “cease – fire” to implement a Jewish “cease- fire”- its time for Jews to stop firing verbal and written rockets at Israel. Jews firing on other Jews has got to stop. Enough is enough. If there was ever a time for us to act like “mishpacha” it would be right now.

I imagine that there is a moment of truth that one reaches, where a choice must be made between ones universal instinct and one’s particularistic instinct.

The question is, what will it take to get to that point? Is there a number of rockets that you have in mind, is it a particular amount of kidnapped Israelis?

I’m not talking about people who have no Yiddishe Neshama, I’m talking about you. Good people. Good Jews. People who care. What’s your breaking point? What will it take for you to throw up your hands, and show solidarity with your own people.

If you were to take a vacation in Paris tomorrow, and find yourself caught in the middle of a hate filled Anti Semitic mob, you would be in real trouble my friend.

I wouldn’t bother whipping out an Ipad and showing off your social media portfolio, how you routinely criticize Israel, and don’t bother to try and explain, how you are the new “We want space for complexity” …..generation. I promise you it won’t help. Especially if you are a woman. Forget about it if you are gay. You will probably all be lynched.

The Nazis marched us all to the gas chambers. Without differentiation.The simple Jew, and the “ufgeklert” enlightened one.

As for you dear friend, still stuck in that frenzied mob. Look around for a Jewish face. One who is there to actually stick up for his country. Call out to your brother on the other side. “Help me. Please, אני יהודי I am a Jew!

They will help you I promise! Even if they know that you have not posted anything in the last three weeks on your Facebook that shows that you are in mourning for the slain Israeli soldiers, only criticism. “Of course אחי come with us, we need to get you the hell out of here.”

If you haven’t taken the trip yet, I would advise you to cancel. Europe is once again no longer safe for the Jews. Better yet, reschedule your flight and go to Israel. There are rockets flying through our airspace, but we are in our own country. We can and must fight back.

My dear friend, right now there is no complexity here, no nuance and there certainly should not be any other narrative but ours, yours!

Our soldiers are fighting proudly. Don’t undermine their efforts to succeed. Being pressured into accepting a truce like this only to have another soldier kidnapped sends us back to a time where we were marched helplessly into the concentration camps.

Not to mention the continued brutalization of an entire generation of Gazan children, that only a full disarming of Hamas can prevent.

Last night we allowed that to happen again.

We can never allow ourselves to cave into the twisted mindset that would prevent us from defending ourselves – at all costs!

We must step up for our sake, for Israel’s sake, for the sake of the innocent children, in Israel and Gaza, for the sake of goodness and decency. We will never allow our hands to be tied behind our backs allowing Gaza to become a Gaza chambers for our soldiers and civilians.

For the first time in modern history we are in our own home, able to defend ourselves. Don’t encourage a world that prefers to see its Jews unarmed and helpless.

Stop throwing around terms like, narrative, nuance and ill conceived war. Tell the world the truth, that a dead Israeli soldier is a bigger catastrophe for you than anything else, just as G-d forbid the death of your own family member is a greater tragedy than the death of a stranger.

Are we sad that the children who were to young to vote for Hamas are being used as human shields?? OF COURSE!

Don’t twist that sad reality around however, to immorally pressure your people to stop defending themselves!

Imagine that some one came after you, wanting to hurt your children, and he brought his own children along. Would you not do everything you could to defend your family, even if it meant that his children are hurt?

Be honest folks. You wouldn’t hesitate for one moment. The Israelis on the other hand do hesitate!

Enough playing twisted dishonest games.

No more marching to the gas chambers. Instead we march with Golani brigade. Proud, strong, and heroic.

If we can’t march like the American heroes Max Steinberg and Nissim Sean Carmeli, who gave their lives for us, then at least we can march for Israel in our cities, our Facebook posts, and our twitter accts.

Rabbi Yossi