‘Why should we have any empathy for these boys?’

The wheels are in motion again, wailing over the supposed “occupation.” As if terror was never visited upon Tel Aviv.

Eyal, Naftali, Gil-ad – our three boys; students, two of whom are sixteen, the other nineteen, unarmed, they were abducted hitchhiking home from school for Shabbat.

And as most of the nation is in utter despair over what our boys are enduring while being held captive by those we know to be savages, some among us find this to be an opportunity to blame the victims, blame the parents, blame an entire segment of Israeli society, blame the Prime Minister, blame the ministers, blame anyone and everyone except for the terrorists.

The usual suspects crawl out from an altered reality to spew hatred against the three boys, the settlers, the parents, etc…, anyone that does not share their leftist doctrine of self-hatred. “Why should we have any empathy for these boys?” They postulate that since they are children of “settlers” they deserve to be kidnapped by terrorists. This is beyond contempt, beyond vile, beyond evil, beyond comprehension.

Those who wish to malign the victims either choose of their own volition to fall prey to a lie that has been repeated often enough by our enemies and thus welcomed by them as truth, or they bend over backwards to pose as the exemplary court Jew out of a depraved motive that there are no words for.

We as a nation must rally behind all of our people not just certain sectors of society. Just as the entire nation prayed and rallied for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, for he was a son to us all, so should we feel the same way for Eyal, Naftali and Gilad.

We in Judea and Samaria are law abiding, tax paying citizens – taxes which likewise support terrorists hosted in our prison systems. We are citizens of Israel who serve our country with love and devotion in every capacity, whose children strive to be soldiers of the most elite units in the IDF. Yet we are accused by our detractors of endangering the nation by living in the heartland of Israel.

Let’s clarify a few things:

What endangers our nation is self-hatred. What endangers our nation is disunity. What endangers our nation is ignorance in our history, and in our legal and moral right to settle our land in its entirety. What endangers our nation is weakness in the face of our enemy by those that voraciously scarf down their propaganda, and feed the flames of their hatred by capitulating to their anti-Jew dogma.

I’m from the area from which these boys were kidnapped. Gush Ezion.My daughter and her friends hitchhike daily from the exact same spot from which these boys were kidnapped, as it is central to several high schools in the area. Hitchhiking is a cultural norm in Israel as is for drivers to pick up hitchhikers.

Now listen closely: We, who are true to our people and to our land, we, who live in Judea and Samaria, in the very heartland of Israel, are not going anywhere. This is our home, from a historical, theological and legal standpoint. Take your pick.

Questions of legality are answered in this easy to follow illustrated link from the Israeli Foreign Ministry;

We are the nation of Israel. We know who we are, why we are, and what our purpose is on this earth. We know our rights, and no one’s approval is needed. The denial of the facts on the part of our detractors, their ignorance and arrogance, and their weakness may very well continue.

One thing is for sure though, the disunity, the self-loathing, the pointing of fingers at anyone but the terrorists is not going to help bring our boys back.

To the enemies within our midst, know this: Eyal, Naftali and Gilad are OUR collective children and should not be used as pawns for anti-Israel political agendas. We must pray for them as one nation, one family and fight for their safe return. This is our land. We will not be scared, intimidated or bullied out of our home.

We’re not going anywhere. You better damn well get used to it.