Tears for Israel’s murdered teenagers | Fox News
Tears for Israel’s murdered teenagers | Fox News.
By Lela Gilbert
Published June 30, 2014
FoxNews.com
There’s no question that Israel is located in a very tough and dangerous neighborhood. And these are especially grim days.
The brutality of radical Islamist militias – particularly ISIS – has stunned the world and now threatens the Israel/Syria border of the Golan Heights.
To the north, Lebanon is reeling from deadly explosions and increasing threats of violence, thanks to warring Sunni and Hezbollah (Shia) fighters.
Once again, the Israeli people weep. And rage. And wrestle with their God. They will sit with the families for seven days of mourning and share their tears. They will remember the joys of the boys’ childhoods, their accomplishments and their dreams.
Meanwhile, a rocket assault from Gaza on Israel’s war-torn southern city of Sderot blew up a factory on Saturday night, sending flames and acrid smoke towering into the sky.
It would have been understandable for Israelis to have forgotten at least momentarily the fate of three young teenage boys — Gil-Ad Shaer, Naphtali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach – who were kidnapped by terrorists on June 12.
Understandable, perhaps. But not in Israel. In fact, for 18 days, nothing has been closer to the Israeli people’s thoughts and prayers.
Even Americans with ties to the Jewish State sometimes fail to grasp the sense of extended family that exists within Israel.
And apart from out-and-out war, nothing strikes at the heart of the Israeli people more than terrorists doing harm to their children.
Not surprisingly, after the news of the kidnapping first broke, the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys immediately appeared on social media in both English and Hebrew, and similar posts continue day after day.
But far more extraordinary was the national outpouring of emotional and spiritual support for the families and the boys themselves.
Israel is a tiny country in comparison to the United States. But even on the state or local level in America, it is still difficult to imagine a call for the general population to recite a Psalm at a given hour as a united prayer for help.
“Today (6/17/2014) at 1:20 in Israel the entire country is asked to recite aloud Psalm 121 …for the return of our children…”
The request appeared and reappeared on blogs, email chains and was reportedly broadcast on some radio stations.
Meanwhile, prayers and supplications continued night and day at Jerusalem’s Western Wall – the “Wailing Wall, which it certainly has become since the kidnappings.
More than 30,000 worshippers gathered there on one night alone to weep and implore heaven’s help in securing the three young men’s safety and release.
And again, this past Sunday night, tens of thousands of Israelis, from secular to ultra-religious, gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to encourage the boys’ families and to pray for the captives.
However, as those of us who pray eventually learn, sometimes the answer to prayer is “Wait.”
And sometimes Heaven’s answer is “No.”
So it was today.
On Monday night, Israel time, the news everyone dreaded was announced in a press conference: “The IDF confirms bodies of 3 kidnapped teenagers found near Hebron.”
The Times of Israel reported, “The bodies were found at about 5pm, partially hidden in an open field. The parents were informed on Monday evening that the bodies had been found.”
After enduring more terrorist attacks than can be numbered, Israel has faced yet another body count – small in number but enormous in its shattering impact: Three more promising young men, lost to bloodthirsty terrorists.
Once again, the Israeli people weep. And rage. And wrestle with their God. They will sit with the families for seven days of mourning and share their tears. They will remember the joys of the boys’ childhoods, their accomplishments and their dreams.
They will honor Gil-Ad Shaer, Naphtali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach, and never forget them.
And, despite this devastating loss, this infuriating assault on innocent civilian families, this spiritually challenging disappointment, the prayers and hopes of the courageous Israeli people will continue to rise Heavenward….
I lift my eyes to the mountains-from where will my help come? My help will come from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot falter; your guardian does not slumber. Indeed, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.– Psalm 121
Lela Gilbert is author of “Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner” and co-author, with Nina Shea and Paul Marshall, of “Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians.” She is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and lives in Jerusalem. For more, visit her website: http://www.lelagilbert.com. Follow her on Twitter@lelagilbert.
WarSclerotic 
July 1, 2014 at 3:37 PM
Breaking….IDF retaliating as we speak…
http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/06/30/breaking-israel-attacking-gaza-now-in-retaliation-for-murder-of-the-3-israeli-teens/
July 1, 2014 at 3:40 PM
July 1, 2014 at 3:43 PM
Now trading falling tears for falling bombs.
July 1, 2014 at 4:32 PM
Steve…
Nothing here about a current operation. If there is one, it’s under military censorship.
July 1, 2014 at 7:42 PM
http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-israeli-jets-strike-over-30-targets-in-gaza/
July 1, 2014 at 8:06 PM
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/soliders-kidnapping-retribution.html/comment-page-1
July 1, 2014 at 11:05 PM
For eighteen days, I have been calling for strong offensive action against the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority – both Hamas and Fatah – as the best way to find the teenage hostages and to deter future kidnappings and other terrorist attacks. Now that the boys have been found dead, the justification and necessity for very strong offensive action is even greater.
It should come as no shock that the boys were murdered, for this is the mentality of the Islamic terrorist that is sworn to the destruction of Israel and doesn’t distinguish between soldiers and civilians.
We Jews are different. We respect life. However, in a time of war, the rules are not the same, and we are certainly in an ongoing war for our survival. Saul, the first king of ancient Israel, was removed from the throne by Samuel the Prophet because he didn’t completely obliterate the enemy’s animals, even though he did destroy virtually all of the enemy’s people.
Yes, Saul was in defiance of a specific command to obliterate the Amalekites, but the general lesson for our times is clear: When fighting a war against an enemy, the enemy must be destroyed, and decisively, without excessive concern for who is an active soldier.
However, the first step is to identify the enemy. In this case, the enemy is not just Hamas, which kidnapped and murdered the teenage boys and has been firing rockets at Israeli cities from their strongholds in Gaza for years. The enemy is also Fatah, which in addition to its own horrific list of terrorist attacks, sits proudly in a unity coalition with Hamas and pays the substantial salaries of all of the terrorists.
And yes, the enemy is also the civilians who voted these two terrorist organizations into power. Not every German was an active Nazi, just as not every Gazan is an active Hamas member, and not every Arab resident of Samaria is an active member of Fatah paying the terrorists to kill Jewish children.
Nonetheless, an enemy is an enemy and the only way to win this war is to destroy the enemy, without excessive regard for who is a soldier and who is a civilian. In Dresden, in Berlin, in Nagasaki, and in Hiroshima, the Americans and/or their allies massively bombed enemy-controlled cities into submission, killing hundreds of thousands of enemy civilians and causing the enemy’s political leadership to surrender. The only way to win a war is by hitting them very, very hard and ignoring international condemnation.
Last but not least, we Jews will always aim our bombs primarily at military targets, but there is absolutely no need to feel guilty about “disrupting the lives of”, and killing or wounding enemy civilians who are almost entirely Hamas and Fatah supporters. Yes, it is absolutely relevant to point out that they are staunch supporters of two of the world’s most notorious terrorist organizations that are sworn to Israel’s destruction, and therefore, they are our enemy.
It’s time for the new Gaza First Plan – Let the bombing rounds begin on the Hamas-controlled cities of Gaza and may the bombing soon extend to the Mukata – PA/Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas’s PA terrorist headquarters in Ramallah, which should be totally leveled to the ground. Yes, destroy the Hamas in Gaza completely, until the white flags of surrender will decorate the streets, but then focus on totally disarming and dismantling the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority that has been paying the salaries of all the terrorists for many years, including those of the Hamas.
Destroy the enemy. The time to act and to act decisively is now
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/5906
July 2, 2014 at 2:01 AM
Nothing really substantive will happen. Hamas will remain- just as they always have.