I was returning home after dropping my children off at school a couple of days ago when a bumper sticker on the car ahead caught my eye and sent my blood pressure climbing.
“Gilad Schalit Chai” - it read. “Gilad Schalit lives.”
Gilad is the slight-framed, bespectacled Israeli army corporal who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in a June 2006 raid on an IDF base at the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Gaza Strip
Two months shy of his 20th birthday when he was taken, Gilad has been in captivity for more than 900 endless days.
Even for those of us who know the true face of Hamas - a satanic, barbarously cruel gang whose members, along with tens of millions of Arabs in the Middle East, are saturated with hatred for the Jews - it is nearly impossible to imagine the hellishness of the experience this young man has been going through.
Earlier this month, Hamas celebrated its 21st anniversary by “parading” an Arab acting as Gilad who cried out in front of a gleefully appreciative audience that he was missing his mom and dad. The response was typically Arab and I will happily defy those suffering the disease of political correctness to say so.
These people who continue to enjoy and demand the sympathy and support of the world, lapping up and exploiting our tolerance and liberal multiculturalism while they tear apart human beings with their bare hands and eat the still warm flesh in acts of crazed cannibalism; these people who dance in the streets of their cities at the news of attacks by muslims on America, and who make an instant saint out of a man posing as a journalist who hurls his shoes at the president of the United States and curses him as a dog. These people whom that same president and his secretary of state wish to placate and please by giving them the historical homeland of the Jewish people:
They have held Schalit, tormenting his loved ones and in fact sending the daily message to all Israelis who have to serve in the army or send their children to do so: we can get you, and keep you - we are stronger than you and we will win.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had the gall to tell Israeli students last week that, “it isn’t always possible to bring everyone home.”
Would-be Likud Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, rhetorically asked the Israeli people whether they are “ready to give up the State of Israel for a prisoner?”
And the editors of The Jerusalem Post, those purported watchdogs of democracy and justice, supported this political ducking and diving by describing these comments as “unfortunately making belated good sense.”
I do not know what secret efforts the Israeli government has made - what back room talks and intelligence gathering have been taking place behind the scenes - perhaps even some lives have been risked in the process. I don’t know.
This I do know:
While Hamas holds Schalit - its leaders cry to the world to increase the pressure on Israel to lift the embargo and feed and fuel their people in Gaza.
While Hamas holds Schalit - Israel agrees to ceasefires with them.
While Hamas holds Schalit - Israel sends tens of millions of dollars into Hamas-controlled Gaza.
While Hamas holds Schalit - Israel allows leftists to undermine and burrow into the siege around Gaza - sailing their boats over from Cypress to the applause of the world while the Israeli navy stands uselessly by.
While Hamas holds Schalit - Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian Arabs as a goodwill gesture to mark the Islamic festival of Eid.
While Hamas holds Schalit - Israeli judges warn the IDF not to shell the population centers where Hamas bases itself, builds its rockets, recruits its killers and brainwashes its kids into becoming terrorists themselves.
While Hamas holds Schalit - its leaders appear on television and speak with impunity at rallies and funerals - exhorting the masses to further acts of hatred of Jews and promising ultimate victory over Israel.
While Hamas holds Schalit, and fires its rockets on Israel’s southern kibbutzim, towns and cities, instead of crushing their aggression, Israel’s security forces are marshaled to move violently against their own people, ripping Jews out of their homes to show the Arab-loving and Israel-hating world how much Israel is a respecter of law and order and a willing collaborator in the nations’ efforts to disenfranchise the Jewish people and turn their homeland into another Arab state.
While Hamas holds Schalit - Israel’s leaders make empty threats which, when not carried out as repeatedly they are not, further dilute what was once a strong and effective deterrence, and feeds the bloody appetites and ambitions of Israel’s enemies.
Where is the Israel of Entebbe; the Israel of Osirak; the Israel that kidnapped, tried and executed Eichman; the Israel that sent its agents to hunt down and execute those responsible for the Munich Olympics massacre?
What weak and insipid leaders have replaced the David Ben Gurions, Menachem Begins and Yitzhak Rabins? What epidemic has sickened and wilted the successive governments of Israel who seem to have forgotten that they have been given the historic charge of protecting and ensuring the survival of this most hated of nations, the endangered nation which just a few decades ago was threatened with extinction, and which today once again looks the potential for its extinction in the face?
I love Israel and I will always love Israel - the Jewish people and their God-given land. My life and the life of my family is tied up with the life of this nation, and we will remain committed to them for as long as I live.
This is precisely why I am so bitterly disappointed and even angered by the performance of those CORRUPT-ICIANS who walk the corridors of power in Jerusalem; abusing the trust of their people and abandoning their own.
Their behavior is a disgrace and a blot on the name of this nation. Their abandonment of Gilad Schalit ranks right up there with the cowardly betrayal of their allies, the South Lebanese Army in the year 2000; with the uprooting and making into refugees of the 9000 Jews of Gush Katif and the other Gaza communities in 2005; with the brutal destruction in Amona in 2006 ,and with the eviction of Jews from the House of Peace in Hebron earlier this month.
Israel can do better than this. Surely the Jews have not returned home from the four corners of the earth only to lose their unique identity and the values that THEY gave to the world?
Surely the ancient homeland of the Jews has not been restored to them only to have them give it away in a futile effort at appeasement?
Will Israel’s kowtowing to the nations, abandoning of its sons for reasons of political expediency, and turning on its own people in a repeat of the sinat chinam of 2000 years ago in order to please the gentiles, become the epitaph marking the beginning of yet another Diaspora?
Think about it. Is this really as unreasonable and outrageous a question as some might think?
For certain - in all the debating and voting and polling taking place among Israel’s Jews, and it seems also among America’s Jews - this is something that appears not to be considered at all.
Way to go Stan! These words needed to be said!
Dear Stan, I have, from time to time, wondered about Gilad. When he was kidnapped, we were all praying for him to be protected or returned to his family. It seems God has not answered. My heart goes out to his family, in limbo about their beloved son, their government not seeming to act on this atrocity. Where is the God of mercy? Please, God, help our faith. Faith that you will act to right all wrongs, for all your children and for Israel.
Praise God Stan
But the Word Of God Say’s That this time as the Jews Have gone back to Israel and made it a country again. Never again will he allow them to be taken away from the Land that He Promisied to them with a Covenent That He Cannot & Will not break. For the count down started in 1948 and In The Mighty Name of God & His Son Jesus Christ. Soon and I mean very Soon ALL those who come against Israel Will also have to come aganist God Almighty & His Son. WOE to america, united nation’s, any arab countries russia or ANY-ONE…………
The Father say’s he Will destroy them ALL & it will take seven month’s to bury all the dead… Does that sound like a God whose wrath I want to come under?????????? Not even for one second But In the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ God’s Only Son the Victory Is Already Won………………… So It Is Written & So It Shall Be………..
Praying For The Peace Of Jerusalem!!!!!!!!!
Don
Right on the money Stan.
When I heard that Israel attacked those cowards I had joy in my heart.
It is enough to always listen to their demands and accusations while nothing good comes out of this evil religion.
I wish I could live in Israel as well.
Ralf
Thank you Stan for these words and expressing how we all feel. We love Israel, we love the Lord of Hosts and will not cease to Pray and Watch. We continue to pray for this young soldier and for the Lord to keep him as He did Daniel.
Bless You and your Family!
Having just lost my nephew and my father in the last 2 months I see that saddness, pain, death and suffering are a sad part of this world. And now I see Israel has at long last responded to years worth of rocket terror on innocent children, not mention thier parents. And even my own mother mentions Israel as being some how stupid in this response. Upon being told of the missles that she hadnt even heard of because for some reason world news doesnt find it news-
worthy, she asks what might be the solution. My answer today is there is no human answer. Hate, greed, selfish determination, lies, politicians, the uneducated, the educated, religions that see destruction of anyone different than themselves as the only answer. So I told her I think only Jesus can sort this one out. Praying for peace in His land, peace on earth and His hasty return
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20081128.aspx
Read this if you have any doubt what so ever as to whether Israel should be attacking Gaza at the moment
Stan,
Those who don’t know God, or His Son, Yeshua HaMashiach, those who don’t keep up with what is happening in Israel, those who have no understanding, will ever be swayed against Israel by the biased media and liberal communities and establishments of the world.
Thank you for giving voice to God’s chosen people…the apple of His eye. This despised land will one day receive Yeshua, and the world will know just how important Israel and her people are to Him. Until that day, we are His ambassadors…we must speak for Him, take His message to them, and stand up for Israel and her God-given land.
Gilad schalit is a political pawn, just as the “poor Palestinians” are political pawns. Satan is having his hey-day now, but his days are coming to an end.
I find it immensely encouraging to hear the great report of the many Muslims coming to know the God of the Bible, and the Son of God who has defeated Satan in their lives and have given them life more abundantly!
blackmail of any kind should not be tolarated. that poor soldier has probley been dead since they kidnapped, i feel for his family, the government should have done something before they started releasing all thoes palistinian prisoners
I want to say something about current situation in Gaza. Please, correct me,but I´m afraid it is possible this IDF op can turn into same fiasco like Lebanon 2006. It started up well too… If there is no good military plan and this action is intended only for showing IDF muscles and for political benefit for the Left before oncoming elections, it is evil game with human lives. Gilad Shalit must be be rescued. Missile rain must be stopped. Smuggling of weapons must be stopped. Please pray for succesful result of this war. Marek, Czech Republic
It has been intimated and postulated elsewhere that Gilad Schalit may be returned the same way as his compatriots of the Lebanese Hizbollah incursion. An unfortunate fate, yet it is more in alignment with the festering hatred of Israel’s enemies as they foist themselves upon the land of the Jews.
We now know that since the time of the corporal’s abduction (kidnapping is a more urbane term that is seemingly inadequate for the tactics of the Hamas), that politically incorrect thinking has become the standard operating procedure in the face of a continuing world of hostilities against Israel. Israel is already cast as the intruder, that the tactical strikes aimed at limiting Israel’s enemies from doing more damage than they already have is fuel for the campaign to criminalize Israel for merely defending their right to exist.
Is there an expedience recognized by the world community that would permit Israel to conduct operations for preservation of their sovereignty? No, seemingly, there is no longer such a mentality. Even as the United States continued along the ‘Road Map to Peace,’ it did so with the express mindset that peace was to be gained at Israel’s expense. The token of Gaza, paid as blood money for the sake of international concessions to Israel existence, was not well spent. It did not even bear out as a token, only as a piece to be played out and eventually abducted by Hamas.
This latest attempt to garner more world empathy for the ‘besieged Palestinians’ plays well for the leftist agenda of the rest of the world, but the leftist sympathies within Israel are fooled if they think they can barter for more peace while attempting to pull together a failed government. It is mentioned elsewhere that Israel needs new Ben Gurions and Moshe Dayans, but is it going to be enough? It seems now that a greater than these is called for, yet where are they?
Young Corporal Schalit indeed becomes symbolic of the plight that Israel finds herself in, and to a greater extent, so too the greater number of victims whose lives are spent in the hope that Israel will pull through the vicious attacks to a more hopeful future. But it must be said, that Israel’s future is tied to her past, to her relationship with her LORD. If the main mentality of the people who govern by human means continue to defy her Spiritual means, then it bears repeating, that a greater than those who shepherd Israel now needs to be sought after in earnest. The Great Shepherd waits to hear the voice of His flock: why do they wait to call out to Him? (Zechariah 10:2 through 10:6- verse 6: And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them).
Stan, every morning I put on the whole armor of God for Gilad Shalit. I am believing that our God has his arms of mercy, compassion and protection on Gilad. I call for His mighty angels to surround Gilad, angels shoulder to shoulder/elbow to elbow/swords dramn in protection of Gilad.
We serve a God who declares in His Word that with HIM all things are possible. I continue to pray our LORD will comfort Gilad, and will protect HIM.
I call to memory how in the Book of Daniel, that the Prince of Persia came against Daniel and for 21 days it seemed that Daniels prayers would not be answered. BUT GOD!!!! When the Archangel Michael came to Daniel at the end of the 21 days, he explained to Daniel what intense spiritual warfare had been taking place in the heavenlies to prevent Daniel’s prayers from being answered.
Michael PREVAILED over the Prince of Persia (the power demon over the Middle East) and Daniel’s prayers were answered…..
I know it has been 2 1/2 years of captivity for Gilad, but lest we soon forget….we MUST remember that OUR GOD is not weak and beggarly……He is the ONE TRUE GOD…..THE MOST HIGH GOD…..and it is incumbent upon us as His children to BELIEVE that He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
If God’s Word says it…..it is fact FOREVER!
This is not just a mountain—-it is a RED SEA…..did not our GOD part the Red Sea and the Israelites walked through on dry land? Absolutely.
Heavenly Father, in Thee O LORD do I put my trust. Father, YOU are the GOD of miracles…….Somehow, Someway, Father…..through all that is happening in GAZA now……I ask you on behalf of Gilad Shalit and his family….and on behalf of all of us who are praying for Gilad and his family—-Father GOD, by Your great power and might…..lift Gilad Shalit out of the hands of his enemies and the enemies of Israel and set Gilad’s feet firmly and surely back in the Land of Israel.
Heavenly Father, raise up this young man to be a great witness of Your power and Your glory, and use Gilad in the days, and months and years ahead to become a great Leader in the Nation of Israel.
Father, I pray this prayer as humbly as I know how in the name of my Savior and my LORD, Jesus Christ. amen and amen
In Malachi 1 : The LORD says, “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the LORD Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD. You will see with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the LORD–even beyond the borders of Israel!’
The Israel of old will return, just as the America of old will return. Their strengths do not depend upon the politicians who have forgotten the values and the will of the people, but upon The Creator and His Wisdom in allowing these governments to exist. I pray the Lord’s Will for Gilad and I pray for a strengthening of the Israeli and American people. Shalom
I agree with the comments about Gilad. We give them back prisoners in good faith and they give us nothing. We warn them to stop raining rockets down on our people and they ignore us. I live in the United States but love Israel and her people and go there as often as possible. We here in the Diaspora, your fellow Jews of the world stand strong with Israel in this time. If someone was sending rockets into oe of my neighboring cities I would retaliate as well. The fact that Israel has shown restraint for so long is commendable, but enough is enough. The cowards hide themselves among the civilians to make their own people into martyrs. Golda Meir was right when she said that there would be peace when they care more about their own children dying than killing us. I have volunteered with Sar El as a support civilian in the iDF and plan to return this summer to repeat my volunteer efforts. The IDF must know we stand with them even if 6,000 miles divides us. Baruch Hashem Eretz Israel
This post and Stan’s url needs to be blasted to everyone you know. People need to be told. People need to know what is happening biblically in the Middle East and PRAY for our brothers and sisters. This is all happening so quickly now. God’s will be done. Let us each know our part. Amen.
Nice one Stanley. Well said mate.
I will beat you with a little stick every day for a couple years and then you will turn and hit me with a bat. Then I will complain how unfair life is that you have a bat.
Stan each and everything you’ve written is the truth and I think to myself that perhaps you should run for office in Israel and gather others among your friends and family who feel as you do and all of you run and take the government from the ones that are betraying her! I’m a American gentile - I can’t begin to understand what you feel but I lived thru 911 in NYC and I know a little minuscule bit of how you feel. You seem to me to be the perfect canidate for government there. So have you prayed and asked Abba is perhaps this is something you should consider?? I’ll continue to pray as I do for Israel and now I’ll add this to my prayers to! Bless you!
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733118401&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Thought this said what we are all thinking
I don’t understand why all of these terrorist Palestinan prisoners are so easily and readily released without first DEMANDING Gilad be returned! It makes me so angry!
Let’s continue to pray for young Gilad’s safety release.
Wow… Stan, I wished this article was printed in EVERY daily newspapers all across the globe. Praise the Lord God for your remarkable insight and well written article. Yes, I am with you on your arguments. Why is Israel being condemned once Israel takes offense to all the blows from the enemies (cousins)?
I am praying day and night for man to reach out to Lord God for peace, wisdom, love and understanding.
My extended prayers for the family of Gilat. I feel their pain, but most important I feel their blessings (soon to come). I pray that they be patient and rejoice in the coming of Messiah.
Maranatha! He Lives!