I received an e-mail from a Christian supporter of Israel. Many of my fellow bloggers have received similar e-mails, and have responded in kind. This is nothing new. The e-mail received does not contain any new suggestions, either, but there is no harm in presenting them here as a reminder. The latter half of the e-mail includes a great deal of standard Christian criticism of Islam, and warnings of its threat to Christians and Jews. Various Christian texts are interspersed here. Thus I have excluded it here.
Here is the e-mail, followed by the response I chose to send, and some additional comments.
The E-Mail:
Dear Israel, I love you, but U let everyone kick U in the ass, when U should be kicken' ass.
I have spent sleepless nights of several months, researching and I have a long list of suggestions.
Warning ……..this does require 10 minutes of your time
ASAP……Please share this with Pro-Bible Jews of David.
Please, feel free to use this material on websites & forums, etc ( please omit my name )
RE: New suggestions for Israel & How to defeat defeatism & garner Christian support & save Israel Now
RE: Saving Bible-Israel & Saving David-Zionism & analyzing Islam
( King David would never be diplomatic. He would never concede any land )
1. Never apologize for David-Zionism, Demand David-Zionism.
2. Bible-Israel, love her or loose her. Write aggressively.
3. Please ask for help and beg for help, but don't wait for help.
4. Please write letters to various Christian & Jewish groups
5. Please write letters to the Jews of Israel to the Jewish Knesset Members. ( beg them not to shrink the Bible-land )
6. If King David and Moses and Judah Maccabeus & Deborah were in the Knesset,
7. They would keep all of Judea and Samaria and the Golan-Galilee and would deport the Neo-Nazi-Muslims to Saudi Arabia,
8. Even if Christians & Jews don't care about the proud Zion of David, even if they are atheist, they have a responsibly to save Israel, for the sake of millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and murdered in the Muslim world.
9. Please take action and help write letters all over the world. Please write to politicians.
10. ASAP & NOW. Also please Create more websites with more links & more visuals.
11. Israel is the Bible, if you foolishly give away Bible-land for fake-peace, what future does the Bible have?
My Response:
As Rabbi Me'ir Kahane HY"D (May his blood be avenged) said on Christian Talk Radio years ago...
"If you want to support us, support us from afar. If you come here to Israel to missionize [and to preach your idolatrous distortions of the Almighty's Word], we'll have to cut your heads off."
As soon as Bush became president, the volume of Christian Zionist activists' voices was greatly reduced. I was told that they did not want to harm the president through public criticism. After all they were receiving the conservative, pro-life judicial appointments they had asked for, as well as several other items on their wish lists.
Not to worry, though, as they were "working behind the scenes."
I do not know how you personally identify a true Christian. But, it seems as though Bush and Rice's understanding of the People of Israel's Divinely given right to the Land, is highly distorted, and in fact, more of a misunderstanding. President Bush seems to be able rationalize his shameless placation of Arabs, much too easily for my comfort (Read: doing the bidding of the Saudi Royal Family without a second thought).
You warned us of our lack of action here in Israel. Yet, I think you may need to worry more about the fate of the U. S. than Israel right now. Clinton or Obama as president will only make things worse. I am not in the least bit impressed by any of the Republican candidates either.
If you want to help, then help us to continue the settling of the Land, as we Jews are commanded to do.
I am living out here in the Samarian Hills, just south of the Biblical city of Shkhem, the location of Josef's Tomb. Just to my west the tombs of Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Yefuneh are can be found.
I have been out of a job for months, do not owe regular shoes (let alone boots) nor a winter jacket. The bank is on my case about what I owe them, due to a misunderstanding of our agreement, and their sudden cancellation of my credit line. My phone will be turned off soon. I am happy to accept your donations.
וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ, וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ, אָאֹר; וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ, כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה. -בראשית יב:ג
And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. -Genesis 12:3
You may send your checks to:
*****ADDRESS REMOVED******
(See the reason below)
(See the reason below)
I am also happy to give a portion of your "support" to others in need as well, from security and agricultural projects to orphans of Arab Terror. I, myself, am a victim of the French Hill suicide bombing of June, 2002. My hearing and right leg have not been the same since then.
Feel free to forward this e-mail.
In the meantime, here are two items for you:
1) For more on the non-Jew's obligations in this world, see this relevant section on the Sanhedrin's website: The Sanhedrin's Relationship With Non-Jews
2) An article from the J-Post written by a Christian. Please send this to any "liberal" or "centrist" identifying him/self as a Christian. It debunked some of the leftist media's presentation of Arab Muslims and Christians in Israel. I received it courtesy of Women In Green.
Bethlehem beyond the Christmas calm
LELA GILBERT, THE JERUSALEM POST
December 23, 2007
LELA GILBERT, THE JERUSALEM POST
December 23, 2007
Sincerely,
Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah
P. S. I jst found my boots from lash year. They are actually gollashes, and the both have huge holes in the souls.
Additional Comments:
The bottom line is that support is welcomed. However, we cannot put our faith in such support from the outside nor in any human force on the inside. Only in HaQodesh Barukh Hu (The Holy One, Blessed Be He) can we place our faith.
And, yes, taking action (hishtadluth) besides prayer, is most certainly necessary. Unfortunately, the same ol' protests and letter writing campaigns do not seem to be working.
Time for a new strategy, or maybe a review of some of the tried and true strategies which HAVE worked for us in the past.
And, finally, I have often been critical of the soliciting of Christian financial support. Perhaps some of you will say that I am eating my words, or that I am a hypocrite, or just being facetious. I am none of the above. I need the money.
I believe I have been quite clear in setting limits for the acceptance of Christian support.
And, by the way, support from comfortable North American Jews. I know that there are some who even realize the importance of having brothers like me living on the front lines.
Update (Mota"Sh Parashath Noach, 5780):
Nope. Not gonna take Christian support. It is imperative that we do not accept support from Esau (Edom/The West). For as long as we do they maintain Heavenly merit, and will not be able to fall.
As we learn in the TB Megillah, Israel and Esau may not be in power simultaneously.
5 comments:
what kind of work would you be doing if you were employed?
I'm very flexible. Tomorrow, I'm going to Jerusalem to help with a tiling job.
E-mail me.
Blessings to you, my friend! That was a fantastic response to the email...have you received any checks in the mail? You are in our prayers...if we had extra, we send it to you, but we are in a difficult position now as well. I'll see what kind of help I can gather for you, though.
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? Ps 121:1
What a cool posting!
Between the Missionary Christians who want to "save our souls" and the liberal American Jews who want to "save us from ourselves" there's not much room for movement.
The problem is that Israel's survival is one of many issues that both groups are "interested in".
For those of us who live here in Israel,however, the prevention of our slaughter by the masses of crazied enemies that surround us continues to be our central challenge.
once again, good work,
yaakov kirschen
Dry Bones
Israel's Political Comic Strip Since 1973
B"H Ya'akov, Thank you, and I agree with you. Regarding our "central challenge," as you put it, I do not believe we need to compromise our spiritual security in the least in order to insure our physical security.
As you know, dealing with Christians is a tricky business halachicly.
The main thing, though, is I believe it is in our own best interest to stand on our own two feet whenever possible, and most certainly never place our faith in any external authority.
Your comment reminds me to fix my inadequate blog roll by placing your blog on it, something which should have been done long age.
Post a Comment