Via our Israeli correspondent MC, here is an account of the current situation along the border with Gaza as experienced by a resident of Sderot named Yaeli.
I am at war.
The conflict has caused massive damage. The missiles don’t stop. Every time I call for a ceasefire, I hold to it and the other side doesn’t.
The missiles I shoot down with my defense system are designed to hurt and maim me. When I shoot down one or two, ten are sent at once so that I can’t possibly shoot them all down. When I stop responding, no-one tells me ‘well done’, it is simply expected that I keep silent, but the missiles are still being sent. They are still damaging me.
I try to tell those who condemn me that it is not fair. I know I haven’t always behaved in a way that is above reproach, but I don’t want to damage anyone. My cause is about finding a way to live without conflict, while the other side is so filled with fear and anger that the only way to feel better is to send missiles towards me.
They accuse me of being too sensitive — they’re only missiles, and I should be grateful that they helped me build my almost perfect missile defense system. What’s the problem with running for shelter a couple of times a day, anyway? The other side is hurt much so more by my disproportionate response.
Then the tunnels started. I was shooting down too many missiles; I was having too much success deflecting the blows; I had invested too much in shelter from that form of attack. So the tunnels were built.
Instead of investing in building the positive and useful, the investment went into fueling the anger and the fear. Talks were rejected, ceasefires were broken. The aid and fuel that I sent were accepted without question, but never mentioned. I was accused of being weak, of being the cause of all the problems.
I couldn’t understand how I was the cause when the other side sent the missiles first. I couldn’t understand why I was expected to just brush the missiles off, when the other side shouted loudly to everyone who would listen about how awful it was when I responded. Why was it that only I was ‘too sensitive’, why is it that only my actions are an ‘over-reaction’?
Now I understand. This is a war that I cannot win.
The attacks will never stop. They will continue, because as long as anger and fear rule the other side, they will need to try to damage me in order to satiate the hunger that anger and fear create. You see, negativity feeds off of negativity. So I need to expect the attacks, to prepare for them, to know that whatever I do will never be enough for the other side and those that support it. That I will receive condemnation every time I respond, but no praise when I stay silent.
My only choice is to turn to my creator, to accept that I will be seen as a religious weirdo by the others. But now I have the best defense system out there. My creator has promised me his protection, if I only turn to him and seek him out as my first priority.
So this is what I do, I turn to the light that is YHWH. With his protection, the conflict rages on outside, but in here, there is quiet. I believe in my decisions when he guides them. I can smile as I blast the missiles out of the sky and collapse the tunnels into the ground. I know that when the other side finds new ways to attack, my protector, YHWH will help me stave those off, too.
The other side can rail and rant, tell stories that barely resemble the truth and leave vital information out of the narrative. I know that I will be blamed for the whole situation, and I don’t mind. When the other side tries to shift the responsibility for the conflict onto me, I will answer to YHWH for my part and it will no longer damage me. I am saddened that the other side will continue to be damaged by an inability or by no perceived need to accept responsibility for the hurt that anger and fear cause to all around. I am saddened, but I have YHWH, so it does not affect me anymore.
YHWH has shown me that if I trust him, I don’t need to respond, and I do not need to want a pat on the head for my silence and restraint. He can take the anger and that fear that made me respond with ever increasing firepower, and show me how when I allow him to protect me, anger and fear are ineffective weapons and I have no need for them.
The attacks still come, but now that the burden is shared by YHWH, it is easier for me to deflect them. It takes up less of my precious resources, for he is always filling my cup until it overflows.
I am at war, and it is the best thing that has ever happened to me, because now, I have felt the quiet that comes from walking the path of YHWH’s Torah, and I am glad.
— Yaeli
“The attacks will never stop. They will continue, because as long as anger and fear rule the other side, they will need to try to damage me in order to satiate the hunger that anger and fear create. You see, negativity feeds off of negativity. So I need to expect the attacks, to prepare for them, to know that whatever I do will never be enough for the other side and those that support it. That I will receive condemnation every time I respond, but no praise when I stay silent.”
Yes, possibly, but the reason for the attacks isn’t, as I understand it, ‘anger and fear’, but islam, pure islam.
And what is Islam if not anger and fear?
WTF?
Islam is 7th C savagery. The anger and fear are solely in its victims.
I actually wrote this about my marriage/divorce.
Bully for you mate! Keep on keeping on! Max.
>>>YHWH has shown me that if I trust him, I don’t need to respond
WTF? Is this what the Counter Jihad movement believes?
I believe in “matamoros”.
Now I understand. This is a war that I cannot win.
The attacks will never stop. They will continue, because as long as anger and fear rule the other side, they will need to try to damage me in order to satiate the hunger that anger and fear create.
No.. it is a war that the Israelis are not winning because they are not yet fighting to win. Hamas and its enablers are fighting a total war: A war to kill the Jews. The Israelis in response are fighting on the defense.. they are responding to provocation.
Wars like this end when one side is dead. At some point the Palestinians will do something so horrid that even the most hardened leftist in Israel will commit to total war.
Then there will be no Palestinians, no more Hamas with its enablers reduced to smoking, radiated ruins.
Then Israel will have peace.
note: I do not look forward to this happening. I just don’t see how such an outcome can be avoided.
Thank you for your advice on our foreign policy. Please do not misinterpret my words.
Please do not think that I doubt that the Hamas would stop for a moment when they come out of their tunnels a few km from where I live and work, and think about who I am before they kill, kidnap or maim me.
I do not believe they send their missiles in my direction because they mistook them for carnations, or me for a legitimate military target.
I also believe that there is an inner peace to be found in letting YHWH deal with their insanity. Given the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament, I am actually trusting that there will be visited upon the Hamas a wrath that I think we would find hard to comprehend.
The peace is in me, and if Israel would only turn to our father and his Torah (including the fire and brimstone) then the peace would be with all of us, I also think the Iron Dome and its 90% efficiency would seem rather outdated.
And please do not mistake me for a leftist, I have lived through enough real and violent discrimination to understand that the liberal left are about as correct in their ideals as Trotsky, and they will stay that way until Islam finally turns on them and pursues them to their hiding place the way Stalin did to the Jew Bronstein.
Im glad you get it Yael, so many people don’t these days.
There is a new proverb though which bears thinking about. There is a man in a house, people tell him a flood is coming. He says “dont worry god will save me”, the floods come and the man is sitting on the roof of his house, a boat comes and offers help, but again the man says “no no, don’t worry, God will save me”. Finally he is perched on top of his chimney. A helicopter comes and offers help but again the man says “dont worry God will save me”. Finally he drowns. He goes up to heaven and speaks to God and says, “oh god why didn’t you save me?” God replied “ffs, i sent warning, a boat and a helicopter! What more did you want me to do?”
John, Yael has my best wishes, but without meaning him any disrespect, where was YHWH in 1933-45?
I’d stick with the boat and helicopter- the Lord helps those who help themselves, like the European Jews hiring ex-Israeli military people as security.
Howsabout you stop fueling the enemy’s fire?
Howsabout you shut off the water mains?
Howsabout you seal off the border COMPLETELY–no food, (tunnel)building supplies, fuel-clothing-sneakers–no trade, no nothing?
Howsabout you turn off the electricity?
As for ME, I’d shoot back at each and every single rocket launch with an 8″ howitzer–even if launched from a rooftop kindergarten at a maternity hospital. (It’s not US you understand–it’s just our policy.)
But then, I must be racist.
Or something.
I’m all for nuking the bastards Yael, but then I don’t live on your street and when I look at that tiny speck of civilization, Israel, in the midst of an ocean of half a billion islam crazed animals… WTH….I’m Irish, I’d still nuke ’em. The Planet will not miss them.