Hebrew Voices #43 – Remembering Our Soldiers

Transcript

Hebrew Voices #43 - Remembering Our Soldiers

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon and welcome to Hebrew Voices. I am dedicating this episode to the fallen soldiers on the front lines of the war against international Jihad.

We are coming up on Yom HaZikaron, which is Memorial Day as observed in the State of Israel, for those who died defending the Jewish state. In the United States, Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer vacation and is often observed as a time for outings. The exception would be American families who actually have a loved one who died in military service. In Israel, Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day, is observed as a solemn day, because we have a citizens' army.

Most adult Jewish males have served in the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces. Everyone knows someone who died in combat. You have to understand, my apartment in Jerusalem is only three miles from Bethlehem, where an Arab Army is poised right now to invade and kill every Jew in my neighborhood. The only thing standing between the next Holocaust and a sovereign Jewish state is our young soldiers who, with God's help and protection, are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives to defend Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, the land which God gave to His people.

This is why Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Memorial Day, is such a big deal in Israel. This is the reason why every foreign dignitary who visits Israel is taken to see two things. It doesn't matter whether you're the President of the United States or the Minister of Tourism of Swaziland. Every foreign dignitary is taken first to see Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and then across the street to Mount Herzl. Yad Vashem is Israel's national Holocaust Museum. It's the memorial that explains how six million Jews were murdered.

And then, the dignitaries are taken across the street and they're shown Mount Herzl, which is Israel's equivalent of the Arlington National Cemetery. It's the main military cemetery in Israel, located in the heart of Jerusalem. And Israelis have no subtlety, the message is really clear. At Yad Vashem they're shown, “This is what happens when we're not able to defend ourselves.” And across the street at Mount Herzl they're shown, “This is what happens when we are able to defend ourselves. People still die, but it's far fewer. And we don't go silently and defenseless like lambs to the slaughter.”

Recently, I was interviewing a Rabbi in Jerusalem and he remarked how today was the first time in centuries that it is more dangerous to be a Christian in the Middle East than to be a Jew. He said, “The reason for this is that today, we have an army to defend ourselves. And the Christians outside of Israel don't have any army defending themselves. They have armies slaughtering them.”