Who is Like Your People, Israel!

No one is happier to be proven wrong than I am, at least as far as this gloomy post is concerned. Israel is fighting back against the terror-entity, Hamasland/Gaza and redeeming our national pride and our souls. This does not mean that I have any more trust as far as our government is concerned, and in this I second Ben Chorin's observations. Moreover, the damage done by the forces that Guy Bechor noted in the article I cited is still being done and will take a long time to repair.

What makes me happy, despite the terrible price we are paying (and always pay) in these circumstances, is the incredible morale and inner-fortitude of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael. They are strong. They firmly believe in our right to live in our land, as proud Jews and in our obligation to defend and support one another. As Ben Gurion wrote in his diary after Tel Aviv was bombed on May 15 1948, אלה יעמדו, 'These will stand.'

Consider:

1) Reshet Bet devotes several hours a day to offers from Israelis to help people in the beleaguered South. The switchboards are overwhelmed with calls from all over the country, offering home hospitality, recreation and whatever to people who want a break from the hundreds of missiles that are raining down upon them. Hotels and Inns are offering long-term hospitality for NIS100 per day for people from the affected areas. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Gush Etzion, Haifa and other regional councils have organized activities in the South and invited people there. The list goes on and on.
You can listen live, here, especially to the call-in shows from 4-5 and 6-7 IST.

2) Reshet Gimel, desiring to play music that will fill people's needs received requests solely for music the underlies our deep and abiding attachment to this land.

3) The backbone of the people in the south is incredible. They are standing strong, backing our soldiers and going about their lives, though their daily lives are punctuated by missiles and the need to run for cover.

4) The soldiers are fighting for their homes, and they know it. The stories of heroism are pouring forth. The wounded are eager to go and finish the job, to secure quiet for all of us and to teach the enemy a lesson it will not soon forget.

5) As for the inner enemy, the defeatists and the Post-Zionists; they are being shouted down in the media, on the internet, and in the coffee houses. As Hanoch Daum noted, the overwhelming majority of us see that they are irrelevant.

Most importantly, it is clear to me (at least) that the strength of our people is a direct expression of the intensification of Jewish identity and connection to Torah that I have noted on a number of occasions. This is expressed in the modes of expression that the people use (בעזרת השם, נסים גלוים); the inspirational music the radio broadcasts, the Tehillim that both soldiers and civilians are broadcast as reciting, and the popularity of the mp3's that the IDF rabbinate is distributing.

Truly, no one is happier to have been proven wrong than I am.