The redoubtable Italian-Israeli journalist Fiamma Nierenstein has recently spent time with Israeli reservists — 300,000 were called up for the current campaign and all 300,000 showed up — who are fighting to preserve their tiny state against those who wish to annihilate it. More on her moving report can be found here: “The Determination of Israel’s Reservists,” by Fiamma Nirenstein, JNS.org, December 3, 2023:
Who is the Israel soldier? They can be of any age and profession. It may have been a long time since they held a weapon. Many of them are at Tze’elim, one of the IDF’s largest bases, just across the border from Gaza on yellow sand.
When I meet them, they are waiting, as the brief ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was still holding. A short time later, Hamas broke the truce, attacked Israel with rockets, and the fighting began again.
These soldiers are older and more emotional than you would imagine. Their intentions are clear: “Never Again.” The Oct. 7 massacre will never be permitted to reoccur. Israel must be freed from the nightmare of Hamas.
In Tze’elim, rows of barracks and numerous disorderly tents house thousands of soldiers of all kinds. We meet with a group of them from Brigade 252. They are soldiers from the miluim—the reserves. They have completed their three-year military service—or two years, if they are women—but they all keep their “miluim bag” under the bed. If the phone rings, as happened on Oct. 7, they rush to the front, whether they are in Tel Aviv or traveling in Japan, whether they are left-wing or right-wing, professors or taxi drivers. They tear themselves away from the operating room and the shop, the lawyer’s office and the bus they drive.
Commander A. is thin, with gray hair and a kind smile. He is religious. On the morning of Oct. 7, he was in synagogue without a telephone. Someone told him “something never seen before is happening.” A. rushed to his collection point in the south and has yet to return home.
On Oct. 7, the reserves were immediately thrown into the battle to retake the kibbutzim that had been attacked and massacred by Hamas terrorists. They hunted down the Hamas men who remained and collected the wounded and dead Israelis in the fields and on the roads. A. closes his eyes. He has seen hell.
The 252 was then sent into the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, home to 50,000 inhabitants who serve as human shields for what is essentially a massive rocket launching pad. The reservists were trained in a mock-up of a Gaza city. They practiced how to enter, shoot, exit, climb, attack and go through tunnels full of TNT. They trained against ambushes, snipers and RPGs.
A. says that, when they went into Beit Hanoun itself, “We had to quickly learn a lesson: Beit Hanoun’s ambush is in its heart, not its outer circles. The terrorists let you enter easily. There’s a row of houses, two or three more, and that’s where Hamas is waiting for you—where you don’t expect it, in civilian structures.”
A. explains, “If we decide to destroy a structure and there are civilians inside, we warn the civilian population. … There are precise rules for evaluating whether we have to act, whether it’s essential because if we don’t act, the lives of soldiers or Israeli civilians are in danger. We try to stop Hamas’s continuous use of human shields by moving the civilians out completely.”
A. is happy to say, “Of civilians killed in Ben Hanoun, the number is zero.”…
Now that the soldiers are back at war, the humanitarian issue is certainly important to them; not because of what the Biden administration tells them, but because that is what an Israeli soldier is.
First and foremost, however, they are Jews who know exactly what was done to their people on Oct. 7 and will continue their war of justice and survival. One of them tells me, “Yes, I feel when we fight, feel it physically, that our kidnapped citizens are not far away, and I fight for them too with all my heart. This is the most just war of all time.”
These are the citizen-soldiers who, like Cincinnatus leaving his plow to fight the Etruscans, left their normal lives to fight the enemy, and once Hamas is crushed will, like Cincinnatus, return to their civilian lives as professors, bus drivers, lawyers, cooks, surgeons, and farmers. Fiamma Nierenstein offers a touching portrait of these reservists, their determination and their grit. Who would not be impressed, and moved, by men (and women) such as these?
Walter Sieruk says
The horrible reality is that taking into account the brutal cruel malicious Islamic character of the jihadists of Hamas, those hostages who had been kidnapped did suffer unconscionable abuse from the horrendously sadistic Hamas jihadists.
Such horrific treatment of those hostages is of no surprise when taking into account the demonic brutal cruel religion that Hamas has its foundation on, which of course is Islam, Surah 5:33. 9:123.
Walter Sieruk says
The “roots” of the ideology of Islamic terrorism is based on the theology of the religion of Islam.
In which has its entire foundation on the Qur ‘an, which is also the foundation of Hamas is violent brutal ,cruel dangerous and deadly.
That “holy book” of Islam the Qur ‘an [the Koran] instructs on the use of violence and killing of disbelievers for the advancement of Islam. As found in ,for example 2:191. 4:89. 5:33. 9:5,111,123. 47:4.
Furthermore, teaches hate for and towards Jewish people, as in calling them descendants of “apes and swine.” As seen in the Qu ‘ran in 2:65; 7:166.; 5:60. Therefore , the violent jihadist and devote jihad-minded Muslims despise the Jewish State of Israel.
That murderous demonic jihad entity, Hamas is based on Islam . That’s the actual, real,” roots” of that Israel – Hamas war.
Walter Sieruk says
That demonic and murderous jihad entity, Hamas, has no limits, at all, to its horrendously horrific evils that it so maliciously commits.
Walter Sieruk says
How dare that demonic malicious murderous and destructive jihad entity, Hamas, engage in Islamic terror attacks against God’s “special treasure,” which is Israel.
the Bible, Psalm 135:4. [N.K.J.V.]
Walter Sieruk says
The sad truth and terrible reality is that many times history repeats itself, as then evil happenings do reoccur.
As with that October 7th. 2023 murderous jihadists attacks against all those young people at that music festival, which was intended by the Israeli’s to be a joyful event but the vicious and death infecting jihadist of Hamas turned it into a tragic event.
Six years before that Islamic abomination occurred at that place in the State of Israel ,there was that murderous jihadist bombing at a music concert in the city of Manchester of the United Kingdom, the British of the city had intended that concert to be a joyful event but that vicious and death inflecting jihadist suicide/homicide bomber turned it into a tragic event.
The deluded dangerous deadly and demonic evils of Islam’s jihadists has no limit.
Westpacwill says
God bless His Chosen People, please keep them safe and bring them victory. As a Christian I know that righteousness is found in no other people, no other culture, no other nation as it is to be found in Israel.
America, as in every country other than Israel, is as “dust on the scales” but our gracious Creator still makes it possible for His church in every other nation to bless His people in every way we can. It is vital to show Israel that the thousands of pro-Hamas protestors in America are simply sheep being led to the slaughter by Satan, dwarfed by the millions of Americans who love God’s Chosen People.
My many years of military service were primarily below decks operating the boilers in those old days when everything on every warship ran on steam. I doubt the IDF is anxiously looking for veterans whose primary skill was making the high-pressure superheated steam with basically technology of the 1800s, but any other way we might contribute would be such a blessing!
If He were to offer any way I might be of use to the magnificent men and women of Israel, I’d be on my way there tomorrow. It would be an unbelievable blessing and honor to serve with those heroes even if it were no more than taking tasks that would free up IDF personnel to get closer to the fight. I’d raise prayers of thanks for any way I might contribute, no matter how insignificant it might be, it would be a sacred duty and a blessing I can scarcely describe.
My family and church raise prayers for Israel continuously, knowing that His love will carry His people and His warriors through these demonic days. I did a major paper 30-odd years ago at War College on Shariah Law and the Qur’an, and after Oct. 7, I re-read my copy of the Qur’an again, so I am well aware of the enemy in this fight since Satan knows he has only a few years left to curse and plague this old world. God’s Hand please protect Israel and convict and redeem the misguided Palestinian people and those who sin in their hideous support of terrorism that seems to be sweeping worldwide today.
James Lincoln says
Westpacwill,
Thank you for your military service.
And God bless.
✝️
Roelof Elzinga says
Europe has something real bad waiting for them if they don’t stop this Muslim takeover.
But they are just as stupid as our government.
Christopher Watson says
As we have seen over the past few weeks the level of Palestinian strength in Britain and Europe is very strong. Governments over the past 30-40 years have allowed in a huge number of moslem immigrants, putting the security of our country in great jeopardy. Most people still do not recognise the danger they are in. People talk about the danger these immigrants are posing but do they realise these moslems intend to take our countries from us in less than 20 years. These moslems are not like us; their treatment of the young Israelis on October 7 has proved they are not as developed as us. Our governments are leading us to a very sorry fate. As a life-long pacifist I must now admit this is war on a different level. When fighting a civilised enemy one can afford to be forgiving and noble. Here one cannot be. These creatures need to be eradicated from the planet. Europe and America must send all moslems back to their lands of origin.
Violet says
Was Moha mad the Anti-Christ the Bible tells us about? The fruit of his ‘religion’ is pure evil.
“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”