Reacting to Flotilla

This past week, the community worldwide has demonstrated once again, that our brothers and sisters in the holy land are held to a different standard than the rest of the world at large. The immediate world condemnation of the actions of Israel’s naval forces’ on the six-ship Turkish-sponsored Flotilla has proven that nobody is interested in the facts. As Prime Minister Netanyahu so wisely stated “The world treats Israel as guilty until proven guilty.” By now we have all seen the multitude of videos, which have been circulating on the Internet. The videos capture the footage of the “humanitarians” attacking and beating the Israeli soldiers as they descended upon the boat.

The world justifies their anti-Israel position by saying that the soldiers should have never been on the boat to begin with. There are calls for the Israelis to put an end to their occupation of the waters leading into the Gaza strip. It is time for the Israelis to end the blockade and allow “humanitarian” aide to flow freely into Gaza. Of course, nobody is talking about why Israel implemented the blockade. Any state, which is run politically by a recognized terrorist group, is too dangerous to have unilateral control of their borders. It is only a matter of time before the “humanitarian” missions will evolve into military transports.

Throughout the last 48 hours I have received numerous emails encouraging me to watch videos and call and write to my elected officials. I have also noticed that a large percentage of my facebook friends have joined various pro-Israel/know the truth about Flotilla facebook groups. A clear reflection of the anger and frustration the Jewish people worldwide are experiencing. However, I think it is important for us to remember that the greatest way to channel our anger and frustration is through prayer. We must remember that when these events occur and our emotions are in full gear, we have the opportunity to channel them towards G-d through the medium of passionate prayer. Let us not forget the actions of our forefather Yaakov. Before Yaakov had his dreaded encounter with Esau he sent ahead gifts and prayed. Yaakov did not just send gifts, he did not exclusively rely on lobbying his senator and joining facebook groups, he also prayed. In addition to the great lobbying and noise that we are making, we must also pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters.