Israel

This blog is an email that my cousin Stacey sent to me this morning. Please take the time to read it. Pray about it. Her heart is obviously in this so she deserves your attention.

Hi Brandy, I hope you're doing well. I know this comes as a bit random, but I wanted to share something with you and ask you for your help. As you know, Israel is now engaged in a war against a terror organization called Hamas. After suffering 8 years of rocket attacks against our Southern cities, Israel has decided to fight back, and has invaded Gaza. The purpose of this mission is to rid the world of one center of terrorist activity. It is to rid ourselves of terrorist neighbors (one of our many, unfortunately!) and to try to give our Southern residents a normal life again; a life in which they do not have to be scared to place their children on school busses in the morning because Hamas intentionally targets their cities between 7-8am. in order to kill children specifically. The reason I am writing you is because I believe that it is very important to spread around the Israeli message before people start hearing the other side too loudly. (The UN and most European countries have already started calling for an immediate cease-fire which would harm Israel and strengthen Global Jihad.) In our last war (incidentally, one we did not start) Israeli PR attempts were basically failures, and the world heard mainly the side of Hizbullah. Thus the world did not get to see that Israeli citizens too were crouching in bomb shelters day and night; that Israeli citizens too were being injured and killed; and that Israeli citizens too were suffering unbearable conditions throughout the months of the war. This time around, we are making every effort to get out a clear and balanced message. We are trying to show our side to the world and to try to explain both who we are fighting against, why we are fighting them, and what we hope to accomplish. As with all of our other wars, we did not start-nor did we ask for-this war. We are simply trying to live, and we deserve to do so in peace. I am writing you because you have been here, Brandy. You have seen and been impressed with everything this wonderful land has to offer and you and Rebecca have met its people. You know that we are not looking for a fight. In the PR war (which is the second force in any war) Israel needs soldiers, both big and small. You are uniquely positioned to champion Israel's side since you reach people who may not otherwise hear about Israel in any capacity other than the Holy Land. You have seen that Israel is a vibrant state that shares many of the Judeo-Christian values which make America as great as it is. I have attached a link below to a speech given by a women named Bridgit Gabriel. This woman is a Lebanese Christian who suffered during the First Lebanon War at the hands of Muslim extremists. She tells her story in this clip for about 30 minutes and it is truly amazing. She describes how she came to clean her mind of the brainwashing she had grown up with in Lebanon and to understand that Muslim extremists are to blame for the fighting that ravaged her country and her home. If you would please take one hour, whenever you have some free time, and watch this video and then go out and tell your friends at college who Israel is fighting against, you would be making a huge contribution to a very worthy cause. Israel right now needs those who will speak up for it, both Jews Christians and Muslims. If you tell only two friends about what you've learned and they tell their friends and they tell their friends...then you will have done Israel a great service. Please let me know if you need any information about the conflict, Israel's history with Islamic extremists, or anything else to help you understand what's going on over here. I will understand if you're not interested in this, but (as Mrs. Gabriel mentions), there is an Arab saying that goes "First comes Saturday, then Sunday". This refers to the extremist goal of first ridding the world of Jews, and then moving on to Christians. This is a war that affects all of us and if we do not take an active part in it, then we should at least know what's going on and what others are doing about it. Thanks for reading this! Love to Blakely and good luck to Blair!Love, Stacey The Bridgit Gabriel experience in Lebanon:http://multimedia.heritage.org/content/wm/Lehrman-092706a.wvx