![\"\u201cComfort,](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/comfort.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cComfort, Comfort My People\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n
I was out to dinner with some friends last night when I heard the news:\u00a0 Sergeant Almog Shiloni had died from the stab wounds he suffered earlier that morning when a terrorist tried to grab his weapon at the Haganah Train Station in Tel Aviv.\u00a0 Sergeant Shiloni was 20 years old.\u00a0 He had a twin brother.\u00a0 His murderer, an 18-year-old Palestinian from Nablus, was in Israel illegally.<\/p>\n
Sadly, Sergeant Shiloni was not yesterday\u2019s only terror victim.\u00a0 Mere hours after the attack at Tel Aviv\u2019s main train station, Dalia Lemkus, 26, was stabbed to death in Gush Etzion.\u00a0 Her murderer was a 30-year-old Palestinian from Hebron.<\/p>\n
The dinner ended early.\u00a0 And I drove home in silence.\u00a0 The words from Isaiah 40:1-2 on repeat in my mind, \u201cComfort, comfort My people, says your God.\u00a0 Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s been a terrible few weeks for Israel.\u00a0 Statistics-wise, this month alone saw more murderous terrorist attacks hailing from the West Bank and East Jerusalem than in the entire past two years.\u00a0 A week ago two people were killed when a terrorist ran them over with his vehicle on one of the busiest streets in Jerusalem.\u00a0 Three weeks ago another two people, including 3-month-old Haya Zissel Braun, was killed in a similar terrorist attack.\u00a0 Which means that yesterday\u2019s murders bring the number of Israelis killed in terror attacks for the month to six.<\/p>\n
Those are the figures, the cold, hard statistics.\u00a0 Yet I fear that boxing things up in a nice clinical package can\u2019t even begin to describe the anguish, the dismay and disappointment that this month brought to the people of Israel.\u00a0 Because this isn\u2019t a one-time, isolated thing.\u00a0 Far from it, actually.\u00a0 Operation Protective Edge ended a mere three months ago.\u00a0 And after a time of intense danger, heartbreak and stress, Israel yearned for peace, for normalcy, for just getting on with living.\u00a0 Yet sadly, Operation Protective Edge is but one in a long list of violent confrontations that the people of Israel didn\u2019t want, but had to face.\u00a0 The terrible events of the Second Intifada continue to haunt the minds of many.\u00a0 The Second Lebanon War.\u00a0 The Six-Day and Yom Kippur War.\u00a0 The War of Independence.\u00a0 The Holocaust.<\/p>\n
And the people of Israel continue to yearn for peace.\u00a0 For an opportunity to live without the threat of violence and death and persecution.\u00a0 To live without being ready to defend, ready to fight, ready to ward off those who come to destroy.\u00a0 Sadly, the events of the past month seem to imply that those whom Israel yearns to live in peace with share no such desire.\u00a0 And if history is anything to go by, we know that living in peace requires the dedicated co-operation of all parties involved.\u00a0 No exception.<\/p>\n
I thought of all these things on my way home last night.\u00a0 Of the ancient and not so ancient history that colours everyday life so vividly.\u00a0 Of the disillusionment and heartache that\u2019s wrapped itself around the present.\u00a0 And of hope.\u00a0 For the future.\u00a0 For my beautiful Israel and for all her people.\u00a0 Which brings me back to Isaiah 41:1-2, \u201cComfort, comfort My people, says your God.\u00a0 Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Because beautiful as the passage may be, how exactly can we comfort?\u00a0 And perhaps more importantly, what exactly can we comfort with?\u00a0 How do we speak tenderly to the violence-weary hearts of Jerusalem longing for peace?<\/p>\n
And in all honesty, I have no answer.\u00a0 See, I can\u2019t relate to the suffering that the people of Israel go through.\u00a0 Because I\u2019ve never experienced it myself.\u00a0 I can\u2019t promise that tomorrow will bring peace, although I\u2019ll continue to pray that it does.\u00a0 I can\u2019t protect, can\u2019t shield, can\u2019t take away what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 None of us can.\u00a0 Yet there are certain things we can most definitely do.\u00a0 We can stand with Israel as she faces those who wish to harm her.\u00a0 We can let her know that she is not alone.\u00a0 That she has supporters, partners, allies.\u00a0 We can speak on her behalf.\u00a0 Continuously.\u00a0 Even when the voices speaking against us are more, louder, angrier.\u00a0 We can pray for her, for peace, protection, joy and prosperity.\u00a0 And we can love her.<\/p>\n
Yet in spite of history, in spite of the present and in spite of the violence that continues to threaten, I\u2019m never afraid on Israel\u2019s behalf.\u00a0 Because she has a Comforter, a Champion and an Almighty Who goes by the name of the God of Israel.\u00a0 \u201cAscribe power and strength to God; His majesty is over Israel, and His strength and might are in the skies. O God, awe-inspiring, profoundly impressive, and terrible are You out of Your holy places; the God of Israel Himself gives strength and fullness of might to His people. Blessed be God!\u201d (Psalm 68:34-35).<\/p>\n
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