By John Vogel
A few days ago 6000 years of holy war, turmoil, and political maneuvering made its way back to American televisions. If you’re Israeli, no television is required, this has been your reality since Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. As rockets launched by Hamas and Hezbollah landed in neighborhoods, Israel Defense Forces took to the streets to repel an invasion, not needing an intelligence briefing to know the true intent of the combat they were facing. To be fair, anyone who can trace their lineage back to the original 12 tribes of Israel doesn’t need a reminder that the world has worked awfully hard trying to remove them.
Don’t be fooled by any politically correct phrasing; this is war. It will have an end, and most likely it will be Israel coming out victorious, but not without a great cost of human life. An American news story reported that “civilians are caught in the crossfire.” That is incorrect. To the Taliban and Iranian-backed Palestinian fighters, the civilians are the targets. Within 48 hours, there were reports of hostages (not prisoners) being taken, eventually with a disclaimer that for every Israeli rocket that touched the ground, a hostage would be executed. Legacy and social media have been flooded with stories and photos of babies being decapitated, children shot in beds, citizens being ripped from their vehicles and burned alive, and attendees of a music festival being raped and killed. No doubt about it, Israel is not and will not be holding back their destruction of anyone and everyone involved, nor should they.
Civilians were and are the intended target of the terrorists. This defies even the most basic morals, but yet, this is an enemy that views the death of its own people (including innocent children) as victorious martyrdom. They intentionally target those who are not likely or not able to fight back.
I’ll admit, that until the first reports streamed in, I held in my mind images of Israelis walking through malls, restaurants, and beaches with Tavors and M4s slung on their backs. Civilians with handguns tucked in their waistbands as they grocery shopped. I was raised to believe that Israel aimed to make sure nothing close to the Holocaust would ever happen again. In 2023, this notion proved to be incorrect.
Amongst civilians, only 1% own firearms for personal protection. This 1% have proven to the government that they require extra protection and are willing to jump through every hoop. They gained licenses, went through the red tape, and got a handgun but not much more. Our own DOJ proclaimed Israel’s gun control a “success.” The 1% that proved a need to carry don’t live in areas that were invaded, and the victims of the Hamas attack most likely didn’t have access to firearms.
When the U.S government praises complete disarmament except for the 1%, you know we have a problem. Only a few days into this war and Israel has already sidestepped their own policy, trying to get as many guns into as many hands as possible because, at the end of the day, hard targets are tougher to kill. Like Ukrainians not wanting to become Russians again, Israelis not wanting to become a number in a casualty report are taking up arms to repel a foe hellbent on removing them from the equation. The country that gave us the Desert Eagle, the Tavor X95, and the Galil, is now rushing to give their citizens access to the very weapons we sometimes take for granted here in America.
Take this time to love your family, pray for Yahweh’s intervention, and thank Him that we live in a country that despite all efforts, fights for the rights of individuals to defend themselves and their families against all enemies, foreign and domestic. At the end of the day, life is sacred, and it’s worth defending.
Get armed, get trained and be ready to defend our long running tradition of being a nation too unruly to invade.
