Netanyahu’s Call to Action: How Every Jew Can Secure Israel’s Future

A heritage of heroes: Netanyahu challenges Jews to honor their ancestors and safeguard Israel by living according to the law of Am Yisrael Chai. 

Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil. Devarim 30:15 

This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.  – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 

After our Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, spoke before the American Congress on July 24, every Jew stood a bit taller. 

His candidness and clarity made us realize the challenges we face and the actions we must take to continue our forefathers’ mission and pass it on to our children. 

Our beloved Bibi inspired us by reminding us of who we are, where we come from, and how our mission serves all of humanity. 

The Unbreakable Bond Between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel 

Don’t they know that the Land of Israel is where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prayed? Where Isaiah and Jeremiah spoke, and where David and Solomon ruled? For nearly 4,000 years, the Land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish People. It’s always been our home, and it will always be our home. – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 
 
The media tries to paint us as illegitimate thieves who stole someone else’s home and continue to occupy another nation’s territory. They aim to weaken us by peddling this demoralizing propaganda.  

The truth is that we are the only nation in the world commanded by our Creator to live in a specific place. There is no other nation, explicitly commanded by He Who creates the earth and the nations that live in it, to live in an area of Land He made – except for the Jewish People.  

There is no Divine commandment for the Spaniards to live in Spain. There is no word from God that the Chinese must live in China. There is nothing written in any holy text about Arabs having to live in Arabia . . . or Israel.  

The only commandment straight from God to live in a specific area is His commandment to His nation, us, to live in the Land of Israel.  

In Israel, we are the descendants of prophets and kings. When billions of Christians read the Bible, they read about God and His relationship with them.  

When the Jewish people read the Bible, we read about God’s journey with us.  

We are the children of Israel, living in the Land of Israel, fulfilling the Torah of Israel, to serve the God of Israel.  

We are the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak, Ya’akov, David, Shlomo, Yeshayahu, and Yermiyahu. We fulfill the same Divine commandments as they did and live in the same Land they lived in for the same reason: God commands us! 

Leaving Comfort Behind: The Sacrifices Jews Make for Their Ancestral Home 

Our nation was born when the first Jew performed the first circumcision. He sealed the covenant between God and the Jewish People where Hashem will forever be our King, and we will forever be His people. 

The covenant was sealed in the Land of Israel.  

Since then, we were exiled to Egypt, and returned to Israel. We were exiled to Babylon, and we returned to Israel. We were almost wiped out by the Persians, and we returned to Israel. Thousands of years later, we were almost annihilated by the Nazis, and we survived – and we returned to Israel.  

Every time we pray, we pray in the direction of Israel. Every time we eat, we pray for the restoration of Jerusalem. Before we pray for the food we eat, we sing a Psalm, either lamenting the loss of our holy land or celebrating our imminent return.  

A Chinese person will never leave an affluent life in America to go back to China. An Irishman will never leave a life of luxury to plant potatoes in Belfast – for every Irishman living in Ireland, there are five Irishmen living in America. A Syrian would not go back to Syria – one out of every six Syrians live in Europe or Turkey.  

Among the Jews, the opposite is true.  

Hundreds of thousands of Jews left the relative comfort of the nations they lived in to move to Israel, where the prospects for livelihood and material comforts are less. Per capita GDP in the US is 60% higher than in Israel. 

Even as this standard of living “gap” is very rapidly closing, Jews are still moving to Israel in droves.  

From Harvard-educated Caroline Glick to Princeton-educated Michael Oren and MIT-educated Binyamin Netanyahu, they all gave up what could be very comfortable and affluent lives in America to dwell in the Holy Land.  

They represent hundreds of thousands of American and European Jews who did exactly the same. No other nation on earth has welcomed so many people happy to make so many sacrifices simply because they knew who they were and where they came from. 
  

Choosing Life: The Eternal Mission of Am Yisrael Chai 

Our mission is to always choose life. To live, to the fullest extent, God’s eternal command that Am Yisrael Chai.  

We don’t live by breathing or merely existing to the next generation.  

God sets specific criteria for every Jew to merit the cherished status of choosing life.  

Right after God sets before us life and good versus death and evil, He tells us what life means: 

I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, to walk in His ways, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His ordinances so that you will live and increase, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land to which you are coming to take possession of it. (Devarim 30:16) 

Life is fulfilling the Torah, God’s word. Life is receiving God’s blessing in the Land He gives us to possess. Life is to merit for ourselves and each other Divine security in the Land of Israel. We live by fulfilling more mitzvot, improving our daily behavior, and praying with greater intent. 

Beyond the Battlefield:  The Role of Every Jew in Securing Israel 

 Our sons and daughters make up the bravest and fiercest army on earth.  

But can they win without us, the millions of Jews who aren’t serving on the military front? They need us to fight for life as passionately as they are.  

At the parting of the Red Sea, and the war between King Hezekiah and the Assyrians, Hashem blessed us with victory without using a single soldier.  

Our first victory against Amalek came not when our military forces broke Amalek’s defenses but when Moshe raised his hands to Hashem in prayer. Our victory against the Greeks came with just a handful of soldiers – none trained to fight. 

We have the special honor of giving our troops the greatest support possible:   

By vowing never to hate a fellow Jew in our hearts, not to ever speak stories, slander, or insult against a fellow Jew, and by vowing to set constant times to learn Torah, we merit God’s protection. We merit His blessing of protecting us in the Land of Israel by walking in His ways through His commandments, statutes, and ordinances.  

Like England in 1941, we stand face to face with the forces of evil. We are what stands between a peaceful and prosperous world, and savage monsters tearing it apart.  

Our fight is the fight of the entire world. Our victory secures mankind.  

Every positive act we do in the name of life serves the good people of the earth. God gives us the ultimate mission of bringing His light to our world for everybody to benefit.  

This global benefit will not come through powerful speeches. It will not come through social media influencers. It will not come from our political or business leaders. It won’t even come solely through the bravery of our great soldiers.  

It will come through our sacrifice, through the day-to-day, even moment-to-moment decisions you and I make that will change the world.  

Our battle, every day, is to ask ourselves: What mitzvah can I take on today to merit peace and life for the Jewish People in our Holy Land? 

At the end of his speech, Bibi blows the shofar for all of us to act: No matter how long it takes, no matter how difficult the road ahead, Israel will not relent, Israel will not bend. We will defend our Land. We will defend our people. We will fight until we achieve victory. Victory of liberty over tyranny. Victory of life over death. Victory of good over evil. 

To achieve this noble triumph, it is up to us to fight with more mitzvot, more middot tovot, more Torah, and more emunah.  

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.