RSS
American-Israeli Buries IDF Soldier Son, Addresses Biden in Eulogy: Don’t Pressure Us to Stop Until We Defeat Hamas
US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: Miriam Alster/Pool via REUTERS
The father of an Israeli reserve soldier who was killed in Gaza over the weekend eulogized his son by calling on US President Joe Biden to “cease and desist” from any attempts to stop Israel from “fighting your fight” and defeating the Hamas terror group.
Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, who had US citizenship, was killed on Friday by an explosion from a rigged tunnel shaft located near a mosque in the Beit Hanoun region.
Four other reserve soldiers from his battalion were also killed in the blast, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Saturday night, raising the number of soldiers who have lost their lives in Israel’s ground operation in Gaza to 42. The soldiers were not in the tunnel at the time of the explosion.
Leiter, a 39-year-old father of six from kibbutz Ein Tzurim in the Gush Etzion bloc outside of Jerusalem, was laid to rest at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on Sunday. His father, Yehiel Leiter, a former chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivered a powerful eulogy addressed directly at Biden.
Leiter opened his eulogy by drawing parallels between their origins and their shared experiences of loss.
“We were both born in Scranton, Pennsylvania,” Leiter began, “and as of last Friday, I, like you, am a bereaved parent; you lost a son, and I lost a son.”
“You know the pain that I’m feeling now. The harrowing sense of darkness, the stabbing at the heart, the longing to once again hug your boy, to talk to him about life,” he said, before outlining his son’s multifaceted life — including his 15 years in the IDF’s special forces, his medical studies, and his role as a father of six, with a newborn son “who will never know his father.”
“So we have two things in common. That’s why I’m taking the liberty,” Leiter said. “He was fighting your fight, Mr. President.”
Leiter then laid out what he saw as the stakes in the current Israel-Hamas war and the greater cause for which his son fought.
“He gave his life so the barbarians wouldn’t get through the gates of democracy and the Judeo-Christian Western values. He was fighting for human freedom and against all the lies and distortions of the freedom deniers who fooled so many Americans with their double talk. He was fighting against Hamas-ISIS,” said Leiter.
Yehiel Leiter. Photo: Screenshot
Addressing rumors of US pressure on Israel to cease its military offensive, Leiter urged Biden: “I respectfully ask of you, here on my son’s grave, cease and desist. Stand back, Mr. President, don’t pressure us. Let us do what we know how to do and what we must do: defeat evil.”
Leiter made similar comments to Netanyahu during a condolence call from the prime minister to his former aide on Saturday night.
“When the prime minister called me this evening to console me, I told him only one thing: ‘Bibi, my son’s blood was not spilled in vain. Finish this job. Don’t let any pressure in the world stop you. Because the only consolation of this loss is banishing evil,’” he told the Israel Hayom daily.
The other soldiers killed by the booby-trapped shaft were identified as Master Sgt. (res.) Matan Meir, Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz, and Master Sgt. (res.) Sergey Shmerkin, all from the 551st Reserve Paratrooper Brigade’s 697th Battalion. Also on Friday, Master Sgt. (res.) Netanel Harush, a soldier in the Givati Brigade’s logistics unit, was killed in a separate incident in Gaza.
Including Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israeli communities, the death toll among Israeli troops stands at 361.
At his son’s funeral, Leiter described the Gaza battlefront as “a war of light against darkness, of truth against lies.”
Leiter concluded his eulogy by appealing to Biden’s leadership, suggesting that his entire career was a preparation for this moment. “It is the whole reason you are the leader of the free world,” he said.
“Stand with Moshe, who loved America,” he urged, highlighting Moshe’s connection with the US, including training with the US Army’s Delta Force. “Those who stand with us will be blessed. Those who do not stand with us will fail.”
Noting that Israel has never before been so united, the grieving father told Biden: “We’re going to win this one, with you or without. We’re going to win it hands down.”
Debbie Weiss is a freelance journalist based in Israel.
The post American-Israeli Buries IDF Soldier Son, Addresses Biden in Eulogy: Don’t Pressure Us to Stop Until We Defeat Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login