An Israeli businessman recently called back to reserve duty following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terror attack delivered an impassioned message to critics of the Israeli Defense Forces who have been on a two-month mission to save hostages and stop Hamas militants.
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Itai Schimmel, founder of the Artza box, a gift package including items from organizations and businesses across Israel, said it has been “painful” to process raging anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.
“I try and spend a lot of time trying to understand where someone can be coming from, that they can be so filled with hatred for people that they don’t even know, that they would find it justified to go down and rip down posters of babies that had been kidnapped, a woman who’d been raped and murdered,” he told CBN Digital. “The concept of that is so twisted and so immoral and so evil.”
Schimmel also decried the media narrative as one that misleads people on the issue and breeds some of the anti-Israeli sentiment. He called the entire ordeal and the way such information spreads “shocking,” and said Jewish people inside Israel and around the globe are fearful as a result.
“The narrative … out there that people believe and people see … is so twisted,” he continued. “And there’s so many blatant lies.”
Schimmel, who spent his days running his Artza business before the war, is now serving alongside 350,000 other Israelis. As he and others defend their country, he reflected on some of how his compatriots are faring after suffering “serious trauma” at the hands of Hamas.
Despite the shock that followed Oct. 7, he said something stunning has happened: the country, previously intensely divided on political lines, has come together with a form of unity he had not experienced previously throughout his life.
“I have never in my entire life seen the country come together and the way that it’s come together,” Schimmel said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, how old you are, your religious affiliation, your political affiliation, just everyone put everything aside immediately to do whatever they can to help the war effort, to help the civilian health effort, to help the families who’ve lost loved ones, to help reserve duty first responders.”
Despite the dark and painful circumstances inside Israel, he called the unifying moments “incredible.” The war, of course, comes with a major impact, as the 350,000 people called up to the military have left their families, homes, and jobs. As a result, Schimmel said many are struggling.
As for Artza, he’s running the business in his spare time, working with other staff to keep it moving — and with good reason. The Artza box has become a pivotal way to help various small businesses and organizations keep afloat during the war.
Artza was created during COVID to help connect people to the “Bible and Scripture in a meaningful way.”
“[It became a] way to directly support small businesses and charities in Israel,” Schimmel said, noting the need is even greater now during the current war. “The trauma that these businesses have suffered … so many of them have lost loved ones either on Oct. 7th in the massacre, or they have family members who are serving in the military.”
With the Artza box continuing its mission while Schimmel serves, these businesses and organizations are not only able to get their products sold and used, but they’re able to inspire subscribers along the way to more profoundly connect with the Holy Land at a pivotal moment in history.
In the end, Schimmel is hoping people critical of Israel — especially those defending Hamas — would “stop for a second and think” about what they are saying and protesting. While he acknowledged the Middle East conflict is “very complex” and has long been raging, he said one cannot watch “a couple of TikToks and Instagram videos and think you know everything and just hear one lecture and one speaker and think you now know enough to then go out into the street and start spreading hate.”
Schimmel encouraged people to educate themselves and to then create a formulated opinion on the matter. Beyond that, he encouraged people to protest respectfully.
“In Israel, no one celebrates death of any innocent,” he said. “Every time a Palestinian or someone in Gaza, a woman, a child, or any innocent man or whoever it is, dies as a result of this war, no one here is happy … no one celebrates that; it saddens us.”
Watch Schimmel’s full comments on the matter above and find out more about Artza here.
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