JUST ANOTHER DAY IN ISRAEL

For decades, country music aficionados have recognized the musical prowess of Charlie Daniels. During a 50-year career as the leader of one of America’s most influential country music bands, Daniels brought his unique style of western and southern music into the mainstream with the 1979 single Devil Went Down to Georgia, which eventually became the first platinum country music single in history, and has remained at the top of that genre ever since. Turns out, however, that Daniels commitment to morality and to clarity of vision is no less sharp than his crystal voice and nimble fingers on the fiddle. In the midst of a national tour, Daniels took time out to write a blog post on the band’s website to bring some much needed focus to the current escalation between Israel and Hamas terrorists: “A sinister, potentially catastrophic situation is playing out in the Holy Land, as Hamas rockets rain down on major population areas of Israel, randomly targeting innocent civilians, women, children, the elderly, infirm and helpless, neither knowing nor caring who they fall on as long as they kill Jews. So far, due to the grace of the Almighty Protector and the Iron Dome, missile defense system, the damage has been held to a minimum although things could change drastically by the time you read this column. Such is the fluid state of the situation,” Daniels wrote. Daniels also took the media to task for poor reporting of the situation – “I watched ABC News with the hopes of hearing a fair assessment, but all I got was basically one side of the story, about the displaced families in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian children who are in danger. “The Jewish side of the story, except for the amount of sorties flown and bombs dropped, went largely untold – at least on ABC. And, unfortunately, that seems to be the pattern with the world media. It’s almost as if they expect Israel to sit back and let Hamas’ rockets rain down on them, not complaining and not responding.” Daniels goes on to speak about an emotional visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, saying simply “never again”, and concludes the post with a simple message for supporters. “Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.”