From his fallen son’s grave, bereaved Israeli-American father Yechiel Leiter called on United States President Joe Biden not to pressure Israel to stop its war to oust Hamas from Gaza.
“There are rumors that you are putting pressure on Israel to hold off, to cease the offensive,” said Leiter, whose son Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya, 39, was killed over the weekend in a tunnel in Gaza. He was the company commander of Brigade 551's Battalion 697.
“If those rumors are true – I hope they’re not – but if they are true, Mr. President, I respectfully ask of you, here on my son’s grave, to cease and desist,” the bereaved father said.
He put his words in the form of a letter which he read out in English at the end of his son’s funeral at Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl military cemetery on Sunday.
"[My son] gave his life so the barbarians wouldn’t get through the gates of our democracies, of our Judeo-Christian Western values."
Leiter, who is a former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to one of his predecessors Ariel Sharon, noted that he and Biden had two things in common.
The first, he said, is that they were both born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“I still have my bank account, at the PNC bank, on Joe Biden Boulevard. My Mom, may she live and be well, still lives in Scranton, and my maternal grandparents are both buried in Scranton.”
The second thing, which as of this weekend bound them, was that they are both bereaved fathers, Leiter said, referring to Biden’s loss of his son Beau to cancer in 2015.
“You lost a son, and I’ve lost a son,” Leiter said.
“You know, Mr. President, better than most, 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, to advise him on his career.”
'He gave his life for our Judeo-Christian values'
Leiter said that he could tell Biden many things about how special his son was.
“His fifteen years in special forces, med school; manager of two businesses, educational institutions; and father of six. His last son, born just three months ago, will never know his father," the baby's grandfather said.
“But the purpose of this note is not to share my personal grief. I am taking the liberty of writing to you because our nation is in grief.
“What I want to say to you about my dear Moshe, who was proud of his parent's and grandparent's American heritage, was that he was fighting your fight, Mr. President! He was fighting our fight," Leiter said.
“He gave his life so the barbarians wouldn’t get through the gates of our democracies, of our Judeo-Christian Western values,” he said.
“He was fighting for human freedom and against all the lies and distortions of the freedom-deniers, who unfortunately fool so many Americans with their double talk. He was fighting against Hamas-ISIS.”
It is therefore important, Leiter told Biden, not to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza.
“Stand back Mr. President: don’t pressure us. Let us do what we know how to do, indeed what we must do, to defeat evil. This is a war of light against darkness, of truth against lies, of civility against murderous barbarism,” Leiter said.
“Take it from one plain-speaking Scrantonian to another – we’re going to win this one, with you or without you. We’re going win it hands down, because we are a people of survival, and this battle is one of survival," he said.
“Never have the people of Israel been so united. This is our job; it is what the Jewish people are here in this world to do – to help fix it. Sometimes fixing the world means using strength and military power.
“Perhaps, just as we read in the Biblical book of Esther, it is the whole reason you are the leader of the free world, at this particular time. Your long and illustrious career of leadership was in preparation for this very moment." Leiter was referring to the Purim story where Mordechai the Jew encouraged his relative Queen Esther of Persia (now Iran) to advocate for her people (Esther, 4:13-14).
"Those who stand with us will be blessed; those who do not stand with us will fail,” the former adviser to prime ministers said.
The bereaved father urged Biden to "stand with Moshe who loved America, and even trained with your Delta Force during his army service. Stand with my son who loved his people [and] his homeland, and who gave his life in the name of civility, justice and morality.”
Natan Rothstein contributed to this report.