At the heart of Jewish identity stands freedom. The people of Israel were born out of the eternal cry: โLet my people goโ. This is our founding story.
Freedom is what separates man from beast.
That very same value-freedom stands at the foundation of American identity. The Declaration of Independence opens with the words on natural rights: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happinessโฆ"
Both the people of Israel and the American nation know well: where there is no faith, there is no freedom; where there is no divine presence, there can be no moral order. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin expressed this when they adopted the immortal words of the Protestant theologian John Ponet's motto: โResistance to tyranny is obedience to God.โ
From this springs the deep bond between Jerusalem and Washington: not merely an alliance of interests, but a covenant of essence.
Israel and the United States are nations of freedom, standing as spiritual twins against the forces of tyranny, darkness, and bondage-long ago against the yoke of Pharaonic Egypt and monarchical despotism, and today against regimes of terror, fundamentalism, and tyranny.
@charliekirk11 was a man of faith who lived the value of freedom, breathed it, and radiated it in every word and every deed. He understood that liberty is not an empty slogan, but the foundation of human existence, the condition for any free and just society.
He naturally embodied the unique, profound, and unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States.
He knew that freedom is the common value at the core of the relationship between the ancient and new nations of liberty.
At the very moment he was shot and murdered, seeking to advance those values through dialogue and persuasion, he wore a white shirt bearing a single word: Freedom. A word that became a will and a call to action, to continue the struggle, to stand together, Jews and Christians, Americans and Israelis, to ensure that freedom prevails over the sword of Islamist fanaticism and over neo-Marxist tyranny disguised in liberal garb.
May his memory be blessed.