If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, I can guarantee you had you lived in Yad Binyamin (or Gadera), this morning you would not have had a problem. For the first time since the Gaza War (soon to be war? Mini war?) broke out, a siren jolted us out of bed in the middle of the night. Actually, we had no idea what time it was, because no one thought to look at the clock until after we got into the safe room. Thank God, we're fine, but when I checked the clock and realized that it was 5:20am, that was it for the day. I checked the news sites to learn that they hadn't reached a cease-fire agreement yet (go figure), and then went to catch up on the Daf. I'm glad that instead of going back to bed I learned the daf, because today's daf (Shabbat 49) relates a well-known story that lifted my spirits. The Gemara relates a halachic fact about a man named Elisha Ba'al Cnafayim (Elisha the Man of Wings), and then wonders why he had that strange nickname. The Gemara answers by relating a story:

שפעם אחת גזרה מלכות רומי הרשעה גזירה על ישראל שכל המניח תפילין ינקרו את מוחו והיה אלישע מניחם ויוצא לשוק ראהו קסדור אחד רץ מפניו ורץ אחריו וכיון שהגיע אצלו נטלן מראשו ואחזן בידו אמר לו מה זה בידך אמר לו כנפי יונה פשט את ידו ונמצאו כנפי יונה לפיכך קורין אותו אלישע בעל כנפים ומאי שנא כנפי יונה משאר עופות משום דאמתיל כנסת ישראל ליונה שנאמר (תהילים סח) כנפי יונה נחפה בכסף וגו' מה יונה כנפיה מגינות עליה אף ישראל מצות מגינות עליהן:

And why is he called the man of wings'? Because the wicked Roman government once proclaimed a decree against Israel that whoever donned tefillin should have his brains pierced through; yet Elisha put them on and went out into the streets. [When] a quaestor saw him, he fled before him, whereupon he gave pursuit. As he overtook him he [Elisha] removed them from his head and held them in his hand. 'What is that in your hand?' he demanded. 'The wings of a dove,' was his reply. He stretched out his hand and lo! they were the wings of a dove. Therefore he is called 'Elisha the man of the wings'. And why the wings of a dove rather than that of other birds? Because the Congregation of Israel is likened to a dove, as it is said, "as the wings of a dove covered with silver:: just as a dove is protected by its wings, so is Israel protected by the mitzvot. (translation from here)

I opened Facebook this morning to find a wonderful message from friend in Michigan:

rabbi spolter,
hope you and your mishpocha are doing well and the tumult ends quickly and safely. please let us know if there's anything (besides davening and correcting misinformation) we can do for for you.

First of all, those messages really do help. We don't feel alone in this at all, but it's always nice to hear from friends. But if you want to help, I can think of two other ways (in addition to the davening and correcting information - both of which are important):
Advocacy: While we all say that Israel should act irrespective of world opinion (and sometimes must), world opinion is undeniably a fact that Israel faces. To that end, American support for Israel's self-defense has been critical, not to mention the financial support that provided the amazing Iron Dome system that's saved countless lives, literally. That support, both political and financial, is the direct result of an ongoing, never ending lobbying campaign that depends on committed Americans communicating with their elected officials. So, if you want to make a real difference on the ground here, short of Aliyah (which I continue to recommend highly), get involved with AIPAC.
Yet, we must also heed the Gemara's message about the defensive power of mitzvot. Living here, listening to the radio, hearing about the constant rocket barrage, I wonder about our national "bank" of merit. We're using up a heck of a lot of credit upstairs. We need more mitzot - and none better than the mitzvah that protected Elisha himself. So, if you're not usually so great about wearing Tefillin, put on Tefillin and fulfill that mitzvah. If you are good about tefillin, pick something else. In the words of the Talmud, the Jewish people are "like a dove" because, like the wings of the dove, which protect her from danger, our fulfillment of mitzvot, as much as any missile system, tank or soldier, offer yet another, critical way to protect the Jewish nation.

On March 11th I attended an AIPAC rabbinic briefing presented by Raphael Danziger, AIPAC's director of research and information. During the question and answer period, I asked him about the current peace talks and tentative plans to evacuate settlements in Yehuda and Shomron. "How," I wondered (and still wonder), "with what we've seen from Hamas in Gaza, how they have shot rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel proper, can Israel even entertain withdrawing from areas adjacent to the major population centers? Won't the Palestinians simply begin firing missiles at all of Israel? What are they thinking?"
He answered that everyone agrees that were the Israeli military to withdraw from the areas behind the security fence (i.e. most of Yehuda and Shomron), without a doubt Hamas would seize control of the area. While America and Israel support the Palestinian Authority both financially and politically, Hamas clearly has the more motivated fighters and deeper ideological base, and clearly would begin shooting at every part of Israel it could reach. How then can Israel contemplate abandoning these areas? Well, he said, they distinguish between population and military withdrawal. No one thinks that the military should withdraw. Israel needs to maintain control of its territory and ensure that what has happened to Sderot does not take place in Tel Aviv. At the same time, why should the military need to protect and defend a small minority of the population from a large Arab majority? So, the proponents of withdrawal advocate not military, but population withdrawal as a step towards achieving peace.
But I -- and I think the Rambam -- would have a problem with that argument. Discussing the holiness of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Rambam writes:

ולמה אני אומר במקדש וירושלים קדושה ראשונה קדשה לעתיד לבוא, ובקדושת שאר א"י לענין שביעית ומעשרות וכיוצא בהן לא קדשה לעתיד לבוא, לפי שקדושת המקדש וירושלים מפני השכינה ושכינה אינה בטלה, והרי הוא אומר והשמותי את מקדשיכם ואמרו חכמים אע"פ ששמומין בקדושתן הן עומדים אבל חיוב הארץ בשביעית ובמעשרות אינו אלא מפני שהוא כבוש רבים וכיון שנלקחה הארץ מידיהם בטל הכבוש ונפטרה מן התורה ממעשרות ומשביעית שהרי אינה מן ארץ ישראל, וכיון שעלה עזרא וקדשה לא קדשה בכיבוש אלא בחזקה שהחזיקו בה ולפיכך כל מקום שהחזיקו בה עולי בבל ונתקדש בקדושת עזרא השנייה הוא מקודש היום ואע"פ שנלקח הארץ ממנו וחייב בשביעית ובמעשרות על הדרך שביארנו בהלכות תרומה

And why do I say regarding the Temple and Jerusalem that the initial sanctity remains for all future time, and the sanctity of the Land of Israel with regard to the Sabbatical year and tithes and similar laws does not remain for all future time? This is because the sanctity of the Temple and Jerusalem come because of the Shechinah (presence of God) and the Shechinah cannot be negated, as it says, "and I will destroy your holy places," about which the sages said, "even though it they are destroyed, they retain their holiness."

But the obligation of the Sabbatical year and tithes throughout [the rest of] the Land is only due to the communal conquest. And, since the Land was taken from their hands, that conquest was nullified and [the Land] was exempted by Torah law from tithes and the commandments of the Sabbatical year -- for it is not from the Land of Israel.
But when Ezra returned to the Land and sanctified it, he did not sanctify it with conquest, but with the right of possession that they held onto the Land. Therefore, every place that the Babylonian returnees acquired and held onto and was sanctified with the holiness of Ezra is holy today, even though the Land was taken from us, and is obligated in the laws of the seventh year and the tithes.

Clearly, according to Rambam, possession (and occupation) of the land carries more spritual meaning than military conquest alone. Only those places that Jews actually settled and lived retain their sanctified status today as "The Land of Israel." Simply controlling a place militarily does not imply possession. Only when citizens of a country actually live there does land become the possession of that country.
Indeed, what we know from Rambam makes implicit sense to me logically as well. If the Israeli government were to evacuate the settlements and leave the IDF for protection, how long would it be for the Palestinians to call for the removal of an occupying force. In fact, the best excuse for an army's presence is the need to protect its citizens in the areas where it operates. Were there to be no citizens to protect, the justifications for the army's presence would be tenuous at best. Just look at what happened in Lebanon. After years of stability inside a 3-mile buffer zone in Lebanon, calls for the IDF's withdrawal - for needless military deaths to protect a piece of land unwanted by Israel -- prompted the government to remove the army from that buffer zone back into Israel proper. Hizbullah -- not the Lebanese Army -- wasted no time in securing that area, fortifying it, and establishing a secure base from which it could launch missiles at Israel with impunity.
The only way to protect Tel Aviv from bombardment is by maintaining an armed presence in the West Bank. And the only way to justify that presence -- and maintain a hold on that land both militarily, politically and spiritually -- is the continued presence of dedicated Jews willing to live their lives to hold onto that Land.