Christine Darg

Christine Darg

The following story of a miracle dove in Gaza was on the official Facebook page of the wife of a prominent rabbi:

At my friend’s synagogue in Israel this week, a soldier that had just returned from Gaza [recounted that his] army unit identified the home of a Hamas terrorist, and arrived undercover at the house early in the morning. As they were about to enter the house, they saw a dove hovering overhead and momentarily stopped to watch the dove land on a tiny little string. A second later, the entire house blew up. The house was booby-trapped, and the string was connected to the door. If the soldiers had entered the house, they would have been killed. God sends His messengers in all different shapes and sizes! Praise God for that sweet little dove in Gaza!

The above beautiful account took my mind back to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when the Jewish nation did not expect an Arab attack on the holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement. Ephraim “Effi” Eitam today is a politician (having served twice in the Israeli Parliament), a general, a military hero and a public figure. But in 1973, he was a young commander leading a routine reconnaissance patrol on the Golan Heights.

Gen. Effi Eitam

Gen. Effi Eitam: WikiCommons Photo

Suddenly, from seemingly out of nowhere, Eitam was facing an invasion of the Syrian army, as he recalled in the following vivid account:

“I saw hundreds of Syrian tanks moving forward, and they were painted in a camouflage of green and yellow. And I remember, I thought to myself that they looked like prehistoric lizards, you know, who just came out of a cave, because they came out of nowhere.”

For days, the surprise attack dealt a nearly fatal blow to the Jewish nation. The men on the front lines bore the brunt of the battle. But through many miracles that have been documented, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) contained one of the most brutal attacks ever made against the nation.

Eitam received orders to go behind enemy lines to take the Syrian division headquarters. Like many commando raids, this assault would mean highly dangerous and close hand-to-hand combat in Syrian bunkers.

“I was throwing hand grenades, shooting …and then when I turned, in the corridors full of smoke and dust, I saw a silhouette coming towards me. I was very sure it was a Syrian soldier, and I was ready to pull the trigger, and then I saw a bird coming out of the smoke. She just flew behind my head and stood on my right shoulder.”

Quickly, Eitam tried to shoo away the bird.

“But she turned and stood on my left shoulder. I didn’t have time to argue with a bird! I was in the middle of a battle! So I completed the assault and when I went out of the bunker, I saw a dove, a pigeon, standing on my left shoulder. . . very determined not to leave me.”

Eitam testified that the dove stayed with him and his unit for the next 10 days during some of the most intense battles of the Yom Kippur War.

“Since we had that ‘angel’ protecting us, none of my company’s soldiers was killed or wounded, and we were involved in very intensive battles. . . but she was there. What was unnatural and very interesting was that, even in the night… operations . . . she was with us patrolling, a little bit forward, looking what’s going on around, and sitting here [on my shoulder].”

After nearly two weeks of frontline conflict, Eitam and his unit were sent to the rear for a rest.

Only when he reached safety, “she flew away and disappeared.”

And how does Eitam answer skeptics?

“You know, you could have a little bit of questions whether it happened or not,” but Eitam testified that many soldiers also saw the bird.

As a result, Eitam learned “to see miracles around me, around the operations which I conducted. It’s as we know, ‘Even when I am in the valley of death and evil, I’m not afraid, because God is with me.’”

Let us ask the Lord to open our eyes to see the miracles all around us.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me… (Psalm 23: 4)