The following was adapted from remarks Lt. General (Ret.) William G. Boykin made at Family Research Council after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress on July 25.

Do any of you know the name Amir Mytal? Do you know who he is — was? I spent 36 and a half years in the Army, 13 of that in the Delta Force. In 1989, I lived in Akko with the Golani Brigade. And you’ll see if you read my book, “Never Surrender,” there’s a photo of me with Amir Mytal standing there in Israeli uniforms. I had to wear an Israeli uniform, and all of my men had to wear Israeli uniforms, so that we kept a very low profile.

Amir would take me out on the weekends. He was the commander of the recon company there, their special forces. And he would drive me all over and show me the land. He wanted me to feel the land. He wanted me to feel like I was part of the land, because that’s what Jews do. And I saw places that tourists don’t see as I travelled with him. But I fell in love with that man. And I don’t mean that in any kind of hinky way. I mean, I really fell in love with him. He became my brother, and when I left and came home, he would come to America and stay with me, and I would do the same for him to reciprocate. And I’d take him around and show him things that he needed to know. We were warriors.

A few years later, I was lying in a hammock in a Central America jungle when my radio operator came over and handed me the phone and said, “The general wants to talk to you.” And I said, “What’s up, boss?” And he said, “Jerry, I hate to tell you this, but Amir Mytal was killed last night on a raid in south Lebanon. He ran right into a Hezbollah outpost. They shot him in the head. His executive officer dragged him back to the helicopter landing zone where they got him out.”

When I got home from Central America, I went to see his parents, and it was on Shabbat. And we wept together. There were tears because we all loved Amir. And we all knew that our lives were going to be different because he was gone. But let me tell you, it put in me something that I can’t explain to you, that I don’t understand myself — and that is my love for the Jewish people, my love for the state of Israel. I went back many more times, even after he was dead, and worked with the Golani Brigade and with other elements there. But it’s a kind of love that I cannot understand. I cannot describe it for you. And part of it is because of my children. And the one thing that I wanted to do while I was there with Amir was I wanted to go to Masada, and I wanted to see that ceremony.

He died before we could get up there, so I went after he was dead. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in the U.S. military to compare to it. All of those new officers stood up there, just as the sun came up over the horizon, and there was not a sound being made. The rabbi came out and began to speak to them in Hebrew, and they began to file out one at a time over to their left side, where they got the Torah. Why the left side? Because it’s closest to the heart. And they made the swing around to the other side and got their M16 rifle, and they all came back, and they lined up. And then the rabbi said, “Repeat after me: Masada will never fall again. Masada will never fall again.” Say it with me. Masada will never fall again. Masada will never fall again.

Friends, Israel is going to win this war. They’re going to win, because God promised in his word that once they’re restored to their land, they will never be run out of that land. But we’ve got to do all we can to eradicate these terrorists, because if you don’t, in five years, Israel will have another October 7. Hamas will rebuild, because that’s what they do. They are demonic, and we need to recognize this. Spare the women and children, but we’ve got to annihilate them — so Masada will never fall again.

God bless you all and God bless Israel.