A heartfelt plea to President Joe Biden not to pressure Israel to stop fighting Hamas was offered by Dr. Yechiel Leiter at his son Moshe's funeral Sunday at the Mount Herzel military cemetery. 

According to Breitbart, Maj. Moshe Yedidyah Leiter was one of four members of the Israel Defense Force 551st Brigade's 697th Battalion killed in Gaza on Friday by a blast from a booby-trapped tunnel. The funeral, which lasted several hours, had thousands of mourners. 

The elder Leiter is a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Although his eulogy was in Hebrew, his address to Biden was in English:

Dear Mr. President Joe Biden:

I'm taking the liberty of talking to you from Jerusalem. We have two things in common, me and you.

No. 1: We were both born in Scranton. Scranton, Pennsylvania. I still have my bank account at the PNC Bank on Joe Biden Boulevard. My mom, may she live to 120, lives in Scranton. She's a real Scrantonian. And my maternal grandparents are buried in Scranton. So that's the first thing we have in common, Mr. Biden.

The second thing we have in common is that as of last Friday, I, like you, am a bereaved parent. You lost a son, and I lost a son. So we have two things in common. That's why I'm taking the liberty.

So you know — because you lost a son — you know the pain that I'm feeling now — the harrowing sense of darkness; the stabbing of the heart; the longing to once again hug your boy, talk to him about life, advise him on his career.

There's much I can tell you about how special he was: his 15 years in special forces, and med school, the manager of two businesses, education institutions, father of six — the last a son, born just three months ago, who will never know his father.

But maybe we can talk about that sometime later.

What I want to say to you here and now about our dear Moshe is that he was fighting your fight, Mr. President. He was fighting our fight. He gave his life so the barbarians wouldn't get through the gates of democracy, and of Judeo-Christian, Western values. He was fighting for human freedom and against all the lies and distortions of the freedom deniers, who fool so many Americans with their double-talk. He was fighting against Hamas-ISIS.

There are rumors, now, that you're putting pressure on Israel to hold off, to cease the offensive. If those rumors are true — I hope they're not — but if they're true, I respectfully ask of you, here, on my son's grave, cease and desist! Stand back, Mr. President. Don't pressure us. Let us do what we know how to do, what we must do: Defeat evil.

This is a war of light against darkness, of truth against lies, of civility against barbarism. Take it from one plain-speaking Scrantonian to another: We're going to win this one, with you or without you. We're going to win it, hands down. Never have the people of Israel been so united. This is our job. It's what the Jewish people are in this world to do: to fix the world. And sometimes, fixing the world means using strength and force.

My Moshe died for a cause. Stand with us, Mr. President. Maybe, as we read in the biblical book of Esther, it's the whole reason you are the leader of the free world. All of your long and illustrious career of leadership was the preparation for this very moment.

Those who stand with us will be blessed; those who do not stand with us will fail.

Stand with Moshe, who loved America, and even trained with your Delta Force during his army service.

Leiter said that before his son went to war he told him that "I am carrying on my shoulders my grandfathers and grandmothers ... who could not fight back," stressing that Jews should be inspired not just by the Hamas terrorist massacre, but by the heroism that has followed as well.

• Netanyahu Dismisses Calls for a Cease-Fire as Gaza Fighting Intensifies
• Herzog: Arabic 'Mein Kampf' Shows Our 'Real War'