In the midst of the current national turmoil in Israel, it is helpful to understand "who is against who? Who are the major players?
Former prime minister Yair Lapid, Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, and other leaders of the Left have been using unprecedented incendiary language in the current struggle against the government and its majority electorate. If one seeks a common denominator between them the most common and obvious one is their lack of Torah and faith in God. Put more loosely and generally, it is the Israelis versus the Jews
It is impossible for a Torah-observant Jew to call for a civil war against their brothers. That would be against the Torah-rooted concept of Ahavat Yisroel - love of your fellow Jew.
However, when there is no Torah, there are no Torah concepts. When one is anti-Torah, all the more so.
These are the leaders of the current ones who encourage violence and civil war against Jews who they despise. I have heard it explained by a "Leftist thinker" that every nation had its civil war. English battled the English, Americans battled their brother, and so did the French and the Russians.
Israel, a nation like all others will have to have its civil war as well. It's a dialectal rule of history.
The following incident illustrates the discontent of these "leaders" with the Jewish people and, its values and history:
Israel's foreign minister and head of the "Yesh Atid '' party said the following at an international forum on antisemitism:
"The anti-Semites weren't only in the Budapest Ghetto. The anti-Semites were also slave traders who threw people bound together with chains into the sea. The anti-Semites were the extremist Hutu in Rwanda who massacred Tutsis. The anti-Semites are Muslim fanatics who have murdered millions of other Muslims in the past century. The anti-Semites are ISIS and Boko Haram. The anti-Semites are people who beat LGBT people to death. The anti-Semites are those who hunt people not because of what they did, but because of who they are. Because of how they were born."
Mr. Lapid, did you know that before and after the slave trade, Hutus, ISIS, and any other form of hatred there was and is hatred of the Jewish people?
It is the most unique form of hatred in history. It is not limited to place or time or circumstance. Anti-Semites come in all forms and of all ideologies in all places. One should not equate in the same breath other wrongs with that perpetrated against the Jews. Our enemies always try to do just that.
Just as antisemitism is unique, so too are the Jewish people's history and destiny.
The Torah bestows the people of Israel with what may seem like a strange blessing, " Israel will be a nation that shall dwell alone and not be influenced by the other nations"
In its wisdom, the Torah tells us that the nation of Israel can not fulfill its divine mission of leading humanity to a better world if they are influenced by that imperfect world and lose its unique character and values.
The struggle to remain a Jewish nation, not influenced by the temptations of the world is Jewish history.
Paganism, Hellenism, Christianity, Islam, Communism, and integration, all had their appeal in their time. Not all members of the Jewish nation withstood those temptations. They chose to leave Jewish history.
Our foreign minister, in his speech, crossed a red line. He explained to the world in the name of the Jewish state that we are no different. We are not unique. Our history is not unique. Jewish pain and prejudice are exactly like that of any other.
The unique hatred of Jews is something we will not dwell on if that will help us enter the family of nations.
The foreign minister created another precedent as Israel's number-one spokesman to the nations.
Upon entering office he ordered the "gay flag" hoisted next to Israel's outside the building.
What does his Jewish state stand for in essence? That was his answer.
The Jewish nation not only does not dwell alone but we can be as unJewish as the rest.
This is the message of the Left in Israel.
There is nothing spiritual or otherwise special about the Jewish state.
Those concepts are exactly the enemy of their "enlightened" Israel.
As former prime minister Olmert said, "I want a country that is fun to live in."
Former prime minister Ehud Barak; "If I were a "Palestinian "I too would be a terrorist"
Former deputy chief of staff and Knesset member, Yair Golan, compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
The list is long - and sad.
To them, the four thousand years of Jewish history and faith were an aberration and a mistake. That wasn't authentic Judaism.
Listening to Leftist Israelis, the nations of the world may ask themselves, and we may as well, what was the reason for establishing this Jewish state, a place to have fun?
What was the intention and vision of the Balfour declaration? What Is the Return of the Jews to the Jewish land about?
Why unbalance an entire region with the return to a land whose merit is a place that is fun to live in?
This is the root of the deep divide in Israel today.
This is the real fissure
Shalom Pollack is a tour guide and author of
"Jews, Israelis and Arabs"
We will have, God willing, a unique"desert safari tour" this Pesach.
No comments:
Post a Comment