Shalom Pollack – Another Day

 Another day in the Jewish homeland.

Another day another Jew was murdered in the Jewish state, in the Jewish homeland. Today it was two sisters and their mother in critical condition. The strongest army in the Mideast and beyond could not prevent it, again.
It wasn't always this way.
I remember a time when terror attacks were not a  daily event and one remembered the few that remained in our memories and consciousness. We would refer to particular attacks and recall all their details. Today only computers can remember. Two sisters today, two brothers last week.. who can digest it all?

Long before the inception of the Jewish state, Arabs were killing Jews. It wasn't about borders, it was about Jews.  That has not changed.
This  Arab urge to kill Jews preceded their newly discovered identity as Palestinians and their flag.
They were Arabs(Muslims) and we were Jews. The roles were clear.
Ours was to build and theirs was to destroy and kill. That too has not changed.

Despite constant Arab terror, the Jewish presence in the land of Israel deepened,  grew, and strengthened.
They threw the best they had at us time and again, war after war, embargo after embargo as we grew in strength, numbers,  confidence, and love for our land. We paid the price, yet the Arabs respected our determination to strike back and exact a heavy toll. Terror was not the rule.

When did things begin to change so drastically that despite our growing numbers and strength we feel progressively unsafe in our land?

Was it in 1967 when Israelmiracuosly trounced the Arab armies poised to destroy her, when the Arab masses, who had screamed for Jewish blood, now fled as fast as they could?  And we did not permit them to leave. They were bewildered.They stayed
Perhaps we did not want to "ethnically cleanse " the natives;  if we really felt no moral claim for the land at least we wanted to be enlightened colonialists. Our leaders then and today don't understand that there is no Israeli claim to the land of Israel, just a Jewish one. That is the crux of the matter.

And so in that historic moment of opportunity, we showed contempt for the holiest of our sites, and to Arab bewilderment once again, we forfeited it to the defeated enemy.
We (the Godless leaders) felt like trespassers and felt a need to be fair to the "natives"
They(still) assuage their colonial guilt with Jewish land and Jewish blood.

Israel survived yet another impossible-to-win war in 1973 when Arab armies swarmed over the borders on Yom Kippur. Israel crushed them all.
Alas, the aggressors/losers shortly were rewarded with land and the destruction of Jewish communities. This was a precedent to be followed.
Israelis were confused. By this time the hard shell of confidence and certitude in ourselves was cracking.

In 1993 once again the Israel leadership surprised everyone.
After swearing that they would never recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and its arch-terrorist leader Yassar Arafat, they(Rabin - Peres) actually invited him to share our tiny land. Israel allowed tens of thousands of terrorists into the land, armed them, and created autonomous zones for them.
The thinking was that a happy neighbor will be a good neighbor and we will buy our peace..  Shimon Peres and company apparently projected onto Arafat their own character flaws. They thought that everyone had a price.
They did not consider that some people have principles. Arafat's guiding principle was killing Jews. "Leaders" like Peres thought that was illogical.
We would placate them and win our peace retaining a sense of morality viv a vis the true natives.

Yes, they   were going to "break the cycle  of violence"( Why did  not  Churchill  think of that and  invite Hitler to a piece of England to "break the cycle of violence"?)
They certainly did break the existing cycle and replaced it with a cyclone of Jewish blood.
Our leaders, media, and academia drummed into our heads mantras like, "land for peace", "life is more important than the land" and Jewish victims of Arafat's terror are "the price for peace". Remember them? We no longer hear them.

So what have they left us with?
By insisting that God be left out of the Jewish state a powerful wealthy Israel has lost its moral certitude.
The Left has succeeded in inducing national amnesia in favor of  a post-Jewish ("fun place to live"-former prime minister Ehud Olmert) ("History is not important" - Shimon Peres) society
With no past, there is no present or future, or even fun.

Well-armed soldiers flee from "natives" throwing rocks. We hide behind walls and underground.
The damage is done.
Our leaders have no solution to the continuing killing of Jews in our land.
And they never apologize.

shalompollack613@gmail.com
Tour Guide and author
"Jews, Israelis, and Arabs"