Optimistic
There is a historic demographic process underway and Israel will be the better for it. Opinion.
Shalom Pollack
On the seventh day of our war for survival, as I write these lines, I hear the sounds of our jets overhead, either flying to or returning from Iran.
May G–D keep them safe.
Yesterday morning, I participated in an unusual event
As I prepared for morning prayers in the large public bomb shelter, the sirens sounded.
At that moment, I was in the best place for body and soul.
Because it was a public shelter, we were joined by local families hurrying as the sirens wailed.
Early in the morning, families with young children, in pajamas, rushed down as they interspersed between the minyan.
I knew why they came, but from the looks on the faces of the children and some of the adults, it appeared that they were not sure what we were doing in our strange tefillin and prayer shawls.
One mother stared at us as if witnessing something strange if not exotic.
I assumed that the young mother was probably the product, like so many others of a secular Israeli education.
The secular education system does not teach our children Torah, prayer, and anything that is " too Jewish.".
I assumed that her wide-eyed children were receiving the same education.
I wondered what these young parents explain to their children as to why people want to kill them and force them into shelters.
Their intellectuals and political leaders did not explain that it is because we are Jews who dare to live in our promised land. That would have been too simplistic, primitive, messianic..
The left had sophisticated, intellectual explanations and solutions:
It's about the land that we colonials "took" from the "indigenous" natives in 1948 and 1967. It's about human rights and a willingness to be reasonable. It's about not seeing it as the Promised Land.
To rectify these wrongs and because they are kind, if naive, people, they employed Arabs from the "territories", brought them to Israeli hospitals for care, welcomed them to their homes, and commiserated with their losses when their terrorist relatives were eliminated by Israeli forces.
And then came October 7.
They were the primary victims of Arab hatred and barbarity, the ones who had invited them to their homes.
Generations of Leftist indoctrination and misplaced guilt crashed.
The results?
A good many are now seeking their Jewish identity.
A few double down and continue to blame fanatic, messianic Jews for Arab hate.
A few, in desperation, seek foreign passports to leave. Spain, Portugal, Germany, here I come (back) to be one of you. Good luck with that.
Our sages teach us that G–D's holy land spits out those not suited to it.
They flee as over 100,000 Jews stranded abroad try deperately to come home and kiss its soil upon arrival.
There is a historic demographic process underway
As I met the stare of the sweet young mother, I wondered how she explained the situation to her children and to herself.
I wondered how they and Am Yisrael would come out of this experience.
I am very optimistic.
Shalom Pollackis a popular tour guide and author of "Jews, Israelis and Arabs." Shalompollack613@gmail.com
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