Friday, June 08, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
There was an old man who used to sweep the area next
to the Kotel, the Western Wall. When asked why he, such an old man, was
working, doing menial labor he explained that in Auschwitz a Nazi pointed to
the smoke billowing up from the crematorium and told him: “You see that smoke?
That’s your family going up in ashes and soon you will also be there!” His
response was to answer: “No. I will live and I will see Jerusalem.”
By a miracle he did live and to him sweeping
the plaza and picking up other people’s trash was a glorious gift from heaven
because he was blessed enough to do it at the Kotel, in the heart of Jerusalem.
For 3000 years Jerusalem has been the capital of the
Jewish Nation. Even in exile, when the Jewish people lost sovereignty over
Jerusalem, she was still the heart of the Nation.
Jerusalem was, and still is, the place Jews turn to in
prayer, three times, every day. Jerusalem is upheld in every Jewish wedding as
more important than the happiness of the union between bride and groom. The
Passover Seder, marking the exodus of the Children of Israel from slavery, is
complete only when we recite: “Next year in Jerusalem, rebuilt!” because THAT
is the true end of the journey from slavery into freedom.
The Jews of Ethiopia dreamt of Jerusalem as did the
Jews trapped in Soviet Russia. Jerusalem is the heart of Zion, always has been
and always will be.
Interestingly this well-known fact is now being put
forth as something that is debatable. The simple statement that Jerusalem is
the capital of Israel is “controversial.” Why?
For centuries the nations of the world have been
ambivalent about the Jewish people. On one hand they enjoyed the benefits we
brought to their lands (education, medicine, inventions) on the other hand they
were disturbed by our “otherness,” the unwillingness to adopt their religions,
worship their Gods, become like them.
The Jewish people rejected ancient Greece, ancient
Rome, Christianity and Islam thus providing impetus to find fault with the Jewish
people which quickly morphed into outright persecution. Modern Jew-hate is no
different, that too is a reaction to a people who retain their “otherness”, sticking
to their morals, values and nationhood when socialist/globalist influences
imply that it is wrong to do so.
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor Hell a
fury, like a woman scorned."
The Jewish people began returning to Zion as soon as
they could.
My grandmother grew up in British Mandate Palestine (a name given twice to this land in attempt to disconnect the
Jews from Zion, a name that is now being used again, for the same reason). As a
young girl she felt
the cruel ambivalence of British soldiers who laughed as she,
just 12 years old, was running for her life, trying to escape an Arab lynch mob. Instead of helping her, they took bets on the odds of the
child being able to outrun the men chasing her with knives in their hands.
The day after the State of Israel was officially
declared the Arabs of the land rose up in attempt to destroy the newly birthed
country. Everyone was surprised when they did not succeed.
In 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria rose up in a
coordinated attack, certain that together they could destroy the Jewish State.
The world watched with baited breath, certain that there was no way the Jewish
people could survive. Instead of being overrun, Israel stunned the world by, in
just SIX days, not only beating back three combined armies but also recapturing
the Jordanian occupied Old City of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the biblical
heartland of Israel – Judea and Samaria.
This week Hamas has planned large demonstrations
(riots) in protest of Israel’s return to what is most sacred to the Nation of Israel
(Jerusalem), to protest that Israel did not disappear in ’67 and actually
regained what was stolen from us centuries before.
Or to put it more simply, they are protesting that
they lost the battle to destroy Israel in ’67.
This is the same reason Hamas planned their “March of
Return” which was supposed to culminate in an enormous riot that would overrun
Israel’s borders and wreak havoc on the day America opened their embassy in
Jerusalem – May 14th, the date when the State of Israel was
officially declared in 1948.
In other words, Hamas planned an enormous protest on the date Israel’s independence was declared, on the date America acknowledged that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.
In other words, Hamas planned an enormous protest on the date Israel’s independence was declared, on the date America acknowledged that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.
Or to put it even more simply, Hamas planned an enormous
violent riot in protest of Israel’s existence and America’s acknowledgment of
that existence.
Israel’s Prime Minister just returned from a trip
visiting Germany, France and the UK.
French President Emmanuel Macron had the audacity to tell
Netanyahu that moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem caused Gazans to die. This
statement is very revealing.
Opening the American embassy in Jerusalem was a
symbolic recognition of reality. It did not create reality, it did not change
reality. What it did do was declare that the United States would no longer
participate in the game of ambivalence about the existence of the Jewish people
and the return to our ancestral homeland, sending the message: “Yes, we
understand. The Jews are in Zion and they are not going anywhere.”
Macron’s statement means that the acknowledgement of
the eternal Jewish bond to Jerusalem forced Arabs to riot and thus be killed.
That it is wrong to accept as fact that Jews belong in Jerusalem, that
Jerusalem has always been and always will be the capital of the Jewish State.
In his mind it is better to continue to play the game
of ambivalence - on one hand saying that antisemitism is wrong, on the other
hand stating that one must not acknowledge Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
Maybe the Jews will go away. Maybe that will appease
the Arabs.
In the UK, Teresa May told Prime Minister Netanyahu
that she “understands Israel’s right to defend herself but she is concerned
about Gazan lives.”
There should no “but” in that sentence.
Israel would not have to defend herself if we weren’t
under attack. And the Gazan lives Ms. May is concerned about? Is she unaware
that Hamas is proudly claiming most of the dead as their own operatives? Not
just members of the party but actual, professional militants?
With one little word Teresa May negated Israel’s
sovereign right to protect the lives of her citizens and maintain her borders.
“But” created an equation where terrorists hell bent on killing Israelis are
the same as Israelis who want to live in peace in their homes without being
murdered.
How is this different from the British soldiers
laughing and taking bets on my grandmother’s life? They knew that to live the
little girl needed to escape the lynch mob BUT they weren’t about to intervene,
maybe the mob would catch the Jewish child and the soldiers would have their
afternoon entertainment…
The American declaration did not cause violence. It
did not “trigger” violence. What it did do is rip off the mask behind
which Jew haters hide, denying the validity of excuses used to sustain the
cruel ambivalence that, in its silence, encourages violence against the Nation
of Israel.
It was a declaration that: “We aren’t playing that
game anymore.” And THAT is what is forcing all other nations on earth to chose
sides. Will they recognize that the Jewish people have returned to our
ancestral homeland, never to leave again? Or will they continue to maintain
their ambivalence, secretly hoping that the Jewish people will disappear?
The riots Israel is currently experiencing, the
attempts to attack us from the ground and from the air are not a product of
Israeli or American policy. They are a reaction to Israel’s existence, Arab
frustration that the Nation of Israel is home to stay, that all of their
efforts to make us disappear failed.
What fuels the violence is leaders like Macron and
others who send the message that Arab violence is only to be expected because Arabs
feel wronged by the existence of Israel and her eternal ties to Jerusalem.
This is not a pleasant picture but there is actually
hope here. We must make it impossible to continue to deny reality. It is up to
each and every one of us to openly declare that we will no longer play the
game. There will be no more attempts to appease violence by not acknowledging
Jewish connection to Jerusalem. There is no room for debate. No room for
question. Zion is home to stay.
When it becomes no longer possible to deny reality,
peace will become possible.
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