Why Bibi Deserves Our Unity in Israel's Darkest Hour (Judean Rose)

For some people, Bibi bashing is their favorite sport. Personally, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else at the helm at this terrible, dark time for Israel and the Jewish people. When things went down with Iran, I felt relief that it was Bibi, and not Bennett, Lapid, or Gantz in charge.

I won’t deny it. There’s a lot to pin on Netanyahu. October 7 happened on his watch. And still, I believe he loves Israel and the Jewish people, and I think it’s eating him alive that October 7 happened under his leadership. So many deaths, so many atrocities—it weighs on him. You can see on in his face, in his eyes. He’s had multiple health issues since the war began: prostate surgery, urinary tract infection, food poisoning, dehydration. His skin hangs loose on his neck; his voice at the press conference with Marco Rubio was hoarse and weak. He looks beleaguered.

Am I asking you to pity him? In a sense, yes. Because pity here is another word for mercy. If Bibi is to lead us effectively, we need to get off his back. We need to stand behind him as one people.

Unity as a Jewish Imperative

Unity has always been a problem for the Jewish people. The Torah itself tells us that Israel only merited receiving the Torah when it “camped as one man with one heart” at Sinai (Exodus 19:2). Put simply, the unity of Israel (Achdut Yisrael) is not a luxury—but a condition for Jewish survival.

History shows that whenever we are fractured as a people, our enemies take advantage. The destruction of the Second Temple is remembered by our sages as the result of sinat chinam—baseless hatred among Jews. In our own time, the catastrophic October 7 massacre exposed how internal strife left us distracted and vulnerable.

Whether it’s bitter battles over judicial reform or a public letter from 80 so-called Orthodox rabbis accusing Israel of not doing enough for the Gazan people or against the settlers, division makes us weaker than the sum of our parts.

The reverse is also true. When Jews put aside differences and stand as one, we are far mightier than our numbers suggest. That is why it is so painful to see Jews curse their own prime minister in public, or parents of hostages scream at him on camera. It does not bring their children home. It only strengthens the enemy’s resolve, showing Hamas how valuable the hostages are. The cries against Bibi serve as fodder for the hatred of Jews already spreading unchecked around the globe.

Lawfare in Wartime

Instead of focusing fully on the war, Bibi is dragged into court four times a week. MK Moshe Saada calls this “utterly absurd,” a witch hunt that robs the prime minister of his most precious resource: time. Saada asks the judges to look at his children, fighting on the front lines for 350 days, and understand that this case must wait until the war is won.

I personally hate that Bibi is dragged into court four times a week. I don’t want him futzing around in court over bogus, politically motivated charges. I want him figuring out the best way to handle this war.

American commentator Mark Levin, after witnessing the trial in Tel Aviv, said it was “much worse” than he imagined—“ludicrous,” “unconscionable,” and unlike anything that would pass for justice in America. He saw what we all know: that this is lawfare meant to topple Netanyahu, even in the midst of a life-and-death war.

How can Israel fight on all fronts when we spend so much of our national energy undermining our leader?

A New Year’s Plea for Mercy and Silence

As my late mother (A”H) was wont to say, “Don’t wash your dirty linen in public.” It was good advice then, and it’s good advice now. Criticism has its place, but shouting it in the streets while our soldiers fight and our hostages languish helps no one. It weakens us all.

I love Israel. I love living here, every day. But I long for a deeper strain of patriotism in Israeli society: the instinct to defend the leader of your country reflexively in wartime, whether you voted for him or not. Bibi is not perfect. But he is ours. He is also one of us, literally. A Jew, a part of Am Yisrael, the nation of Israel.

This Rosh Hashanah, God willing, I’ll be right there in shul at sunrise, ready to ask Hashem to guide and fortify our prime minister in battle, and for the people to stand behind him. I will pray, hard, that we learn to put aside our differences and complaints—they only make us weak. Unity is the thing we need, the thing that makes us strong. It’s the thing that makes us unbeatable, unbreakable—and unstoppable as a force for good in the world.

With blessings for a sweet new year! Shana Tova. 🍎🍯

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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The UN's selective reporting on the Temple Mount and Old City

Here is how the UN's OCHA described Rosh Hashanah in their biweekly Protection of Civilians report:

On 16 and 17 September, large groups of Israelis, including settlers, entered the Old City of Jerusalem during the Jewish New Year. Israeli authorities deployed police officers and restricted Palestinian movement in and out of the Old City, during which they physically assaulted and injured an elderly Palestinian man and arrested at least two others. On 17 September, Israeli forces restricted Palestinian access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing entry only to those over the age of 50 for the dawn prayers. That morning, about 400 Israelis, including settlers, accessed the compound accompanied by Israeli police, who evacuated Palestinian worshippers to secure the entry of Israelis.

Let's take this apart:

large groups of Israelis, including settlers, entered the Old City of Jerusalem during the Jewish New Year.

Why is this newsworthy to begin with? It is, only if you believe Jews have no right to visit the Old City including the Kotel. 

And why do they call out "settlers" specifically? What difference does that make - unless the purpose is to incite hate?

Israeli authorities deployed police officers and restricted Palestinian movement in and out of the Old City

Which is what one would expect on a national and religious holiday. What they don't mention is that numerous Palestinian groups threatened any Jews who wanted to celebrate the holiday and "desecrate Al Aqsa."

On 17 September, Israeli forces restricted Palestinian access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing entry only to those over the age of 50 for the dawn prayers.

Because terror organizations called on Palestinians to go to the area en masse to block any access by Jews.  For some reason, those threats aren't mentioned.

That morning, about 400 Israelis, including settlers, accessed the compound accompanied by Israeli police, who evacuated Palestinian worshippers to secure the entry of Israelis.

And how many Muslims were there that day? Thousands. 

Israel schedules the Jewish visitors for times outside Muslim prayer times. 

The entire subtext of the report is that Jews have no right to the Temple Mount, Jews have no right to visit the entire Old City, and Israeli attempts to protect Jewish civilians are framed as a means to harm Muslim civilians. 

Also, "Israelis" is apparently used as a euphemism for "Jews." 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Al Quds al Arabi can't even come up with original antisemitism - it has to plagiarize it

At the UK-based Al Quds al Arabi, Palestinian writer Ismail Juma Al-Rimawigoes on an antisemitic rant as he describes "The Curse of the  Jewish Holidays:"

In this month of every year, the occupied city of Jerusalem and all of the occupied territories are experiencing their worst and most bitter stages, when thousands of extremist Jews desecrate the sanctity  of the Holy City, and begin spreading their poison and unleashing their Talmudic and racist rituals that exceed the limits of humanity and religious freedom, which have disappeared from the dictionary of the “Hebrew State.” “.

During the Jewish holiday season, which falls in September of each year, the Holy City turns into a military barracks whose entrances and exits are controlled by the occupation forces, to besiege, harass, and oppress the Jerusalemites, under the pretext of securing the settlers’ celebrations, while the heavy hand of the settlers is unleashed to oppress, steal, orgy, and assault the residents under heavy protection from the occupation police.

With the beginning of the holidays, the settlers who live in the Old City turn their homes and the surrounding areas into shrines in order to receive other settlers from the surrounding settlement outposts, of all ages, to eat the holiday meal and sleep inside or outside those homes.

The holiday season not only affected Jerusalemites through assaulting and humiliating them at checkpoints and in the streets, but also turned into an economic curse, forcing many merchants to close their shops and leave the city until these seasons, which the people of Jerusalem call “the curse of the Jewish holidays,” ended.

I was curious how popular this phrase "the curse of the Jewish holidays" is. I found it in exactly two other unique articles (which were copied to other sites.)

It turns out that this article was plagiarized, word for word, from an article written in 2018 by Nader Al-Safadi at Noon Post.

This guy couldn't even come up with original antisemitism!

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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