Our Enemies Give Us Strength

A display set up in the lobby at the Orot College of
Education, where I work. The sign reads
עם ישראל לא מפחד מדרך ארוכה - "The Nation of Israel is not
afraid of a long road..."

Don’t let anyone fool you.

Things are not "business as usual." Times are very tense across the country, as people struggle to commute to work all the while looking over their shoulder, wondering whether – and from where – the next attack will come.

Our children returned to school (away from home) this past Sunday, which required that they travel through busy public areas. Every parent breathes a sigh of relief when each child sends that text that they've arrived and all is well.

A few things to remember: Despite all of the suffering, the bravery and strength of the Israeli people amaze me. When I watch the videos of the attacks or immediate aftermath (and these videos are all over the internet), I'm struck at how not only police, but ordinary citizens run towards the attacker. There's a strong realization that we're all in this together. The victim is a friend, neighbor, cousin, cousin of a cousin. Every victim is family, and we're all called to fight.

Secondly, I believe that it's useful to keep things in proportion and remember the terrible scale of the last wave of attacks that took place fourteen years ago. Today, due to incredible work of the security services, combined with tremendous Yad Hashem, what were once brutal attacks with many casualties are now far, far less damaging. This doesn't minimize the suffering of the victims of terror in any way. But it's important to recognize this fact and give thanks that things are what they are.

What our enemies never seem to realize is that waves of terror only serve to strengthen the resolve of the Jewish people. They serve to unite us and bind us together. We are at our weakest during long periods of quiet. We begin to bicker about politics and back-room deals and inter-religious squabbles and budget battles. We quickly forget our common goals, and attack those closest to us for the smallest slight. These waves of attacks help hammer home the obvious reality that history never changes: The enemies of Israel don't care if you're a "settler" from Har Brachah or a secular Jew from Afula or a Hareidi from Yerushalayim; they're trying to kill Jews, for no reason other than that. What other reason would there be?

Moreover, for every victim of a terrorist act, many hundreds of thousands more gain strength and a sense of connection to Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. Precisely because it's a frightening time, everyday acts carry greater meaning and impact. A visit to the grocery store becomes an act of patriotism, as does a bus trip to school and dinner with friends in a restaurant. Every act of sacrifice – and sometimes that's as simple as commuting home –strengthens the faith and resolve of each citizen who refuses to stay home and carries on as if everything was normal. Even when it is not.

One day – tomorrow, in a week, a month – whenever it is, this Wave of Terror will end. And, as always, our enemies will have exacted a terrible toll. But they will also have made us a stronger, more resilient, more faithful, more interconnected Am Yisrael in the process.

Tzuk Eitan Continues

I've uploaded a quick page for tefillot sent out by Rav Hillel Merzbach (our shul rabbi) that you can recite for the safety and health of our soldiers. You can download the page here.

A Quiet Shabbat
It was a relatively quiet Shabbat in Yad Binyamin - just one siren, right before we were about to begin davening Mussaf (after the chazzan had said the kaddish). We all filtered our way to the back of the shul (which is a covered area), and waiting about five minutes, before returning to our places. It's kind of surreal because in the quiet of Yad Binyamin, you can hear the booms quite often from the Iron Dome intercepting (or trying to) rockets fired from Gaza. All day long one could hear the soft thud of distant booms.

The Cost of the Iron Dome
During a talk over Shabbat, one of the rabbis spoke about what he called the "difficult and trying times" we are currently experiencing. I recognize that each person experiences events differently, so I went to a neighbor of mine and asked him: Really? Do you think it's so bad? Truthfully, rockets are dangerous, and have interrupted our lives. But thankfully (even miraculously), injuries and deaths from the rockets have been kept to a minimum. I was in Israel during the first Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein lobbed Scud missiles at Israel, and no one knew if he'd try to fire chemical weapons at us. The entire country walked around carrying gas masks, and we sealed our rooms with tape and wet towels. That was truly scary. The sirens today - much less so.
My neighbor - a very respected rabbi in our community, agreed with me, and suggested that the Iron Dome, as amazing as it is, has a cost. It was less than a month ago that tens of thousands of Jews gathered to pray for the safe return of our three (murdered) teens. Where's the outcry about rockets falling on our cities? Where's the public gatherings? There isn't really any. Because we feel safe (relatively), there's no public outcry to root out the terrorism in Gaza. It's muted. It's not so bad. Of course Tzahal went into Gaza. But will they stay for long enough to really do the job they need to do? I'm not so sure, if only because the public doesn't feel strong pressure to demand it, protected by the Iron Dome.

The Pictures of the Fallen
The same can be said for the release of the names and images of our fallen soldiers.
We value every life and cherish each and every soldier. But I wonder how long Israel will stand strong in the face of a funeral a day, combined with the shared Facebook posts, media bombardment, and publicity. I fear that this is exactly what Hamas is counting on. They don't care about the numbers: ten, a hundred, a thousand? The more deaths, the better for them to garner sympathy around the world.
But we do care. About every. Single. Soul. How long can a country maintain a war when it mourns every fallen soldier?
I'm not sure that there's an answer to this conundrum, other than to point out that we must not lose sight of the end goal, despite the high cost.

Hamas: Their Own Worst Enemy
The Arabs are their own worst enemies for many reasons, but Hamas, if you ask me, takes the cake. If their stated goal is truly to drive the Jews out of Israel, then they're really going about it the wrong way. The best way to do it, would be to leave Israel alone. We'd bicker, fight with one-another, and many Israelis would choose an easier life outside of Israel.
Yet, wars like the one we're experiencing now ask each of us to sacrifice. The fear that we feel is a sacrifice. The pain we're enduring is a sacrifice. And that sacrifice, rather than driving us away from the Land, brings us only closer to her. If you've ever sacrificed for something: a loved-one; a degree; a project - the greater the sacrifice, the more connected you feel to that thing.
Hamas, rather than driving us away, is only bringing us that much closer, and making the entire population of Israel, that much more connected to our Promised Land.

Rav Schachter on Negotiating with Terrorists

In a fascinating passage from Rav Herschel Schachter's book, B'Ikvei Hatzon, he writes about the hijacking of TWA flight 741 during which, on a return flight from Israel to NY (with stops in Athens and Germany), a group of terrorists from the PLFP hijacked the plane and routed it to Amman, Jordan as part of a coordinated hijacking of planes intended to shock the world - which it did.

(Begin mini-rant: You can watch a documentary about the hijackings here. It's pretty amazing just how amateurish the hijackers were, how docile the Americans were, and how easily the El Al crew and passengers overtook the attackers. Simply by profiling the passengers and looking at the passports, El Al threw off two of the passengers - who then went and bought tickets, and hijacked a second plane! Almost incredible. What's even more distressing is that the United States learned nothing at all from the episode, because if it had, the events of September 11, 2001 would never have happened. End of rant.)

Among the hostages was Rav Yitzchak Hutner (I'm pretty sure that he appears in the footage of the movie at 24:57), the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Chaim Berlin. As the crisis continued and the Jewish hostages were separated from most of the others, one of the supporters of the yeshiva proposed the idea of raising several million dollars to secure the Rosh Yeshiva's release. This prompted an extensive halachic discussion about whether paying an inordinate ransom was appropriate, and they concluded that it would be justified for a man of Rav Hutner's stature.
They went to Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky for his blessing in the matter. Rav Schachter writes that he flatly rejected their arguments, insisting that this wasn't a simple case of Pidyon Shevuyim (redeeming captives), but instead a case of war. In a normal case during peacetime, one could weigh the value of paying a ransom - even an extraordinary sum. But paying a ransom during wartime would only encourage, and strengthen the enemy, something that couldn't be considered, no matter who was being held hostage.
In retelling the story, Rav Shlomo Aviner adds another interesting point. During his visit to Israel, Rav Hutner visited with Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, who was Rav Kook's wife's cousin. Rav Kook asked: How are you traveling? Rav Hutner told him that he was flying TWA. Rav Kook told him, "Fly with El Al - they have security." Clearly, Rav Hutner had already purchased tickets, and he wasn't about to switch. The rest, is of course, history.
Interestingly, while the United States and the European countries agreed to negotiate with the PLFP, Israel flatly refused. Tragically, it took decades for the world to wear us down, but now negotiating with terrorists is simply part of the game. As Naftali Bennett so aptly put it, once we traded for the living, then we traded tens and hundreds for bodies, then we traded 1,000 terrorists for a single soldier, and finally this year we traded terrorists for...for nothing. For the suggestion that we'd continue to negotiate.

Palpable Pain

It's difficult to accurately articulate the pain and confusion that has gripped most of Israel over the past few days. If you're living in Israel, you already know, and if you don't, you can't. That's not a criticism, but a reality. I doubt that many people got much work done yesterday. Today is a bit better.

Every parent in Israel who blessed his or her child this Friday night added an extra prayer of thanks, for the simple ability to spend Shabbat with that child. This kidnapping hit home precisely because it's so close to us all: it's our children; our yeshivot; our yishuvim. People from across the country send their children to yeshivot, seminaries, colleges, program - you name it - and they all get rides at some point or another. Children are frightened, and lack the tools to address that fear. Parents are similarly scared, and don't really have words of comfort for their children.

I'd like to share a few observations from the past few days about how this story unfolded.

The story first spread like wildfire on social networks. We first received word via WhatsApp, from a counselor of one of my children in Ezra (a local youth group) who studies in Mekor Chaim. You also started seeing strange things on the web. A popular group on Facebook just shared a chapter of Tehillim without explaining why. A website put up a post telling its readers to stop what they were doing, and say five chapters of Tehillim. It was a surreal feeling that the entire country knew what was going on while the official press which also had this information, withheld it under strict IDF instructions.

The State of Israel, so often the home of so much debate and discord, certainly knows how to band together when facing a crisis. It's either this or winning Maccabi Tel Aviv winning the Euroleague Championship. I don't follow Israeli basketball, but if we're looking for achdut, I'll take basketball any time.

On "tremping" (hitchhiking): It's simply a way of life here in Israel, and not just in Yehudah and Shomron, but anywhere where there's a lack of good public transportation. Moreover, despite the really frightening episode of this past week, it's truly a safe means of transportation (think of the statistics). If people are worried about young people they see hitching on the side of the road (and especially late at night), instead of clucking your tongues and wondering about their parents, stop and pick them up. Wouldn't you want someone to pick up your kids (and trust me, one day it will be). Moreover, I think that the "tremping" phenomenon is really one of the nicer aspects of the Jewish State. Not only do people hitch rides; thousands of people with cars stop and pick up those trempers, helping them get where they need to go, often quickly. Of course one should tremp carefully, and if you've got even a moment of doubt or concern, don't get in the car. But in the vast, far majority of cases, tremping is not only perfectly safe, but the most reasonable manner of reaching destinations without easy access to public transportation.
And, if you're still not convinced, why is hitchhiking considered dangerous, but using an app like Uber, where you're picked up by someone you don't know, who has no licensing whatsoever, considered not only safe, but trendy? How hard would it be for a predator to make up an Uber profile and pick up an unsuspecting passenger?

A note about the peace process and the cost of one of the steps that Israel has taken for peace:
I am in favor of peace, and hope that Israel can come to a reasonable arrangement with the Arabs living in Israel allowing them autonomy and self-determination, as long as that arrangement doesn't include their desire to either kidnap our children, or keep trying to drive us into the ocean. To that end, Israel has been taking steps to ease life for Arabs, including easing their ability to travel without impediment within the West Bank. That effort, which is largely under-acknowledged, has included the removal of dozens of check points and road blocks across the West Bank (see here and here). People around the world cheered and encouraged Israel's actions to give relief to the Palestinians, assuming that they'd be a win-win; no great cost to Israel, and a great benefit to the Arabs.
From a kidnapper's point of view, the most difficult aspect of successfully kidnapping these kids would not be getting them in the car (if one group doesn't get in, eventually someone else will). Rather, the hardest part would be successfully navigating the roads in order to smuggle them into Palestinian controlled areas. This week, we see the costs of removing those roadblocks. Looking at the map from the Etzion Junction (marked on the map) towards Jerusalem, it's pretty easy to identify a number of places that the car could have turned off into an Arab area without impediment. Had there been roadblocks and checkpoints in place before the entrance to the tunnel to Jerusalem, the kidnapping would have been far more difficult to achieve, and might never have been attempted in the first place.
The road blocks were there for a reason. Today, they're not there - because Israel took concrete steps to encourage peace. Those steps seem to have backfired.

Framing the Conflict

In yet another attempt to once again show “both sides” of the Middle East conflict, the New York Times recently ran a story about Muqdad Salah, who has been trying to build a life for himself after being released from prison in exchange for ongoing peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. Yet, in its quest for balance, the story highlights the great imbalance – in attitude and action – between Israel and the PA.

The Money and the Message
Salah, who murdered Israel Tenenbaum, a seventy-two-year-old Holocaust survivor in his sleep, “was welcomed before dawn by a cacophonous crowd…of 4,000 near the Palestinian financial hub of Nablus.” Munqeth Abu Atwan, who works at the PA’s Prisoner’s Ministry, says that, “We receive them as national heroes, we give them awards and medals,” a quote taken at face value, without question.
Furthermore, Saleh was paid $50,000 by the Palestinian Authority, and receives an $1,800 monthly stipend – in addition to the payments that were made to his family over the past twenty years. What exactly were these payments for? Where is this money coming from, especially in light of the fact that the PA, corrupt and bankrupt, cannot even pay its own employees? What message do these payments – and the celebration of murderers – convey to the thousands of Palestinian children looking for a way to give themselves and their families a leg up? Mr. Saleh sits in his living room, “under a framed portrait of himself in a quasi-military uniform bearing the honorary rank of brigadier general.” He sees himself as a military hero, as does the governmental authority that pays him. How is that supposed to lead to peace?

The NY Times Agenda
“Only one prisoner has been rearrested, for failure to pay property taxes, a matter that was quickly resolved.”  The New York Times is also subtly trying to encourage more prisoner releases by implying that these prisoners aren’t dangerous, nor do they represent a threat to Israel. Aside from the fact that releasing prisoners encourages others to commit similar crimes, figuring that they’ll eventually be released (which rings true, if you think about it) has the Times done a comprehensive survey of the activities of former prisoners to know that they haven’t been involved in terrorist activities?
“I’m away from the conflict now,” Mr. Salah said. “I’ve paid the tax in full. If tomorrow there is a third intifada, I’ll sit on this couch, and watch it on TV.” So we’re supposed to feel better that Mr. Salah himself won’t engage in the violence. He’ll just encourage it and watch it unfold on TV.

What about Justice?
The ongoing prisoner releases, in exchange for essentially nothing except a willingness to continue talking – raises the thorny issue of fairness. What about justice for the victims, and those who continue to live with the aftermath of terrorism and murder? “I want to travel. I want to see people. I want to breathe the air, I want to walk,” Mr. Saleh says. I’m sure he does. Don’t we think that’s exactly what Mr. Tannenbaum wanted – “to breathe the air, to walk”? What about the desires of his widow, “Mina, now 86, savors a snapshot of them dancing the tango.” (I do give kudos to the Times for giving the family ample space in the story. They are, indeed, an important part of the story).

“Ms. Harris, (Mr. Tenenbaum’s daughter) who lives next to her parents’ home in Ein Vered, did not attend Mr. Salah’s trial, and even now does not know his name. ‘I don’t believe hate and anger will move anything forward,’ she said. ‘I was ready, maybe, to sit opposite him at this table, for him to convince me that he supports peace.’”

As much as the New York Times would love for that to happen, from the article that appeared in the paper this week, that meeting will not take place anytime soon.

Winners and Losers - A Thought for Vayishlach

Following the recent "exchange" with Hamas in Gaza, the world seems preoccupied with the question of who "won" and who "lost"? My fourteen-year-old son asked me this very question last night: who won? How can we say that we won if they can still shoot at us?
My answer was simple: we're not trying to "win" - at least not by the standard definition.
After all, it seems like we - Israel and Hamas - are playing a very different game. They're trying to kill as many of us as they can, and we're trying to kill as few of them as we can. How do you define "winning" and "losing" when the two sides are playing with different rules? How do you fight a war when you're trying specifically not to kill people.
And yet, we're not the first Israelis who had an aversion to fighting. Actually, the first Israeli to demonstrate such an aversion was Yisrael - Ya'akov himself.
As he returns from Haran towards Canaan, Ya'akov sends a message of peace to Eisav, hoping to avoid a confrontation. Yet, when he learns that Eisav too approached, with 400 armed men, we read that, ויירא יעקב מאד ויצר לו - "and Yaakov was greatly afraid, and he was distressed." Essentially he was frightened twice. What's the difference between ויירא - "he was afraid" and ויצר - "he was distressed"? Rashi explains,

ויירא שמא יהרג, ויצר לו אם יהרוג הוא את אחרים

He was afraid of being killed, and he was distressed that he might kill others.

Ya'akov wants to have his cake and eat it too. He'll fight if he has to, to protect his family. But he's particularly disturbed about the prospect of having to kill others, no matter the justification.
That's the way of the Jewish people. We'll fight if need be, to defend ourselves. But there's no thirst for blood, and whenever possible, we will try and protect the even the lives of those who despise us and wish us ill will. Ya'akov was distressed not just about the possible deaths of innocents; rather, he worried about having to kill anyone - even among Eisav's four hundred warriors.
The fact that we didn't "win", I told my son, isn't a weakness. If anything, it's a source of strenght, and a badge of pride worn proudly by the soldiers of Israel. I go to sleep well at night knowing that, if need be, our soldiers will do what they must to protect us. But, first and foremost, whenever possible,
דרכיה דרכי נעם וכל נתיבותיה שלום - "Her ways [of the Torah] are ways of pleasantness, and all of her path are peace."

Journalistic Relativism ad Nauseum: The New York Times Strike Again

So I'm sitting in my home office this past Wednesday night, and we hear a faint siren. (The window was open). Rena gives me a puzzled, slighly worried look, and I respond, "I'm sure it's nothing. It sounds like they're running drills at Tel Nof." (The air force base close by). Then, a couple minutes later, we heard a faint "BOOM!". It wasn't nothing after all. We shrugged and went back to work.
The next morning, our cleaning lady (who came from Ashdod) told us about the rockets having fallen in and around Ashdod. Thank God, no one was hurt. Getting the news first-hand from your cleaning lady is a rather different experience than getting it from the internet.
Last night, we read about yet more rockets fired at Ashdod (and the Israeli response), and this morning, a siren in Yad Binyamin brought the family into the Mamad (protected room) for some early-morning togetherness. Moriyah quite enjoyed the sudden company. She never gets visitors like that so early.
I mention all of this as a preface to rail against the New York Times. In a "balanced" and "even-handed" piece entitled, "Israeli Drone Strike Kills Militants in Southern Gaza", the Grey Lady tells us,

GAZA — Israeli airstrikes killed seven Palestinian members of Islamic Jihad’s armed wing in southern Gaza on Saturday, according to the militant group, and Gaza militants fired salvos of rockets at cities in southern Israel, killing one Israeli man and wounding at least two others in a sudden escalation of cross-border violence.

Really? That's how it went down? It sounds like Israel, in an unprovoked attack, killed some "members of an armed wing" (read here: terrorists) for no apparent reason...."And" - that's a great word, isn't it - Gaza militants fired rockets at cities, killing Ami Moshe, 56. But that's not what really happened, is it? In fact, if you read the next sentence, you'd see that.

The Israeli military said that it had first hit a terrorist squad that was preparing to fire long-range rockets into Israel early Saturday, and that the same squad had been responsible for firing a rocket that struck late Wednesday near the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

What happened, is what always happens.
1. Terrorists fire rockets at civilians Wednesday night. Sometimes they hit something, often they don't.
2. More terrorists planned to fire additional rockets on Shabbat morning. Isreal killed them before they could fire.
3. In response to this outrageous provocation and escalation, terrorists fire even more rockets at innocent civilians, and this time killed a man who was guilty of the terrible crime of driving in his car in the Jewish State of Israel. (הי"ד)
4. Israel, outraged that someone actually got hurt (why does it always come to that?), finally gets serious and takes out one of a long list of terrorist safehouses, factories, hideouts, etc. that it's known about for ages.
5. Terrorists get even angrier, vow vengeance, and try and fire more rockets.
6. The New York Times posts an even-handed piece, careful to present the facts as seen by both sides, without bias. To wit,

Witnesses to the first raid said that an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a training site situated on sandy dunes in a former Jewish settlement near the city of Rafah, killing five. Islamic Jihad pledged that it would respond forcefully to the Israeli drone strike. Hours later, several rockets fired from Gaza slammed into the southern Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, damaging buildings and setting fire to parked cars.

What exactly was the "training site"? Were they training for the Olympics? Was it the Gaza bobsled team? (What's the bit about "in a former Jewish settlement"? Not sure what the point of that is.) The whole article is bound by the "cycle of violence" dogma - that violence simply begets more violence; one side is no more to blame than the other; oh - and it doesn't really matter who started it.
Sorry Mrs. Times. It does matter. And these ongoing attempts at even-handed, balanced reporting to show a bias, as they obscure the true fact.
Fact 1: Terrorists in Gaza fired rockets at innocent civilians.
Fact 2: They want to provoke an incident, and want to kill civilians - men, women, children - the more the better.
Fact 3: Israel can, must, and will respond to these attacks, and doing so doesn't make us culpable in any "cycle of violence." It's called self-defense.
And, your sad attempts to simpy fit these very tragic events into your preconceived perception of the Middle East conflict only hides the true facts of life here near the Gaza border. So much for journalistic integrity. If you can't report the truth, it would be better if you didn't say anything at all.

Chag Sameach? This Year It's Been Challenging

Sukkot is supposed to be a time of joy. After all, it's a mitzvah, especially on Sukkot, when we're surrounded by other mitzvot. You eat - and it's a mitzvah (if you're in the Sukkah). You sleep, and it's a mitzvah. Normally, those two only have religious value on Shabbat. What's not to be happy about?
And yet, I find myself in a funk. There's a heaviness that weighs me down, always in the back of my mind. This morning, I figured it out. It's about Gilad Shalit.
I'm not a general, but the outcome of freeing hundreds of terrorists can be good, even from the perspective that you're bolstering the standing of a terrorist organization who will glorify these murderers and extol others to follow in their footsteps. This is clearly an emotional decision, not a logical one, and one wonders about the cost of making emotional decisions like these. Moreover, I have no blame for Gilad's family whose only wish was to see their son return home. I understand their pain and their efforts to secure their son's release.
But I cannot help but feel for the families of the victims of these terrorists. Every day when I read the news, yet another name comes to the fore, reminding us of a heinous terrorists whose vicious acts will forever remain etched into our collective consciousness. It was bad enough the we had to live through their actions once. Now we have to set them free?
And, if I feel pain, I cannot imagine the pain of the families who lost loved ones during these many acts of murder. Do they not have a say in these matters? We've been hearing the Shalits for years (sadly). Before we made such a momentous decision, would it not have been fair to hear the side of the victims of terror - at least to allow them to voice their frustrations and anguish before signing off on the deal.
Their pain must be our pain as well.
I can see the joyous headlines on the news sites about Gilad's return, but in truth, there's nothing to be happy about in this entire ordeal. I wish - even though I know it won't happen - that Gilad Shalit and his family could return home quietly, without fanfare, and especially without the certain media circus to follow, if only out of a sense of compassion for the people suffering yet again through this ordeal. And yet, the media must have its fill. And with a story like the freeing of Gilad Shalit, the media's hunger cannot be satiated.
With these thoughts swirling in my head as I sit in my Sukkah, I'm still supposed to be happy? A very diffiult task indeed.

The More Things Change...

The NY Times Magazine carried a fascinating piece (A State is Born in Palestine) on the undercover efforts of Zionist interests to sway the opinions of the UN Special Committee on Palestine - called UNSCOP. It's a short piece, and a captivating read of how the early Zionists embraced the UN committe, and worked hard to win over sceptical delegates who would write the report that led to the creation of the Jewish State. It's an important piece for a number of reasons:
1. It points to the resourcefulness of the Israelis (then Palestinians) who were willing to use whatever tools necessary to promote their cause. Sure we had to have the guns to fight and defend ourselves afterwards. But before we could even fight, we needed an internationally recognized state, which is exactly what we got.
2. It highilghts the critical importance of diplomatic efforts and the need for Hasbarah. Because the world - or at least the committeee - saw our point of view, it was able to write a report that could accept the Jews receiving half of Palestine, and not nothing at all. If you think that these efforts are any less important today, you're kidding yourself. World (and US) opinion really does matter. It matters not only what members of the US Government think (so join and get active in AIPAC). It also matters what your friends, coworkers and classmates think. So share that pro-Israel video on Facebook and forward the YouTube video. Every little bit matters.
3. It highlights just how foolish the Arabs have been - and continue to be. At times, it seems like the only thing that saves us from ourselves is the Arabs' intrasegience. If the Arabs had accepted the '48 plan, would we control Jerusalem today? Would I have been able to pray at Me'arat Hamachpelah last week? What if Arafat had accepted Israel's offer of 97 percent of the "West Bank" in 2000 at Camp David? What would have come of the Palestinians' current UN bid if they weren't also still shooting rockets at us and killing our citizens on the roads?
Clearly, God works in mysterious ways. But sometimes it seems clear that God prefers to operate through our enemies' foolishness. Or, to quote the Iranian delegate to UNSCOP, Nasrollah Entezam, “What asses the Arabs are! The country is so beautiful, and it can be developed. If they gave it all to the Jews, they would transform it into Europe!”
Indeed.

A Truly Ridiculous Position. Goldblog Strikes Again

Did you hear? The Palestinians would not allow Jews to live in their new state. Shocking.

"After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated," Maen Areikat, the PLO ambassador, said during a meeting with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. He was responding to a question about the rights of minorities in a Palestine of the future.
Such a state would be the first to officially prohibit Jews or any other faith since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was judenrein, or cleansed of Jews, said Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. National Security Council official.

Commenting on this less-than-shocking revelation, Atlantic Blogmeister and Middle East expert Jeffrey Goldberg wrote,

"The Jews who would theoretically live in Hebron under the framework of a theoretical peace deal should be offered Palestinian citizenship, and would have to live under Palestinian law, and be protected by Palestinian authorities. But the idea that Israel would agree to a settlement in which Jews were denied their religious rights in Hebron is ludicrous."

The last time Jews lived in Hebron under Arab rule

Seriously? Would he live comfortably under Palestinian law and feel safe protected by the Palestinian Authorities? Jeff, have you forgotten what happened the last time Jews lived in Hebron under Arab authority (er, British. Sorry, my bad. Didn't see much difference.) And have you forgotten what happened last week in Cairo, when no less than the President of the United States had to intervene to prevent a lynching of Israelis in Cairo. (How's that Arab Spring going?) And what of the Jew who was killed this year in Nablus (which we call Shechem) by a Palestinian police officer for committing the crime of wishing to pray at the Tomb of Joseph?
Goldberg lives in that American liberal fantasy world where because people should act reasonably and nicely, they will. He advocates relinquishing Judea and Samaria (er, the "West Bank") because the current situation is "untenable," but then makes crazy statements suggesting that Israel should not hand over said land without first guaranteeing their religious rights to live in the territories that they hand over.
The only sensible statement in the entire post is Areikat's. He might be stupid for telling the truth, but at least he's being honest.

The New York Times Once Again Misleads about Israel

Ha'aretz isn't the most conservative paper in Israel, and I say that with tongue planted firmly in cheek. So when Ha'aretz ran a headline that says, "Haaretz poll: Netanyahu's popularity soaring following Washington trip", one gets a sense that Israelis found his trip successful and productive.
Thankfully,  though, the New York Times saved the day with a negative pronouncement, writing, "Israelis See Netanyahu Trip as Diplomatic Failure." Really? I'm pretty sure that the most left-wing paper in the country said the opposite. But there's the rub: which Israelis? All Israelis, as the headline seems to imply, or some Israelis - most notably Netanyahu's political adversaries.
Does the New York Times think that liberal columnists are going to like what Bibi does? That's like deciding that Americans approve of Barack Obama based on a Thomas Friedman article in the Times. Sometimes the media is so locked in its own world that it can't see beyond the front door of the paper's building.
I thought that Bibi did a great job in the U.S. He's got an almost impossible task trying to balance different, almost unthinkable pressures. Apparently, so did most Israelis.
From what I see here, what they print in the Times about what goes on is Israel does resemble reality, but only from a very specific point of view.

Imagine If...

Imagine that a small group of unarmed Arab youths, without permission, entered the Old City of Jerusalem to pray, and an Israeli policeman opened fire on the group, wounding three and killing one.

Imagine that a group of Israeli Arabs, protesting unfair representation in their government, were met with live ammunition and tanks, and were gunned down in cold blood.

What would the international community say? What would the response be in the United Nations? How quickly would international human rights organizations jump up to condemn Israel? We don't have to imagine if...because we see these responses all the time for far less.

And yet, when an Palestinian policemen guns down a helpless Jew for the "crime" of wanting to pray at the grave of Yosef Hatzaddik;

When the world seems indifferent to the mass murder of tens, if not hundreds of Syrians by a ruthless thug and tyrant (I had to search the NY Times website for the story); (The United States is "considering sanctions.")

We need not imagine. We know the double standard.

Pesach just ended. At the Seder we noted that שבכל ודור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותנו - "In every generation they stand over us to destroy us." We have no doubts about the desires of Syria, Hamas, Hizballah, Iran - who openly declare their desire to destroy us. But what about the rest of the world? They, it seems, just want to "stand over us" - to lord over us and browbeat us into submission.

After enough condemnations and UN resolutions and political pressuring, will Israel finally capitulate and help establish (God forbid) yet another corrupt, inept and ultimately radical regime in Ramallah? (Especially now that the Syrians themselves now seem to prefer living under Israeli control.)

I sure hope not. But we don't need to imagine that scenario. We're watching it unfold right before our eyes.

The Destructive Power of Lashon Hara

I read recently in the name of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook that the weekly parshah - in Hebrew called parshat hashavua - always relates in some way to the week's events. It's not just the section that we read in the Torah; it's the story of the given week as well. This week Rav Tzvi Yehuda's idea seems especially relevant, given that the subtext of Parshat Metzora is tzara'at - and the lashon hara that causes it.

Judge Richard Goldstone has been in the news of late. Last week, in a now famous mea culpa (Yiddish for "my bad") in the Washington Post, he admitted that while his report indicated evidence of war crimes on Israel's part, now in fact it has become clear that,

"civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy."

"Oops. Sorry. Can we all go home now?"
No judge, we can't. Because while you now probably think that you've wiped your hands of this whole sordid affair, you can't undo the damage that you've caused and will cause to the State of Israel and Jews around the world.
I'm reminded of a famous parable told about a Jew who told vicious lies about the town's rav. After a time the man felt pangs of remorse for his actions, and begged the rav for forgiveness. "Of course I'll forgive you," the rabbi told him. "But before I do you must do one thing for me."
"Anything," the man promised.
"Go to the center of town with a pillow, and rip open the pillow and spread the feathers into the wind. When you're done, come back to me."
The man, puzzled, did what the rabbi asked and split open a feather pillow in the center of town. When he finished, he returned to the rabbi for his forgiveness.
"One more thing," said the rabbi. "Now go and collect all the feathers."
"That's impossible!," said the man. "I can't possibly collect all the feathers?"
Asked the rabbi, "And what about my reputation? How will you return that to me?"
 
You can't say "oops, sorry" and undo lashon hara. It doesn't work that way. People with an axe to grind against Israel will forever use his original report as fodder against Israel, and claim that his retraction had more to do with pressure from the Zionist cabal than any sense of justice or remorse.
Commenting on Parshat Metzora Rabbeinu Bechaya (on Vayikra 14:2) writes,

 ואמרו במדרש: (תנחומא ב) "מות וחיים ביד לשון" (משלי יח, כא), הכל תלוי בלשון, זכה לחיים, לא זכה למיתה, עסק אדם בתורה בלשונו זכה לחיים, והיא התורה שנקראת עץ חיים, שנאמר: (משלי ג, יח) "עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה"...עסק בלשון הרע מתחייב בנפשו למות, שקשה לשון הרע משפיכות דמים, שכל מי שהורג אינו הורג אלא נפש אחת אבל המספר לשון הרע הורג שלשה: האומרו, והמקבלו, ומי שנאמר עליו.

And [the rabbis] said in the Midrash, (Tanchuma 2) "Life and death are in the hands of the tongue." (Proverbs 18:21) Everything depends on the tongue. If one merits, he [receives] life, if he doesn't merit, he [receives] death. For if one engaged in Torah with his tongue, he merits life, for it is the Torah that is called the tree of life, as it is written, "It is a tree of life to those who grasp onto it."...If one engaged in slander [with his tongue] he obligates himself to [be punished with] death, for slander is worse than murder, for anyone who murders only murders one soul, but one who speaks slander kills three: he who spoke slander, he who accepted the slander, and the subject of the slander.

Is slander really worse than murder? Again quoting the Midrash, Rabbeinu Bechaya explains that at times it really can be worse than murder. The book of Samuel relates the tragic tale of the murder of scores of priests in the priestly city of Nob at the hands of King Saul, (see Samuel I Chapters 21-22). A slanderous report of Do'eg the Edomite set events in motion that lead to the murder of the priests, and ultimately the fall of Saul. Slander certainly can and does lead to murder.

What about Judge Goldstone? Are his words really worse than murder? Has anyone died yet? In an age of global communication, it's impossible to know to what degree the report that bares his name emboldened international terrorists who murder civilians in the name of the Palestinian cause.
Moreover, even after Goldstone's retraction, the Israeli Defense Forces, and especially its soldiers and commanders certainly keep the report in mind, and will be forced to do so during any future action. Every soldier and commander will need to evaluate not only his or her own mission security, but how their actions will be scrutinized, and unfairly so, by international commissions of the UN Human Rights Council. How many more soldiers in the future will find themselves in greater danger because of Goldstone? How many Jewish lives will be lost (and this is not an exaggeration in any way) because of the changes in tactics mandated not so much by his report, but by the fear of another Goldstone Report?
The feathers are long gone. Slander really does kill. And, as a father whose sons will one day serve in the IDF, that gives me real reason to worry.

One Video, Two Vastly Different Pespectives

I received the attached video from a student in Orot with the comment: קצין תותח!!! מגן על העם שלו, סוף סוף יש במי להתגאות, תראו מהמם!!! Loosely translated, this means, "Amazing officer!! Protecting his nation. We finally have what to be proud of. Look at this incredible [thing]." (Israelis write with a lot of slang.)
Clicking on the link led me to the video that you see here - an IDF officer insisting that both Israelis and Palestinians stop planting trees to close to a settlement. What I find so fascinating is that both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict are now sending links to the very same video. One side tries to show how terrible the IDF is in preventing Arabs from planting trees, and this turns into a pro-IDF pro-settler propaganda video. Just read some of the most recent comments:

גאווה,ככה צריכים להיות כל הקצינים והחיילים.

[What] Pride! This is how all officers and soldiers should be.

איזה חייל מדהיםם...שירבו כמותו בצבא.. אדם שחושב נכון תחת לחץ ולא מפחד להגיד את האמת שלו ושל מדינתו.

What an amazing soldier - that there should be many like him in the army...A man who thinks properly under pressure, and is unafraid to tell his and his country's truth.

When different people look at the same video and see very different things, that to me represents a fundamental split that seems difficult to reconcile. Obviously, I'm with the soldier on this one. The question is, where is most of Israel? With B'tzelem, which posted the video, or the commenters, who like it for the exact opposite reason?