Truth About Jews, Israel, and Intentions on the World

There are more than enough rumors, slanders, myths and misconceptions about the Jewish people and their desired relations with the world. Though I am not the most learned of people on this subject, I will still try and give it a shot as best as I am able. The concepts that Jews have designs on ruling the entire world are false. We Jews have a desire to live on the lands which G0d promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and as described to Moses and Joshua which is best described as the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea with an additional small area east of the Jordan River. If one searches the Internet for “Map of Biblical Israel and the Twelve Tribes” one will easily find the actual lands the Jewish nation carved out and took possession as was promised to them. The Jews have no desire to rule over the world or any of the peoples residing there. We are instructed by G0d and His Torah to serve Him and to live our lives as an example of righteousness, something many of us have plenty of work to do in order to even begin to fulfill that quest. The Jewish people presumably have six-hundred-thirteen commandments which we are to keep and live our lives by. Of these there is a group of basic laws which serve as the starting point which are known as the Ten Commandments and yes, they were originally written in stone and those two stone tablets still exist and can be found in the Ark of the Covenant. Of course finding the Ark of the Covenant has proven to be a bit of a challenge but in theory there is an easy way to find it, allow the building of the third Temple. For those who wish to find a list of these laws, may I suggest reading Torah, starting with Deuteronomy would be the most direct path to finding most of the Commandments but the remainder of Torah, The first five books of the Old Testament, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) is necessary to have a fullness of a definition.

But all this does not define what the Jewish people desire or expect of the rest of the world. The first thing that must be made clear is the Jews do not desire to make the rest of the world to adopt Judaism or to convert to Judaism. The Jews do not wish, demand or expect for the rest of the world to follow the six-hundred-thirteen Commandments as that is the responsibility and burden which the Jews are required to attempt. That does not mean that the Jewish people or Torah does not define a basic set of laws which non-Jews are expected to follow in order for them to lead moral and righteous lives. The requirements of non-Jews which G0d expects of them, and as such also the sole expectations of others from a Jewish standpoint, are known as the Seven Laws of Noah or the Noahic Code (a simple search will lead to numerous sites defining and commenting on these seven laws for all mankind). The only other request the Jewish people hope to receive from the world is to be allowed to live in the lands defined by our Covenant with the L0rd our G0d and work towards the betterment of mankind and all things created by G0d. The Jewish people have no problems with other people who wish to live in our lands as long as they respect the entirety of Jewish Law and are willing to live amongst us in peace. Torah commands that we treat the stranger as we ourselves would wish to be treated and to respect them and be courteous and exemplary hosts. As far as the interactions prescribed for the Jewish people, we are commanded to be a light unto the nations and to live in our lands in such a manner of righteousness that people will come and ask to be taught the laws and will wish to emulate our examples. As said previously, we will need to work on this as there is an enormous room for improvement before the Jews will be able to even make a start on our designated role which we are instructed to follow under the guidelines and commandments written in Torah.

There are two concepts; two sets of words which best describe the role the Jews are supposed to strive to attain. One is the aforementioned of “Be a light unto the nations”, and the other is, “Tikkun Olam” which best translates as “repair the world.” These two expectations are very much intertwined as each are their own path to making the world a better and more holy place and establishing the Kingdom of G0d here on the Earth or wherever mankind will eventually transport their civilizations. By the Jewish people being a holy people and a nation of priests, their sole purpose is to lead lives that are exemplary and worthy of standing as a high standard that reveals the best of humankind. For striving to live to such a standard, the Jewish people will be granted grace from G0d which will result in the lands providing for them and meeting their requirements. In many prayers this is often described by terminology which claims that should the Jewish people live such lives the rains will fall in their season and there will be abundance throughout the lands. As a form of priestly class the Jewish people are also required to instruct those who desire to learn Torah though we are not expected to seek converts or perform other evangelical actions. The vast numbers of commandments placed upon the Jewish people are completely internal and not actions or requirements to which we are to hold others. The sole affect the Jewish people are to have concerning the non-Jewish people is to be an exemplary peoples serving G0d and enacting his will in such a manner as to be the inspiration for the people as a whole and we are to perform this miraculous task while inhabiting a relatively small patch of land at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. No world conquest, no evil plots, no grand desires and no deceits. The Jewish people are to live simple lives of righteousness where performing deeds of mercy and hope are enough to complete their covenant and thus earn the rights to remain in the lands chosen by G0d in which they are to live. Where the description makes it all sound so easy, the reality is far more difficult as it requires removing our imperfections and constantly striving to walk in the L0rd’s path and committing our lives to G0d’s plans. All of what the Jews are to be and everything required of the Jews is found within Torah. That is much of the reason why many Jewish people treasure those individuals who dedicate their lives to the study, interpretation and teaching of Torah thus granting these seekers of knowledge and truth deferments from such banalities as military service as their service of Torah is simply another of the Israeli defense mechanisms, one whose attributes and contributions are impossible for most who are not learned in Torah to understand or even to discern and recognize. So, the next time you run into somebody proposing that the Jews are taking over the world, kindly please correct them and help put that evil slander to rest permanently. Shalom.

Beyond the Cusp

Looking Ahead and Israel has a Bright Future Coming

Despite all that has appeared to go badly between the Iranian drive for nuclear weapons, ambivalent relations with the United States due to a misguided administration, a return to the old hatreds in Europe, and anti-settler decisions by an out of control Supreme Court and a Defense Minister acting as if he has gone rogue; the future for the country of Israel is looking brighter every day. The decision to rightfully return ownership and control of the Peace House in Hevron to its rightful Jewish owners is a first step that will be made complete should Defense Minister Ehud Barak finish the job by approving the return of the residents to their rightful place in Hevron within the walls of the Peace House. Should Barak refuse to do the honorable act and return these people to their homes, then there should be protesters silently and respectfully sitting outside the Prime Minister’s house and office and outside the Knesset twenty-four hours a day until either Barak is made to do the Kosher thing or he is finally made to pay for his defiance of some of the finest Israel has to offer who are completing Mitzvah by settling Eretz Yisroel. And lastly, on a real positive note, the uniting of the National Union and Jewish Home parties is a first step towards a unification of all who honor the commitment to settle all of our lands against any resistance or odds just as our forefathers did under Joshua until King David unified all of Eretz Yisroel.

Sure things may appear troubling and there are clouds gathering on the horizon, but when in the entire history of our people was this not the case? As long as we continue to move back towards living as we are intended to live with Torah as our guiding light, perhaps those dark clouds are simply the rain the L0rd promised would fall in their season awaiting just one more soul to return to Torah. Did not the Red Sea part once one member of our people having the faith to jump into the waters assured that they would part before him? (I always loved that story.) Today the settlers and those who support them are the ones jumping in with faith that the L0rd our G0d will protect them and bring them forth with a strong arm and a blinding light which will withdraw all obstacles from their path. Sure much of the world reports news about the problems with Israel, but there are the joys of Israel which are to be celebrated even in their obscurity to the rest of the world, what do they know of our joys. We have Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel getting the message out to the world, and maybe soon their voices will be heard in the Knesset, though I believe they serve Israel better as her emissaries of all that is beautiful and wondrous about the land and its people. The world just witnessed the largest ever in history completion of the studies of the Tractates of the Talmud. With such miracles, how can we not see the glorified future awaiting the next completion of Talmud study, may it be ever larger.

Even looking back in the more mundane there is hope. The next generation of leadership in the land of Israel will do wonders as they are full of light, life, and hope. They have vision of a future which cannot be contained and it is simply a matter of time until the reins of power are passed on to the next generation. Jews continue to make Aliyah and with the world heading further into the abyss and things being as they are, these numbers will only increase. One could say that there are forces which are driving all the Jews home to Israel. What a concept that would be, I swear I heard about such things from a very wise man in my youth. Finally, our fervent dream proclaimed at the end of so many of our prayers, Next year in Yerushalayim, is coming true. There are so many things I can envision and some which have been in my dreams that I dare not reveal too broadly, but I can tell you that those who wish us harm will be foiled and become troubled by their own efforts. The time is nearing when great things will begin to unfold and His will be finally realized and all promises delivered upon. Things are getting better and closer every single day.

Beyond the Cusp

Can Israel’s Image be Salvaged and Polished?

Once there was a time where Israel was seen for what she is, the tiny little country holding tenaciously onto a small, insignificant, former wasteland which was barely visible on maps which is surrounded by the entirety of the Muslim Lands which stretch from the North African Atlantic Coast all the way to the Indonesian and Philippine Islands in the Pacific Ocean. She was viewed as that sparkling gem of freedom, liberty, individual rights and democracy in the midst of a sea of oppressive, repressive, despotic, tyrannical states which crushed human spirit. Israel was once the underdog who had to scrap and fight for her survival against near unimaginable odds and who had managed successfully to do so at every turn. Israel once stood for equality of mankind, individual liberties, endless possibilities, religious freedoms, and unbelievable scientific and cultural achievements that not only survived but thrived against all of the odds stacked against her. What happened that took a place of such acclaim and hope and turned world opinions so horribly against her. How did Israel transform from her once proud and laudable stature into a nation spurned by the world at large, constantly answering charges of crimes against humanity, oppressor of religious beliefs, and usurper of Palestinian lands with an expansionist agenda eyeing all the lands between the Rivers Nile and Euphrates to expand and conquer for the sake of a Greater Israel?

The answer to this enigma is twofold, first is the rise of the ancient hatreds out of history and second the exquisitely planned and expertly executed assassination of the Israeli character carried out on all of the world’s stages beginning with the United Nations and finding its way into every new outlet even to include all too many within Israel herself. After the failure of the Armies of Egypt and Syria during the Yom Kippur War, which was launched in a surprise attack on Israel starting on Saturday October 6, 1973 which was both the start of Yom Kippur and the Sabbath, the Arab nations sought a different approach in order to defeat and destroy Israel. Initially, the combined forces made sizeable gains on all fronts before Israel fully mobilized, which took longer than usual as almost all public and private services and operations were on essential only staffing for the high Holidays, and mounted a counter strategy. This defeat of the combined forces of Egypt and Syria after scoring complete surprise and taking full benefit of every possible advantage available convinced the Arab World that a new, innovative and alternative approach was needed. Thus was the protracted victory through attrition due to terrorism and guerilla warfare tactics was adopted and with it the carefully planned and executed campaign to demonize Israel in every form of media, on every available stage in the world, and through commitment to use organizations such as NGOs and PACs. Quickly, this new tactic began to show progress in the world media the Arab and Muslim offensive to turn the Israeli reputation in the perspective of the world from shining gem and exemplary outpost of freedom in the Middle East to that of a pariah state brimming with oppression and guilty of the occupation of lands which rightfully belonged to the Palestinian People requiring the reestablishment of the ancient state named Palestine. Their success brought with it a steadily increasing number of nations, governments, unions, organizations, political parties, politicians, colleges and the United Nations with its entire assembly of NGOs and commissions.

So, against such an advanced campaign to delegitimize, defame, divest, boycott, and eventually destroy Israel, what can be done to prevent these schemes from eventually attaining their goals? The first step required appears to be counterintuitive, which is for Israel needs to stop apologizing and answering every single charge or allegation no matter how seemingly insignificant simply to attempt to prevent being overwhelmed by negatives. Israel needs to get out from under the repressive effects of the Oslo Accords which have been skillfully applied in a manner that has handcuffed Israel and those who protect her while having no ill or restrictive effects on the Arab, Muslim and Palestinian side. This step could be easily accomplished by taking two simple and immediate steps. The first is to file a complaint with the Security Council of the United Nations requesting they sanction the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PLO for failing to amend the Palestinian Charter by removing the still standing section which calls for the utter and complete destruction of the State of Israel and the subjugation or elimination of its Jewish people. Follow up with pressure in order to get some response, even if it is simply a motion noting the Palestinian failure to comply without making it an actual judgment carrying a penalty for noncompliance. The other step is to provide the Palestinian leadership with copies going to the United Nations General Security Council, the United States, the European Union, Russia, all the leaders of European nations, all the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world and generally announce this last and final offer for peace through the establishment of a state for the Palestinian people called Palestine. This proclamation should state with accompanying map the borders Israel is willing to offer in this final attempt to reach an amicable peace. Where these borders are drawn is actually of little importance as the Palestinian leadership have painted themselves into a corner where they are unable to accept any peace proposal even if it contains each and every one of their wildest aspirations as by doing so they will have committed an unforgivable sin and would have to face the repercussions from their own people. This proclamation should also contain a second map which denotes the borders Israel is prepared to declare should the Palestinian leadership refuse this final offer. Once whatever deadline has been reached which was written into the offer, Israel should annex whatever sections of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as they require or even simply desire and exile the leadership of the numerous terror groups along with the political leadership of the Palestinian Authority back to their pre-Oslo accommodations in Tunis, Tunisia.

Israel and the Israeli people need to recognize a truth about people and the ways in which the world works; nobody, no organization, no country, no world body, absolutely nothing will be kinder and like you more than you are able to express the same feelings about yourself. This is a basic truism about people and a basic truism that also applies to countries. As long as Israeli politicians, newspapers, organizations, broadcasters, or people are unable of praise and giving testimony to the goodness of Israel, the world at large will continue to disrespect, disregard, and assume the worst evils of Israel. If Israel really desires wiping the tarnish off her international reputation, she first must change her voice which speaks so loudly to the world which consists almost exclusively of detrimental degradations impugning Israel’s character and denouncing her rights for the respect shown a state who acts and rules honorably. One of the initial tasks which must be accomplished to rehabilitate the Israeli image in the world would be to either redirect or found new news services which speak in English and other languages other than Hebrew which take an attitude and view of Israel that is positive and not simply regurgitate echoing every claim and disparagement spoken by those who would erase Israel and likely the Jews from the face of the Earth given the slightest opportunity. If Israel but echoes the propaganda which are released by her enemies while ignoring the truth, then the world has but one side of the discussion and will never hear the other side, This has the effect of limiting the conversation to the only view being projected, the Israel is an evil and horrid entity. We have had a recent set of events which give perfect example to this phenomenon.

During Shabbat for the last month the Arabs, with incitement, encouragement, cooperation and support of Israeli Jews who hold great spite and hatred for anything Zionist in nature, set fires to the fields surrounding the Yitzhar community in Samaria. When emergency personnel arrived to extinguish the flames before they spread to the community and the homes within, they were greeted by the Leftist Jews and their Arab compatriots showering them with rocks attempting to deny their ability to put out the flames. When the residents of Yitzhar responded in kind to protect the firefighters, the leftist Jews from B’tselem made sure to catch this on tape. Afterwards, these leftist Jews further edited the tape and distributed to the television news departments and sent selected picture to the print media along with a suggested dialog scurrilously depicting the situation as the Jews from the community of Yitzhar as having started the fires and initiating an attack on the Arabs completely unprovoked. This was the sole evidence available as the Jews who live in Yitzhar are observant Jews and thus unable to film the confrontation due to the Sabbath. This past week they had received allowance from their Rabbis allowing them to film the altercations even on the Sabbath. This week the television news organizations received both films, the heavily edited film from B’tselem as well as the longer and unedited film from the Yitzhar community. The news outlets unanimously showed the B’tselem video while deciding not to show any of the Yitzhar taken raw film which showed the Arabs exiting a Red Crescent ambulance and setting the fires and one of the Arab men pulling a knife and setting to attack the firefighters. The Arab was wounded by IDF troops who were called to protect the firefighters and disperse the rioting Arabs and B’tselem Jews. Israel will have no chance of escaping the scorn and rebuttals from the world as long as the Israeli news organizations for the most part appear to be a further outlet for Al-Jazeera News or Palestinian Authority or Hamas Official News Station. The other side of this erroneous picture drawn by the liberal Israeli press has been the near total blackout of the ever escalating rock attacks and car-jacking being perpetrated by Arab gangs in Judea, Samaria and Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. These attacks have included daily incidents against the new Jerusalem light rail system which runs through one of the major Arab sections of Jerusalem.

Add the one last slant often taken by much of the world media is the propensity to report every single retaliatory strike by Israel in response to rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians in the communities and cities within range of these munitions fired from Gaza. While the rocket and mortar attacks originate from Gaza where Israel has already removed all their citizens and all IDF troops from stationing within Gaza leaving all of Gaza under direct and independent Hamas rule, the Israeli retaliations target weapon storage facilities, rocket manufacturing locations, and the smuggling tunnels which cross the Gaza borders either heading to Egypt to facilitate supplies being brought to Gaza or to Israel which are used to infiltrate and attempt to attack or abduct Israelis. These reports almost universally report the Israeli strike in active and forceful terms while making only the slightest references to the initial rocket attacks and using passive terms to describe the terror strikes. This is also often the view expressed in Israeli television and other new sources. If Israel actually wishes to retrieve their former respect, then they must first recall the pride and justness of their actions and transfer this emotion and perspective to their reporting and make such the centerpiece of their activities with not only the rest of the world, but with each other in their everyday dealings and reporting. Simply reporting the entire story is all that is required. Israel has no need to pretty up the truth in order to be depicted as honorable, they have honorable as their source guiding their every move. All Israel and her reputation require to shine once again as the virtuous country they are is for the truth to be told without any requirement for polishing or positioning it in anything but a cloak of virtuous honesty.

Beyond the Cusp