Why the World Concentrates on Israel

 

We will limit this discussion to the modern Israel leaving out the three-thousand plus years since Avraham, the forefather of the Jewish People who are descended from the Hebrews who were brought out of Egypt with Moses. Zionism has much to do with the rebirth of Israel and where as the Zionist Movement was something new, Zionism defined as the desire by the Jewish People to return to their native homelands as defined in Tanach, the Torah, as the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, has existed from when Joseph was taken to Egypt until Moses led the people to the Promised Land and again from the start of the Babylonian Exile until Cyrus the Great permitted the Jewish People to return and rebuild the Temple and again starting with the Roman dispersions, the first dispersion around the year 70 A.D. and the second dispersion around the year 130 A.D. causing the Jews to become the Diaspora. Modern Zionism was driven by a long held desire for Hashem to do again what he had already done twice in the history of the Jewish People, send a savior. The first savior was well known, Moses, the man who also gave the Jews their law, the Ten Commandments and the entire Torah. The second savior came from an unexpected place, a conqueror who vanquished the Babylonian Empire bringing in its place the Persian Empire; yet Cyrus saw to allow the Jews to run their lives as an autonomous region for as long as they paid their tribute. Then for century after century which became millennia, almost two millennia and still no savior.

 

Then the idea came and was championed by a few very strong and determined individuals. For a list of these impassioned men and women one can go here. They wrote, petitioned, bargained and finally found a great ally in Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary and author of the Balfour Declaration. This came after World War I as part of a great reestablishing of indigenous rights and a redrawing of the maps of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa would come the San Remo Conference, the Treaty of Sèvres, the Versailles Treaty and the Mandate System. Part of this resulted in the defining once again of a Jewish homeland between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The League of Nations placed the name of that world body behind the Mandate System and this was further endorsed as enforceable by the United Nations which recognized it as still valid in Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. Finally, on May 15, 1948 the nation of Israel was declared and came into being. Within hours, Arab armies of six nations and several militias attacked the new nation of Israel pouring over every border. Nearly two years later an Armistice was signed with the expressed insistence by the Arab parties that none of the lines drawn could ever be used to define any border with Israel, their idea. The Jewish People lost Gaza to Egypt as well as Judea and Samaria to Jordan. When peace was reached with Egypt, they relinquished their possession of Gaza and when peace was reached with Jordan, they relinquished any claims to what they renamed the West Bank, the original Judea and Samaria.

 

The world had a slow change of heart concerning the Jewish State which steadily attempted to assure there were always more Arabs than Jews in the lands designated to become Israel, something which prevented the Jews being murdered by the Nazis from having anyplace to which to run. There was a connection between the Holocaust and the founding of Israel, but it was never a direct connection. The connection was simply that the Europeans and the allied powers from World War II were so shocked and filled with guilt by the horrifying findings in the concentration camps that they were silenced and anti-Semitism took a brief holiday. There were claims made by hopeful and overly optimistic Jews and Christians alike that the horrors of the concentration camps would vanquish anti-Semitism permanently. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as anti-Semitism was never even dented by the events of World War II in the Islamic world. That anti-Semitism of the Islamic world, specifically the Arab and the Persian Islamic worlds, the hearts of the Shiite and Sunni Islamic centers in the world has grown through several defeats as they smashed into Israel in attempts to destroy what they consider the accursed Zionist entity which has stolen Islamic lands, what they call an Islamic Waqf, a holy defined area which having once belonged to Islam must never be permitted to leave the domains of Islam. Spain shares this curse, as it was once Andalusia and a part of the Caliphate. The same is true of the Balkans and certain regions of China, India, Russia and the Philippines as they were once a part of the Islamic conquests.

 

The British never lost their anti-Semitism and as the holders of the Mandate attempted to prevent Israel from ever coming into existence through forcing Arabs to be relocated into the area which was to be Israel preventing any Jewish majority. But between Arabs revolting against British rule and the Jews revolting against British rule, the British decided that enough was enough, satisfied that once they had left the Arabs would solve their Jewish problem and deny the Jews ever successfully making their nation. There were even British working assisting the Arab forces. What was somewhat astonishing were the Nazis working together with the Arabs to erase the Jewish State. The desire to bring an end to the State of Israel has grown in Europe since day one and now reached a point where the European Union is building substandard communities with improper plumbing, limited water, no waste management and all in a concerted effort to deny the Jews the lands promised them by international law. Any claim that the Jewish State and the Jewish People do not have clear and complete claim to the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are lies used to attempt to bring down and destroy the Jewish State.

 

Military experts have all agreed that should Israel be forced from Judea and Samaria that the nation will become indefensible and that it will mean that the Jews will be forced from the central area including Tel Aviv, as rockets will be able to be poured down with directly observable adjustment of trajectories making the entire area uninhabitable. This will cut the nation into halves which will be able to be defeated easily. Further, all of the Israeli airports, civilian and military will be within easy range for artillery should the lands of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, be turned over to Arab Palestinians. Further, once Iran or any other hostile Arab country acquires nuclear weapons, then Israel will be facing threat of nuclear annihilation should they respond to such Arab attacks from these lands militarily. Only having the entirety of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea can Israel use the Jordan Valley (see image below) as a defensive barrier against land attack and make direct threat to the population sufficiently difficult that any nations attempting such would be in obvious violation of Israeli borders and thus having committed an act of war by all definitions.

 

Cutaway View of Tactical Advantage and Necessity
of the Jordan Valley and Judean Hills for Defending
Coastal Plains and Israel Alongside the Mediterranean Sea

 

Israel today is facing two opposing movements throughout the world. What is truly astonishing is that these opposing forces exist in numerous nations. The developed world is very interested in the Israeli hi-tech sector and the discoveries and inventions of what is known as Start-Up Nation. Medical institutions and physicians worldwide depend on Israeli breakthroughs, surgical techniques, breakthrough drugs and other medical advances. In Africa, a number of communities are dependent upon Israeli technologies for their clean water and agricultural developments and techniques for increased crop yields not to mention the medical assistance Israel provides. Everywhere on the globe willing to accept Israeli assistance, whenever there are natural or unnatural disasters such as earthquake, volcano, tornado, typhoon, nuclear meltdown or anything you care to name, the Israeli IDF dispatch units who are often specialists trained for the difficulties faced on the ground as well as specialists for those special cases. Yet, in some of these very nations are governments who in the United Nations support any and every denunciations of Israel whenever the opportunity presents itself. In people I believe some would call it schizophrenia, with nations it is called diplomacy. On one hand, they benefit from many things which Israel does and then they condemn Israel for whatever she does or does not do or those items which she is accused of and despite all knowing her innocence, she is condemned just because they can condemn her. We attempted to talk about an idea whose time will come; it is just a matter of when. If only the world would leave Israel alone and allow her, unmolested, to finally make real peace and find a means for allowing the Arabs within her legal borders a choice; semi autonomy, relocation to their former home country or other nation willing to absorb them with a healthy relocation bonus provided to assist their futures in return for their not returning to Israel ever, or another yet undiscovered solution which can never be found as long as the world breathlessly constantly attempts to use the Arab world to destroy the Jewish state calling it the peace process. We only care to place one last item before you for consideration; why is it a requirement for the United Nations Human Rights Council to condemn Israel for any reason either general or specific as a permanent part of their meeting itinerary, their permanent schedule. It has reached such a twisted point that Nikki Haley says United States may leave UN Human Rights Council over ‘anti-Israel bias’ which would only serve as a useless gesture.

 

A greater resolve would lead to the disbanding of what has become a less than perfect tool obsessed with destroying the Jewish state and being utilized as a tool for the anti-Semites disguised as anti-Zionists of the world, and they are Legion. Why is the world so obsessed with Israel and destroying the Jewish state and then the Jewish People if permitted the opportunity. There is one thing which makes all these efforts possibly futile, and it is what has allowed Israel to survive as they did against all odds in 1948 and again in 1967 and 1973 and continued to survive ever since. How was it that Israel was predicted in the Old Testament, Isaiah 66:7-8, to become a nation in a single day. Below are the words in context where they speak of things but in verse eight, it tells of Israel being reborn in a single day in almost straightforward language. The prophet Isaiah lived 740-681 B.C.E. which was over two and a half millennia ago and stated a reality which became true on May 15, 1948, how could one doubt that Israel will be protected as promised as well, that this is the final and permanent return of the Jewish People to their homeland promised to Avraham, Isaac and Yaakov? Israel can be the greatest gift and benefit to all of mankind as Hashem promised, she just requires she be given the opportunity. Israel desires not more land than what was promised to Avraham, the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, no more and no less. Give Israel a chance and she will produce for humanity as she promised. She is largely responsible for much of cell phone technology, security software and medical and science breakthroughs and if these do not grab your attention, then remember that Israel gave the world cherry tomatoes.

 

5. Hearken to the word of the Lord, who quake at His word, “Your brethren who hate you, who cast you out, said, “For the sake of my name, the Lord shall be glorified,” but we will see your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
6. There is a sound of stirring from the city, a sound from the Temple, the voice of the Lord, recompensing His enemies.
7. When she has not yet travailed, she has given birth; when the pang has not yet come to her, she has been delivered of a male child.
8. Who heard [anything] like this? Who saw [anything] like these? Is a land born in one day? Is a nation born at once, that Zion both experienced birth pangs and bore her children?
9. “Will I bring to the birth stool and not cause to give birth?” says the Lord. “Am I not He who causes to give birth, now should I shut the womb?” says your God.
10. Rejoice with Jerusalem and exult in her all those who love her: rejoice with her a rejoicing, all who mourn over her.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

America and Judaism Share One Great Concept

 

Most nations and religions trace themselves to some great person who was responsible for their greatness and in some form or another deify that individual. For nations the examples are legion. Rome traced to the two children raised by a she wolf, Romulus and Remus, China was unified by a leader who was born of a dragon which brought him to China where he unified the separate kingdoms forging a great power, England has King Arthur and the Camelot myth and so on it goes. Christianity gave us Jesus, Islam gave us Mohammed, Buddhism gave us Buddha, Taoism came from Tao and so forth with each religion traced to a person who is raised above other men and in some way deified or immortalized. What follows will likely not sit us well with many readers but is presented for thought and not as any claim that the two seminal foundings were directly related beyond their emphasis on the sanctity of the human spirit and its enabling by the Creator, by Hashem.

 

But with the United States there was no one individual though George Washington is regarded as the father of the nation nobody would claim that he founded or singularly established the country. His greatest feat was giving up power when he could have continued as President until his death thus establishing the temporary power of the office instead of making it into a form of elected monarchy. The American idea was the world of the Founding Fathers, a group where though many people may choose one they prefer, none is more vital to the forging of the United States than the others. Sure we credit Thomas Jefferson with writing the Declaration of Independence but this only came about because John Adams deferred and chose him because he was a talented writer and an amiable person where, as John Adams is credited with stating in persuading Thomas Jefferson claiming when Jefferson claimed Adams was the stronger writer and better at expressing himself claimed that was why he could not be its author because he was far too disliked and anything he wrote would be torn apart by many of the others. James Madison is credited with crafting the initial wording of the constitution but again it became the work of all the signatories in some means or another. The United States is not traceable to a single person but instead to singular ideals expressed in that Declaration of Independence and a form of governance delineated in that Constitution and those are the two pillars upon which America rests.

 

Judaism is similar in that there were great people but no individual can be credited with establishing the religion. Granted when Hashem altered Avram’s name making it Avraham and Sari became Sarah, this would be the seminal point where the Covenant would be made and circumcision the sign of the contract which was to be undertaken by every male; yet the religion itself is transferred through one’s mother and not the father. To be a Jew one is required to have come from a Jewish mother. But Avraham received the Covenant with Hashem; he did not codify Judaism and did not write the Torah. Torah was transcribed by Moses which was why he is referred to as the lawgiver. But Moses transcribed Torah and led the Israelites from Egypt which is told in Torah in Exodus and retold in Deuteronomy. Moses went to great lengths to refute any deification including assuring that he would have no burial location which would be known so as to refute any worship giving all due credit to Hashem. Joshua was the leader of the Israelites when they conquered the Promised Land. Hashem kind of left out that after leaving Egypt the Israelites were going to have to conquer the Promised Lands but that was the way of forming a nation and claiming your place among nations in those early days of humankind. There also were numerous Judges and Prophets who ruled the Israelites but none were greater than the others in reflection and thus none were ever made to be more than wise and knowledgeable men. King Saul was the first Israelite king and was deficient in many ways but did preserve the nation passing it to King David more by default than any other means as the battle which claimed Saul’s son and heir to the throne also threw Saul into such grief that he took his own life, not the most glorious of endings. From King David the throne passed to King Solomon. King Solomon was regarded as one of the wisest of men but also had great failings chief amongst them were the inadequacy of his children who brought great harm upon the Israelites or Hebrews.

 

Torah the Founding Document of Judaism
with Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights
Founding Documents of the United States of America

 

What is less known by many is that the Jews were the remnants of the Israelites. The kingdom ruled by Kings Saul, David, Solomon and so forth broke into two kingdoms with the northern Kingdom called Israel and the southern Kingdom named for its larger tribe, Judah, named Judea. Israel consisted of ten tribes and their priests and was conquered by the Assyrians and never actually heard from until modern times. These became known as the ten lost tribe of the Jews but were really the ten lost tribes of Israel. Jews are the remainder of the tribes of Benjamin and Judea and the Priestly classes, tribes, of the Levites and Kohanim. These two tribes basically merged into the entity of Judea and the people were the Judeans, obviously. With time people grew lazy and did not care to actually say Judeans so it eventually shortened to simply Jews. Judea traced back to Judah and Benjamin to Benjamin, two of the sons of Jacob. One need remember that when Judaism relates to Avraham it is almost always referenced as Avraham, Isaak and Jacob as these were the Patriarchs buried in Hevron in the cave bought by Avraham in which to bury Sarah. Still the story of the Jews hinges greatly on Jacob’s twelve sons but one was responsible for the survival of the entire family, Joseph. This was one of the more unusual stories amongst many unusual stories. Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers but because of this act he was in the right place at the right time to become a favored one of Pharaoh and was placed as Chancellor over Egypt second only in power to Pharaoh himself. He managed resources of food saving Egypt from a great famine and saved his family as well. This led to the eventual enslaving of his family which was then brought forth by Hashem through the vessels which were Moses with Aaron. As is said, the rest is history except in this case it is more accurate to say the rest is the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament and then history as that story has had a rebirth which was foretold in the Bible with the formation in a single day of the nation of modern Israel in its ancient homelands, though that is still being contested the eventual forming of Israel will include its ancient lands even if that takes a thousand years.

 

Judaism and the United States owe their formations to many individuals with none more vital than the rest and neither would exist if not for all of these great people all of whom were guided by principles and forces beyond their comprehension. Did these people know they were a part of something far greater than themselves, of course they did. But each group had the guidance of great people when required the most and both claim that Hashem is an integral part of their formation as a nation. Neither deifies any individual and instead when they use the term Creator their reference is to the Creator of all things as told in Genesis and both Judaism and the United States of America claim to owe their creation to that very same Creator and both claim the view that mankind was imbued and “endowed by that Creator with unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These principles are found throughout the laws and preaching in Judaism and were carried forth in Christianity and found their place in the Declaration of Independence where they were once again ensconced in the human mind and established repeatedly but most forcefully in Torah and thus made available for Thomas Jefferson to include in his declaration.

 

Beyond the Cusp