Holocaust Memorial

By Rabbi Dov Berl Wein The advent of Yom HaShoah always engenders within me an inner turbulence and discomfort. It is not only the fact that the Holocaust destroyed six million innocent people simply because they were Jews - a third of our nation and co-religionists - though that alone causes me to have this great angst in my soul. Human beings are somehow built to withstand tragedy - even enormous indescribable tragedy - and continue with life. Rather, part of my discomfort is that I, and I think the Jewish people generally, have not found a truly meaningful way of commemorating this historic tragedy. All of the Holocaust museums world wide and especially Yad Vashem here in Jerusalem are magnificent in their historic presentation of the awful facts of the Holocaust. But one never leaves the museums with a sense of comfort or even consolation let alone closure. There is no museum that can speak to the soul of the Jew. It speaks to our senses, even to our intellect, to our hearts, but somehow never to our soul. And it is that emptiness deep within our soul that gnaws at us and leaves us unfulfilled no matter how magnificent the museum or meaningful the memorial ceremony may be. There are numerous groups within the Jewish society that somehow do not participate in Holocaust memorial days or events. There are many reasons advanced for this seemingly insensitive behavior, none of which are satisfactory to my mind or soul. Yet I feel deep down in my being that the spiritual and soulful emptiness that somehow always accompanies these commemorations reflects the absence of so many Jews. I say this not in criticism of any of the commemorations. They have an impossible task and therefore one should almost expect them to fall short of the mark. But the intellectual acceptance of this fact still does little to quiet the turmoil in my soul. I have always identified myself and our post-Holocaust generations with the great imagery of the scene described by the prophet Yechezkel. The prophet views a large valley covered by bleached scattered human bones. The Midrash teaches us that these were the remains of the tens of thousands of the tribe of Joseph who attempted to escape Egyptian bondage before the actual redemption from Egypt by Moses took place. They had fallen victim to the ravages of the desert and the enmity of the pagan tribes that persecuted them. The prophet sees no hope for their revival. After all, by his time they have already been dead for millennia. And the prophet also senses that they have never properly been mourned and commemorated. The Lord informs the prophet that these bones are symbolic of "the entire household of Israel." The household of Israel is itself overwhelmed with its anonymous dead who have no graves or monuments to somehow mark the fact that they once lived on this earth. The prophet despairs of their revival or continuity. But the Lord tells him to prophesy over the dry bones and restore them to their physical human form. Then the spirit of the Lord enters them and they come back life and arise on the valley floor as a mighty host. The prophet does not tell us what the end of this story was. What happened to this mighty host of newly and miraculously revived Jews? The Talmud offers two different insights on this matter. One is that the revival was only a temporary phenomenon and that they all reverted immediately to being dry dead bones. This opinion was contradicted by the sage Rabbi Yehuada ben Beteira. He rose in the study hall and stated: "God forbid that we should advance such a pessimistic opinion. Rather, they married, raised children and lived a full life thereafter. And I am a descendant of theirs and as a proof of the matter I hold in my hand the tefilin of my ancestors [that they themselves wore.]" I feel that the only closure that can reach our soul regarding Jewish tragedy is the recognition of the continuity of generations and tradition that binds the Jewish people together. Our past, those that are gone and even those who are unknown to us whose ashes and bones litter the landscape of a cursed continent, live on through us - through our achievements and struggles on behalf of Torah and Israel. We wear their tefilin, many of us literally, all of us figuratively. This realization regarding the tefilin will always speak to our souls and help us to truly commemorate the Holocaust and the resilience of the Jewish people in overcoming a tragedy of even such incalculable dimensions.

A Letter Read in Auschwitz

By Shmuel Sackett

In commemoration of Yom Ha’Shoah, I thought it best to let you read the letter I wrote to my 16 year old who recently visited Poland with her entire 11^th grade class. They had been preparing the entire year for this trip, with speakers, discussions and many hours of classes dealing with the Holocaust. As a final preparation, they spent close to 10 hours at Yad Vashem studying what had happened. My daughter told me that while she appreciated all these preparations, nothing would ever match the experience they had by witnessing – first hand – the horrific atrocities up close. They walked into the gas chambers. They saw the mountains of hair. They smelled the ovens and they felt the chill in the air by the Forest of the Children. This will never be forgotten by anyone.

An interesting thing done by the school was that they asked each parent to write a letter to their daughter, which would be given to the girls as they were leaving Auschwitz. Here is the letter I wrote:

“On this very important trip you are witnessing horrible things that were done to our nation. We want to tell you two things: First of all, it is ok to cry. Crying means you feel their pain and you identify with your brothers and sisters who were killed only because they were Jewish. Never before was such terrible things done to our people and every day of your trip is like Tisha B’av. Therefore, here is what we want you do: Cry…cry LOTS of tears. Make the disgusting ground of Poland wet with your tears so that your tears will mix with the blood of the 6,000,000. And then, when you want to just keep crying, here is the second thing we want you to do: STOP crying and start BUILDING!! A Jew doesn’t cry forever – he/she builds, grows, settles and fights back! A Jew stops crying and starts taking revenge by having LOTS of babies and building LOTS of houses in a strong and proud State of Israel.

Therefore, our sweetest daughter, turn those tears into positive action. Come back from this incredible experience and make every Jew-hater pay for the pain they inflicted on us. Make every one of them burn in hell by looking at you and how connected you are to our Father in Heaven. Make sure that all the children of these beasts see how happy you are in Israel and how dedicated you are to our land and our Torah and to a life of holiness!!

Our nation needs wonderful, good, holy Jews like you and your friends. We need your strength, your spirit and your motivation. May you never forget what you saw and may you turn those sad memories into positive actions – now and forever!!

We love you and are so proud of you!!

May we all dance together in the Bet Ha’Mikdash!!

Love,

Mommy and Abba”

Lessons of the Holocaust

By Moshe Feiglin

I am very ashamed of the Holocaust.  How my people were taken, stripped, humiliated, tortured and led to their deaths – before the eyes of the joyous Poles, Ukrainians, French and other offspring of Christian enlightenment; how newborn babies were impaled on pitchforks on the way to the death pits; how millions were led to the factories of death, and suffocated and burned, fertilizing the fields of Poland and Europe with our people’s ashes – and all with almost no resistance.

I am very proud of the Holocaust.  If the German Asmodeus – the most explicit essence of absolute evil ever revealed in history – sees me, the Jew, as its ultimate enemy, then that means that I am on the other end of the scale. In other words, there is something very good about my people.  If the German Asmodeus represents absolute evil, then it is very afraid of the absolute good – G-d – which I represent.

There is no way to explain the Holocaust.  I know survivors who are not on speaking terms with G-d.  I know many who are the opposite.  I have no right to go there – and I have neither the ability nor the desire to do so.  But irrespective of the theological questions surrounding the Holocaust, one thing clearly occurred in its wake: Jewish history stopped being written in exile and started to be written in the Land of Israel.

Now, for the first time since the First Temple period (!), the majority of the Jewish People will be living in the Holy Land.  This fact constitutes a spiritual critical mass.  Jewish law changes in several realms by virtue of the demographic fact that “most of its sons are on [the land].”  The absolute number that we are approaching in the Land of Israel is chilling.  Six million.

G-d, Who chose us to be His eternal people and to attest to His existence, has made us a target for extermination by every evil in the world.  It is certainly understandable why there are Jews who constantly try to escape this fate.  As individuals, this may be possible – an individual may be able to assimilate and rid him/herself of this trouble.  But as a people, we cannot escape our destiny.  We cannot exist without it.

When the time of national awakening comes, when the gates of the Land open before us but we insist on remaining merely the bearers of religion in exile – the ground burns under our feet.  And when we flee to the other extreme, create an alternative Israeli nationalism and shun Judaism and the Torah, then even if we have decided that we are no longer Jews, but only normal Israelis, even if we have established a modern state and hold 200 atom bombs in our nuclear arsenal   – we are still six million Jews under the mounting danger of annihilation.

Our obsessive need to maintain international recognition of our normalcy forces us to pay in the hard currency of homeland and security in exchange for the peace process – or in other words, the process of our “acceptance” as a normal people among the nations.

There are two historical lessons that we should remember well from the Holocaust:

One is that the armies of Czechoslovakia and France – both much stronger before the war than the German army – went down like dominoes, because their leaderships failed to understand the nature of the conflict and based their policies on peace processes.

The second lesson, which pertains directly to us as Jews, is that before physical destruction there is spiritual destruction.  Before we are murdered, our dignity is murdered, and we are rendered illegitimate.  Der Stuermer always precedes Auschwitz.  When you agree to be humiliated, you have not forestalled your end; you have brought it closer.  Jewish history is being written today in the State of Israel.  The desire to destroy the state is the same desire to destroy the Jews – to fight against good.

When the state’s leadership lets Biden or Erdogan humiliate us, it sows hope and uncontrollable desire to destroy us.  When Ahmadinejad started to talk about Israel’s destruction   – it should have been clear that from Israel’s standpoint, he had lost his right to breathe in this world.  Since we did not eliminate him, he has been gaining strength. He and his ministers roam freely around the world, while Israel has become a pirate ship that has lost the legitimacy for its existence, its ministers fugitives in European capitals.  We have returned to the days of the “Jewish Question.” We are no longer in 2010. It is now nineteen thirty-something.

Whoever warns against a preemptive strike in Iran and prefers to let the world do its work, is behaving just like the Jewish community leaders who denounced anyone who tried to resist the German annihilation machine.  It is clear that resistance had a terrible price.  But the price of appeasement and cooperation was a thousand times more horrific.

The Pita that Revived Terror

By Moshe Feiglin

During the First Lebanon War, the IDF forced the PLO terrorists all the way to the Beirut port and from there to Tunisia. The PLO, which had lost its stronghold in Lebanon was shattered. Salach Taamri, the most senior and admired terrorist captured by the IDF, was imprisoned in the Ansar detention camp. He was a broken man.

Later, he was interviewed by Aharon Barnea, who also wrote a book about him, called “To be Captive.”

In Barnea’s book, Taamri describes the situation of the terror organization prior to Pesach, 28 years ago. “I concluded,” said Taamri, “that we had no chance to overpower Israel’s financial and military prowess, and that we should make do with the crumbs that they would throw us and fold up all our flags.” Taamri, an intellectual and patriot, willingly cooperated with his captors. The other prisoners understood from their admired commander that the end had come and the war was lost. And then, Taamri continued, a surprising event took place that turned everything upside down.

“My hands were holding the cold bars and I was looking from inside my dark jail cell toward the hall, where an Israeli guard was walking. I saw him from far. He was walking slowly, holding something in his hand that he would constantly bring close to his mouth. He would bring it close and then distance it. When he was close to my cell, I called to him. I saw that he was eating a pita. He would bite, chew, bite and chew.

‘You are a Jew,’ I said to him. ‘Why are you eating chametz on Pesach? Don’t you know that it is forbidden for a Jew to eat chametz on this holiday?

‘I am not committed to the things that happened to my People during the exodus from Egypt 2000 years ago. I have no connection to it,’ said the Jewish prison guard.

I sat on the mattress in my cell and said to myself: A nation of people who do not have a connection with their past; who are willing to publicly desecrate the laws of their faith, is a nation that has cut off the roots from its land. We will be able to achieve our goals. On that night, my approach completely changed. I couldn’t fall asleep. In all those hours of darkness, I replayed that scene with the Jewish prison guard.

The next morning I gathered the Palestinian leadership in the prison; all those who knew my opinion over the years. I told them about my experience and the conclusions that I reached. I clarified to everyone that from that morning, we were embarking on a new course: a war for everything. Not for a small percentage and not for crumbs that they would throw us. For opposing us was a nation that lacked the connection to its roots; a nation not interested in its past. Thus, its motivation was necessarily void of any will to struggle and fight.
Since then, I have told my story to tens of thousands. I convinced all of them that the approach must be changed and that we must struggle without compromise.”

Taamri was elected to the Palestinian parliament and indeed convinced his friends, breathing new spirit into the war against Israel. The damage done by that pita eaten by the Israeli soldier on the holiday of Pesach cannot be exaggerated.

The question mark hovering over the right of the Jewish state to exist – and as a result, over its right to defend itself in the face of existential threat – is directly connected to our identity as G-d’s nation.

When the nations of the world see that G-d’s Name is called upon us, when we know who we are, understand what we represent and are at peace with our destiny, the power of deterrence that the terrorist Taamri initially felt will be established. But when it turns out that we are not interested in G-d’s Name being called upon us, the nations can openly plan to destroy us, with nuclear weapons or in any other way – with no fear.

Israel’s Message of Liberty

By Moshe Feiglin

Liberty means taking responsibility for your fate. Slavery means depositing your fate in the hands of others. In other words, the more that other people control your fate, the less liberty you enjoy. In order to be free, you must allow as few people or systems as possible to run your life. The ultimate free person is he who is controlled by no one – especially not himself. Dictators — those humans who have transformed themselves into gods – are actually the most enslaved people on earth.

The truly free person is he who is committed only to G-d. It is not easy for us to know what G-d wants from us. Each of us has the privilege and the obligation to try to reach that understanding and to draw his conclusions without coercion. But the principle remains: The truly free person is he who believes in G-d.

The greatest slavery mechanisms in human history were created by radical leftist ideologies that negated the existence of G-d and thus denied the sanctity of life. Stalin’s Communism murdered more people than Hitler’s National Socialism. Mao’s Communism murdered more people than the sum of all the victims of both World Wars combined. The murderousness of the Communist party in some countries continues until this very day. In fact, most of humanity, including those people who live in democratic countries – are still enslaved. Some live in iron cages while others live in golden cages, but the lesson learned from the redemption from Egypt is still waiting to be actualized.

 Does the Nation of Israel, the nation that suffered slavery to humans in Egypt and made the difficult transition to exclusive service of G-d have a message of liberty for the billions of modern day slaves? Israel has the key to true liberty – the service of no one or nothing but G-d. That message though, is currently buried under layers of self-deception. To illuminate the world with its message of liberty, Israel must transform itself into a free country.

 What is a free country? According to the definition of liberty above, a free country is a country in which most of the authority is in the hands of the citizens, who have true freedom of choice. In today’s Israel, the citizen has no influence over any of the country’s power hubs. Yes, he can vote for the parliament, but his vote has no significance. The fate of the country is not determined in the parliament, but by the media, the State Prosecution and other power hubs that all work together. None of these mechanisms are elected by the public or profoundly affected by its criticism.

 In the authentic Jewish liberty state, the citizen is responsible for his fate. He elects his leaders and representatives to the parliament in direct district elections. In the district-election method, every citizen becomes a party “central committee member,” whose opinion is important to his elected representative.

 In the Jewish liberty state, the citizen has a wide range of media options. Today, he can only choose between leftist broadcasts, because any non-leftist broadcasting stations are immediately made illegal.

 In the Jewish liberty state, the nation chooses its judges. Candidates for judicial positions must first have a public hearing. Their stand on the Jewish identity of the state, the definition of family, the release of terrorists, the expulsion of Jews from their homes and more will be public knowledge before the voting begins.

 In the Jewish liberty state, parents decide how their children will be educated and will be able to choose from various educational approaches.

 In the Jewish liberty state, national land belongs to the Nation of Israel – to all the Jews. Every new Jewish family will be entitled to a lot of land somewhere in the entire Land of Israel. Those who claim that this is impossible can just look to see what is happening in Wadi Ara, where the State of Israel is effectively giving its land to every new Arab family.

 In the Jewish liberty state, loyalty is the national behavioral code. Captives are not abandoned, Pollard is not abandoned and allies such as the Southern Lebanese Army are not abandoned.

 In the Jewish liberty state, there is no compromise with evil. Evil is fought, giving the citizens the security they deserve and liberating them from “protective” walls and fences.

 When the State of Israel is freed of its built-in bondage, when we return to ourselves and establish the authentically free Jewish state, the Jewish message of liberty born of exclusive service of G-d will illuminate the world.

US-Israel cooperation defies Obama-Netanyahu confrontation

By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Defense, scientific and commercial cooperation between the US and Israel is surging unprecedentedly, in defiance of the unbridgeable gap between the worldviews of President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

For example, 250 major US high-tech companies maintain research and development centers in Israel, which has become a major source of cutting-edge innovative technologies, improving US competitiveness, increasing US exports and expanding US employment. In 2014, Israeli startups raised an all-time record of $3.4bn, mostly from US investors. Israel operates hundreds of US military and homeland security systems, providing the US defense industries with critical lessons of operation, maintenance and repairs, which dramatically upgrade the quality of these systems and their global competitiveness, improving US research and development, exports and employment. US-Israel cooperation in the areas of cyber, nano and space technologies is rising sharply. Israel provides the US with intelligence, exceeding the intelligence provided to the US by all NATO countries combined. The formulation of US battle tactics, in general – and urban warfare. in particular - is based largely on Israel's battle experience. Joint US-Israel air force exercises are conducted regularly.  US Army units on their way to Afghanistan are trained by Israeli experts in urban warfare, car bombs, suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). 

Contrary to the one-way-street type of relationship of 40 years ago (the US gave and Israel received), current US-Israel ties have been transformed into a mutually-beneficial two-way-street, expanding cooperation – especially at a time of drastic cuts in the US defense budget and the US withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen - irrespective of the intensified tension between Obama and Netanyahu. 

While President Obama harshly criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu's attitude toward the Palestinian issue, US national security and commercial interests, as well as US-Israel relations and Obama's legacy transcend, by far, the Palestinian issue.  

Moreover, President Obama's assumption that an unresolved Palestinian issue is a core cause of Middle East turbulence overlooks the last four years of the Arab Tsunami, which have exposed the marginal role of the Palestinian issue in shaping the Middle East.  Thus, the tectonic outbursts in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and Iraq – as well as the lethal Iranian threat to every pro-American Arab country in the region – are independent of the Palestinian issue. Also, the Arab countries shower the Palestinians with rhetoric, but not with tangible resources. They do not consider the Palestinians their crown jewel, but rather a source of further corruption, subversion and terrorism.

While Obama and Netanyahu are on a collision course, the US Congress – the most authentic representative of the American constituent and a co-equal, co-determining branch of government in all areas – has been a systematic supporter of enhanced US-Israel cooperation.  It was Congress which stopped the US military involvement in Vietnam, Angola and Nicaragua (in defiance of Presidents Nixon and Reagan); triggered the collapse of the white regime in South Africa (overriding Reagan's veto); forced Moscow to allow free emigration; clipped the wings of the US intelligence community (in defiance of President Ford); has refrained from ratifying the 1999 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (signed by President Clinton); significantly expanded strategic cooperation with Israel (in defiance of President Bush and Secretary Baker); forced President Obama to veto the 2011 UN Security Council anti-settlement resolution and to sign the August 1, 2014 $225mn appropriation for the acquisition of additional Iron Dome batteries; etc.  The US political system provides Congress with the muscle to initiate policy and change, suspend, defund, rollback and abort presidential domestic, foreign policy and national security initiatives.

Unlike US ties with most other countries, US special ties with the Jewish State reflect the sentiments of most constituents, independent and irrespective of presidential policies.  They are based on Judeo-Christian values, dating back to the 17^th century Pilgrims of the "Mayflower" and the "Arabella," which departed from "modern day Egypt," crossed the "modern day sea" and landed in the "modern day Promised Land." Today, there are statues of Moses in the US House of Representatives (facing the Speaker) and the US Supreme Court (above the desk of the Justices), and Ten Commandments monuments stand on the grounds of the Texas and Oklahoma  state capitols.

For Netanyahu to embrace Obama's policies on Iran and the Palestinian issue would require ignoring Obama's track record in the Middle East: he welcomed the Arab Tsunami as an Arab Spring transitioning toward democracy; he stabbed the back of pro-US, former Egyptian President Mubarak and is turning a cold shoulder toward General Sisi, the current President, while embracing the anti-US Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamic terror organization; he denies the existence of Islamic terrorism ("workplace violence," "extremism"); he claims that "Islam has always been part of the American story" (2009 Cairo speech); he contends that the root cause of terrorism is social-economic deprivation; he trained the anti-US, pro-Iran Houthi tribes of Yemen; he provides tailwind to Iran's gradual domination of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen (which controls the critical strait of Bab al Mandeb), assuming that "the enemy of my enemy (Iran) is my friend," while in fact Iran is "my enemy"; he is preoccupied with the details of an agreement with Iran rather than with the details of Iran's rogue, terrorist, non-compliant, apocalyptic, expansionist, anti-US track record;;he aims to contain, and not to prevent, a nuclear Iran; he transformed Libya into one of the largest incubator of terrorism; he subordinates US unilateral action to multilateralism; he has lost the trust of Saudi Arabia and other pro-US Arab states, unprecedentedly eroding the US posture of deterrence.

For Netanyahu to embrace Obama's policies on Iran and the Palestinian issue would spare him the wrath of the White House, but would distance him from Middle East reality, dooming the Jewish State to destruction.

How to end the ME conflict in four easy steps

By Ted Belman

Dennis Ross and David Makovsky in Israel’s Drive Toward Self-Destruction, argue that Netanyahu must offer up hope to Palestinians or face a revived de-legitimization movement. They’re certainly right to point out that the delegitimation movement will grow, but they are wrong to suggest that the answer is for Israel to offer hope to the Palestinians. How facile is that? They argue that what Israel needs to do is begin capitulating even before the negotiations commence, let alone, conclude. They want Israel to give up its bargaining chips for nothing in return.

The Palestinians don’t hope to be given a state, they hope to destroy a state, namely Israel.

It’s not Israel that needs to prove its bona fides, it’s the Palestinians that need to.

The problem with the Ross/Makovsky recommendations is that they are put forward to achieve a pre-ordained (at least by the international community) solution, namely two states for two people based on the ’67 lines plus swaps, a divided Jerusalem and “just solution”  for the Palestinian refugees, of which there are few (60,000), and their descendants. Whatever happened to all matters must be negotiated? Also, the law doesn’t require them to go back to the ’67 lines but Obama does.

And the recommendations ignores the many threats to Israel along its borders. Ross and Makovsky assume that these threats will eventually evaporate but offer no arguments why this will be so. Yet they want Israel to put herself in jeopardy by offering “hope”. The greatest of these threats, Iran, is now becoming greater due to the deal being negotiated by the Obama administration that will, in Netanyahu’s words, pave the way to them getting the bomb.

On March 31/15, the Times of Israel, reported, Iran militia chief: Destroying Israel is ‘nonnegotiable’

“The commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that “erasing Israel off the map” is ‘nonnegotiable,’ according to an Israel Radio report Tuesday.

“In 2014, Naqdi said Iran was stepping up efforts to arm West Bank Palestinians for battle against Israel, adding the move would lead to Israel’s annihilation, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

“’Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,’ Naqdi said.

“’The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back,’ he added. Naqdi claimed that much of Hamas’s arsenal, training and technical knowhow in the summer conflict with Israel was supplied by Iran.”

There is a major war looming, aided and abetted by the Obama administration, yet Ross and Makovsky ignore Israel’s reality and peril.

Israel National News reports on April 1/15, IDF Scenario for Next Hezbollah War: 1,500 Missiles Per Day

“Army updates estimates for damages in possible northern war, expects dozens or hundreds of lives lost per day.

“IDF experts estimate that the number of missiles to hit northern Israel on a given day would be 1,000-1,500, and the number of people killed daily will be in double or even triple digits.

Of course Obama’s new bedmate, Iran, is responsible for providing Hezbollah with an enormous arsenal of rockets, reputed to exceed 60,000 rockets, with which to wreak havoc on Israel. Ross and Makovsky make no mention of this threat.

Furthermore, the international community is responsible for the lack of a solution because it keeps supporting the weaker side. Normally, a labor dispute in which the workers have struck, is settled when one side decides to compromise their demands because of economic necessity. In the “peace process” the Palestinians are supported at every turn, both politically and financially, and are held blameless. So they have no reason or necessity to compromise. In fact the status quo is just fine for them, thank you very much.

This support has thwarted the intent of the Oslo Accords. Rabin once said that the Palestinians would have to bend to the will of Israel because Israel is the stronger party and holds all the cards or something to that effect. What he did not factor in, was that the international community would bolster the Palestinians, making a settlement impossible.

So my first recommendation would be to set aside the pre-ordained solution. Instead, let the only parameter be UNSC Res 242. Forget about the Arab Peace Initiative. It has no legitimacy.

Secondly, leave the parties to their own devices. Stop supporting the Palestinians financially or politically.

Thirdly, UNWRA should be done away with and all so called refugees should be resettled like all refugees are resettled. UNGA Resolution 393 provides for this.

” 4. Considers that, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 11 of General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, the reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East, either by repatriation or resettlement, is essential in preparation for the time when international assistance is no longer available, and for the realization of conditions of peace and stability in the area”

Thus it recommends “reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East either by repatriation or resettlement”. There is no reason why these “refugees” can’t also be resettled throughout the world just as the Syrian refugees are being resettled. Or just normalize them where they are by giving them citizenship. If the host countries refuse to do this then they must be resettled in countries that will.  It would help considerably if the standard definition of what a refugee is, be applied rather than to consider their descendants as refugees also.

I should point out that the “right of return” derives from Res 194, which, like all UNGA resolutions is a recommendation only.

The world community, by maintaining the refugee status of these people, is contributing to the impasse in the “peace process”. By maintaining the “right of return” they are adding to the insolubles.

Fourthly, support the emigration of Palestinians from Judea and Samaria and from Gaza, (rather than rebuilding Gaza). There are currently about 3.5 million Arabs living there. If the world would absorb 2 million of them, Israel would extend its sovereignty over these lands and offer citizenship or autonomy to the remaining Arabs. Thus the conflict would be over.

In summary, if the west wants to end the conflict, it should resettle the “refugees” and absorb 2 million Palestinians. It’s that easy.

Instead, Ross and Makovsky prefer to demand Israel, at her peril, accept the deal that the world, with US leadership, has pre-ordained. Israel isn’t about to do so.

Ironically, just as Obama is reconsidering his options on how to impose a solution, support for a “two-state solution” is less popular in the United States than it has been in at least two decades. This according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

On Pesach We were Redeemed and Set Apart

By HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

Every holiday has its accomplishment and the light unique to it, light that is akin to the first
light that was showered on Israel. Through fulfilling the mitzvoth commanded to us, “reminding us of
the Exodus”, that light shines upon us, like the light that shined on us at the start when we triumphantly left Egypt.

The mitzvoth involving chametz and matza serve to remind us and to teach us that until the
Exodus from Egypt, Israel were mixed among the rest of the nations, like “one nation out of another”
(Deuteronomy 4:34). It was at the Exodus that we were redeemed and set apart. How so? The chametz, the regular bread that we eat all year long, is suited to man’s nature. It is easily digestible and tastes good. Our sages compare chametz to man’s evil impulse. Yet there is something special, the Pesach holiday, in which Israel were commanded to entirely avoid seeing or housing chametz in our possession. By eating matza we diminish the power of the evil impulse and our tendency towards the material, and we increase our affinity for the spiritual, for our Father in Heaven. Matza is our bread of faith. By such means we merit that same light and bounty unique to Pesach, time of our freedom, in which we were redeemed and set apart (see Ramchal, Derech Hashem, IV:8).

In every generation a person must see himself as though he, himself left the slavery of Egypt. It
was in this regard that G-d commanded us, “Remember that you were a slave” (Deuteronomy 5:14).
As Rambam puts it, “As though you, yourself, were a slave who went free and was redeemed” (Hilchot Chametz U’Matza 7:5). In our generation, the generation of national rebirth and of the ingathering of the exiles, we can see with our own eyes the emergence from exile to redemption, from darkness to light, and it is relatively easy for us to view ourselves as though we, ourselves, just left exile for redemption. Yet as stated, at the Exodus we were not just redeemed but set apart from all the nations.

We recognized our identity, which makes us unique and sets us apart from the Egyptians and from the
nations, that G-d chose us from all the nations and He loves us, as we daily say, “G-d chooses His
people Israel, with love” (blessings of the Shema). Especially on the first night of Pesach, but in general as well, we must not only remember the redemption but also the separation between us and the nations. By such means we will merit, before Gd, whose word created the universe, to sing a new song, with enormous joy:
 “When Israel went out of Egypt, Jacob’s household from a people of strange speech, Judah became G-d’s sanctuary, Israel His dominion” (Hallel).
With blessings for a kosher and joyous holiday,
Looking forward to complete redemption.

The Rabbi who was "Kasher" for Pesach

Rabbi Yisrael Rosen Dean of the Zomet Institute

"And I will take you out from the suffering of Egypt, and I will rescue you from their labor, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments, and I will take you for me as a nation... And I will bring you to the land." [Shemot 6:6-8]. The most common reason given for drinking four cups of wine on Pesach, when "even a very poor man in Yisrael should not drink less than four cups," is to represent the four different phrases of redemption which Moshe listed in the introduction to his message to the people enslaved in Egypt (Yerushalmi Talmud, Pesachim 10:1, where other reasons are also given). However, in the verses quoted above there are five variations of redemption – "I will take you out, I will rescue you, I will redeem you, I will take you for me, I will bring you to the land." We can indeed have a discussion of exactly what redemption we have been yearning for all these years, with the themes of the progress towards the goal as presented in the verses. Is it sufficient to reach the stage that "I have redeemed you," which is a matter of personal freedom? Or perhaps what is needed is the subsequent stage, religious nationalism, "I will take you for me as a nation." However, there is also a fifth stage, "I will bring you to the land," which completes the triangle, "the nation of Yisrael, in Eretz Yisrael, according to the Torah of Yisrael." And, indeed, the Rambam rules (but the Shulchan Aruch does not bring such a ruling!), "A fifth cup of wine should be poured, and Hallel should be recited over it... This cup is not an obligation like the other four." [Hilchot Chametz U'Matza 8:10]. This custom of adding a fifth cup of wine, which is based on various different versions of the text in the Talmud, was adopted by the Geonim and has been discussed throughout the generations in terms of halacha.      * * * * * * A prominent Jew once lived in Jerusalem by the name of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher (he passed away in 5744/1983). The man was respected and honored, and one of the most prominent members of the Gur Chassidic dynasty. I was close to him in the seventies, when I lived in Jerusalem. He brought me close to his Torah-literary labors, and I was privileged to help him edit various pamphlets that he wrote at the same time that he was occupied on his tremendous work "Torah Sheleimah" (with dozens of volumes!). Rabbi Kasher was a Chassid in depth, one of the prominent Torah scholars in the Chareidi Gur courtyard. In 5624 (1924), he made Aliyah from Warsaw, the stronghold of the Chassidim of Poland, in order to found a yeshiva here, "Sefat-Emet-Gur." Among other matters that he attended to, Rabbi Kasher served as the chairman of Zichron David, an institution which purchased the land of Migdal-Eder in Gush Etzion (5686/1926). In spite of his being in the Chareidi camp, Rabbi Kasher had a religious Zionist soul, as could be seen in his monumental book "Hatekufah Hagedolah" (The Great Era), which has 600 pages. He wrote the book in 5729 (1969), in the wake of the victories of the Six Day War and the liberation of Jerusalem. He wrote that the theme of the book was "a series of chapters discussing the status of the nation and our holy land at this hour, with a comprehensive analysis of the redemption and its signs." The concept of atchalta d'geula (the start of the redemption) was central to his thesis, which had elements parallel to the approach of Rav Kook. (Rabbi Kasher lived not far from Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook.)      * * * * * * I first became aware of Rabbi Kasher as a young boy, when for Pesach of 5710 (1950) I received a copy of the beautiful "Hagadda of Eretz Yisrael," which he published in New York (where he lived for several years). The Hagadda was inspired by the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and one of its central themes was a call to renew the custom of the fifth cup of wine, to show our thanks for the ingathering of the exiles and the establishment of the state from out of the ruins of the Holocaust in Europe. As a boy, I was spellbound by the main illustration in the Hagadda, grandiose drawings of the five cups of wine. Here is what Rabbi Kasher wrote: "In our time, when we have been privileged by the kindness of G-d and His salvation to see the establishment of the State of Israel, which is the beginning of the redemption, and the salvation from the exile of Edom and the fulfillment of the promise, 'I will bring you to the Land,' it is good and proper that we should observe the special mitzva of drinking the fifth cup of wine, and recite Hallel, 'for at our lowest point He remembered us and saved us from our oppressors,' and to thank G-d for the miracles and the wonders and the wars which He fought for us in our day... And just as we have been privileged to see the beginning of 'I have brought you,' so shall we be privileged to merit a full redemption." Rabbi Kasher printed halachic "propaganda" in favor of a Fifth Cup in an appendix to Torah Sheleimah (the Torah portion of Va'eira), and also in a separate booklet. Rabbi Kasher bases his call on the Hagadda of the Maharal, where the following appears after "Hallel Hamitzri" ("Ki L'Olam Chasdo"): "The head of the household alone should take the Cup of Eliyahu and drink the wine while reclining, without a new blessing (but he should recite the blessing after drinking the wine), and he should say, 'I am ready and prepared to observe the mitzva of the Fifth Cup which is related to the news of salvation, 'And I will bring you to the land.'"

Iran on Israel’s Borders

By Moshe Feiglin

The purpose of the agreement being drawn up with Iran is not to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. The agreement will simply be a fig leaf for the world leaders who have already accepted a nuclear Iran as fact.

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More than one hundred thousand weapons grade, precise missiles (some of them guided missiles) are lurking on Israel’s northern border.  In the era of Google Earth, it is easy to aim them at any strategic target anywhere in Israel. Iran by and large decides whether or not to launch those missiles. This is an unprecedented strategic change (a bad one, of course) that has taken place in our region over the decade. It has far-reaching implications for Israel’s ability to defend itself.

Behind the public’s back, without any serious discussion in the cabinet or Israel’s media, Israel’s government has allowed a fundamental and essential change in Israel’s security situation to play out before its eyes. The destruction wrought by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima (which is what Iran is currently capable of developing) is comparable to the payload delivered by 750 Scud missiles. This means that from a tactical standpoint – the ability to destroy and neutralize Israel’s infrastructure – the threat on Israel’s northern border due to Israel’s fiasco is no less than the threat of at least one nuclear bomb.

What led to this situation? How did Israel allow it to happen?

Our present situation is the result of UN Security Council resolution 1701. This resolution was energetically advanced by Israel’s former foreign minister during the Olmert administration: Tzippy Livni. Did Resolution 1701 allow the Hizballah to advance missiles up to Israel’s border? On the surface, just the opposite seems to be true. According to the resolution, the entire area between the Litani River in Lebanon and Israel’s northern border is supposed to be demilitarized and completely free of missiles. So how is it that the complete opposite resulted?

The answer is that neither the Israelis, nor the UN Security Council – and certainly not the Hizballah – believed for one moment that the agreement would be fulfilled. Everyone knew that as soon as Israel would retreat from Lebanon, the Hizballah would re-arm the entire area – even more than before the war. But Israel’s leaders and certainly the world leaders were looking for a rug under which to sweep the glowing embers; they were looking for a way to wriggle out of their basic obligation to the security of their nation and to return to ‘normal’ while creating the illusion that they had actually fulfilled their duty. Resolution 1701 was an excellent rug under which to hide the ‘atomic bomb’ that was deployed in its wake (!), unopposed, on Israel’s northern border.

Even the Defense Minister at that time, Ehud Barak (the same person who fled Lebanon 8 years before that, under pressure from former radio broadcaster and current Labor Party MK Shelly Yechimovitz) timidly complained about Resolution 1701 in private, saying that the resolution was not good and that the situation with Lebanon was worse than before the war (NRG August 13, ’08).

But Livni insisted, saying that Israel had “three options: To conquer Lebanon, to leave Lebanon with no arrangement in place or to create change. We have created change in South Lebanon. Those who think they have a better idea are invited to put it on the table.” (ibid)

Was Livni’s option really better than war or than leaving Lebanon without an arrangement?

The answer is that Livni’s ‘arrangement’ turned out to be the worst option. This ‘arrangement’ was really just a smoke screen for the public, allowing the politicians to wriggle out of their responsibility for state security and nonetheless to continue to conduct state business without criticism.

Israel reaped the fruits of the glowing embers it had left behind when Barak ordered the hasty 2000 retreat from Lebanon in the form of the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Today, we are reaping the fruits of the war’s disgraceful end –Resolution 1701 – in the form of the ‘Iranian bomb’ casting its shadow on our northern border. Sooner or later (without a doubt) it will be activated.

In answer to the facts enumerated here and in other sources, we will always hear the empty words, “The IDF will always know how to defend the State of Israel in all situations.”

The arrogance of those vacuous words did not help the residents of Kiryat Shmona and Haifa after Israel’s retreat from the north. It also did not help the residents of Sderot and Beer Sheva after the retreats in the south.

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The talks in Lausanne that pretend to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capabilities are a broader and more sophisticated version of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The Iranians understand that Obama, Putin and the Europeans do not really have a red line beyond which they are willing to go to war to prevent them from becoming a nuclear power. They understand that their negotiating partners are not interested in maintaining the present sanctions. In other words, the Iranians understand that none of those world leaders will lose any sleep out of fear that their successors will have to deal with a nuclear Iran. All of them have more urgent troubles. All of them assume that the immediate threat is directed at the Jews and not at them. All of them prefer to put their faith in technological defense systems and at any rate, the Iranian bomb is not an existential threat to their large countries, which can absorb a hit and still react by wiping Iran off the face of the earth.

The last thing that Obama and the Europeans want now is a war between Iran and its accomplices. Putin, on the other hand, does not feel threatened at all by Iran and as far as he is concerned, it is no problem if the enemy (Iran) of his enemy (the US) will preserve its strength.

In effect, the name of the game in  Lausanne is not how to stop Iran, but rather, how to allow the world to turn its back and allow Iran to become nuclear without disturbing Obama, the Europeans and all the rest.

The sly Iranians understand the rules of this game. They are in a win-win situation. It is worth their while to engage in long and ineffective negotiations. They will trumpet whatever they get above-board as a major victory. And what they do not get as part of the pact, they will grab anyway – with no sanctions. Just like their accomplices, Hizballah, did in Lebanon.

Israel’s citizens must understand that a nuclear Iran means a Pax-Irania that will surround us on all sides – and a war that will dwarf all that we have endured in the past. It behooves us to remember that if the British had had a Churchill when Hitler was just starting out, the lives of 74 million people would have been saved: six million Jews among them.

Next Year in Yerushalayim or Pesach in the Holy Land? HaRav Nachman Kahana on Pesach 5775

BS”D  Pesach 5775  Rabbi Nachman Kahana To be read aloud by the leader of the seder right after the main course has been eaten… Next Year in Yerushalayim Part A:  A frum family living in any one of the great Torah centers in the world; they could even be your next door neighbors in Boro Park, Flatbush, etc. The home of Reb Sender and Mrs. Rayza is impeccable; the result of the great time and energy, not to mention money, which the expeditious, skillful and mercurial ba’alat ha’bayit (woman of the house) has devoted to it. The sofas and arm chairs in the sitting room, which look so inviting, are covered with uncomfortable thick plastic to insure that the upholstery retains its “new” look. The five-meter long dining table is covered with the finest Irish linen tablecloth.  In the middle of the table stands the imposing sterling silver candlesticks handed down from mother to daughter for generations.  The china is the finest Rosenthal, with each plate delicately rounded off with a band of gold.  The silverware has been put away in favor of gold-ware, in honor of the great night. On the table, under a hand-embroidered silk cloth, lay the matzot.  On the insistence of the two sons learning in the recently-opened Yeshiva Taharas Ha’Torah in Las Vegas, (in order to bring the voice of Torah even to the entrance of Gehennom), the matzot are from the first 18-minute batch, guaranteeing that no naughty piece of dough could be hiding in any of the rollers.  The hand matzot were personally chosen by the Rebbe of the shteibel where the family davens (after leaving the central shul, which was costing too much).  The Rebbe assured the boys that the matzot were bubble-free, with no overturned edges. The wall-to-wall carpet is as deep as the grass in the beautiful garden.  Over the table hangs the family’s pride and joy – a multisided crystal chandelier, personally chosen by Rayza on the family’s last visit to Prague. Reb Sender is wearing his new bekeshe, the one with the swirls of blue, with a gold buckled gartel. Rayza has just said the Shehechiyanu blessing over her $3000 dress imported from Paris. The boys are handsome in their wide-brimmed black hats, and the two girls will make beautiful kalas when the time comes, dressed in their very expensive dresses. The seder goes better than expected.  Words of Torah, beginning with an invitation to the hungry to join them in the meal, (while there is not a needy person for 50 miles); a lively discussion develops on the characters of the “Four Sons”; the afikomen is “stolen” by the youngest daughter, who, for its return, has succeeded in extorting from Abba a vacation in Aruba. Songs of thanks to Hashem for freeing the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt are recited, for it is a mitzva on this night for each person to consider himself as if he and she where slaves in Mitzrayim. Birkat Hamazon is said, as is the second part of Hallel. Chad Gadya puts the final touch on the mitzvot of the night. Now, just as  Hashem destroys the “Angel of Death” in the song, father jumps up and, gathering the family in a circle, they all break out in a frenzy of song – “Leshana ha’ba’a Be’Yerushalayim” – next year in Jerusalem.  Again and again around the table “Leshana ha’ba’a Be’Yerushalayim” is sounded. Louder and louder do their voices resonate, until their song merges with the same melody bursting from the neighbors’ homes, cutting a path into the highest realms of heaven. Without warning, Mama collapses into a chair, crying real tears.  The singing stops.  Father runs over and asks why she is crying, just now, at the apex of the beautiful sacred night? “What do you mean next year in Yerushalayim? What about the table, the chandelier, the deep carpet, the Rosenthal China! How can we leave all this behind?” Taking her hand, while gently dabbing the tears away, in a voice full of compassion, Reb Sender says to his beloved wife, “Darling, don’t cry. IT’S ONLY A SONG!” Part B: Pesach in the Holy Land Ten thousand kilometers to the east, in Eretz Yisrael, lives Reb Sender’s brother, Kalman.  Kalman moved to Eretz Yisrael many years previously, and was blessed with a beautiful family and an adequate apartment and income.  His son, Yossi, will not be home for the Seder night, since he is doing his army service within the Hesder yeshiva system.  The parents are not overly worried, because Yossi himself told them that he is in a safe place in the north, and that next year they will all be together for the Seder. At 12 noon, on the 14th of Nisan, Erev Pessach, Yossi and three other soldiers from the same yeshiva were called to the company commander’s room, where they were informed that they had been chosen for a mission that evening, on the Seder night.  They were to cross the border into Hezbollah held territory in Southern Lebanon, to man the outpost bunker – hill 432. Yossi knew the hill well; he had been there several times in the past year. It was sarcastically called a “bunker” but in reality it was a foxhole, large enough for four soldiers.  Their assignment was to track terrorist movements and destroy them on contact.  It was tolerable except when it rained causing the bottom of the hole to be soggy and muddy. However, today, the four hoped that it would rain, even though chances were small, since it was late in the season.  On the 14th of every Hebrew month the moon is full, which presents a greater danger when crossing into enemy territory, so rain would be a mixed blessing. At 5 PM, they were given the necessary equipment. In addition to the weapons and ammo, the army rabbinate provided them with 4 plastic holders each containing 3 matzot and all the ingredients necessary for a Seder, as well as 4 plastic bottles of wine, sufficient for 4 cups, and, of course,  Haggadot. At 6 PM, they waited at the fence for the electricity to be turned off, in order to cross into hostile territory.  Yossi held in his hand a map of the mine field they would have to cross. “It was so strange,” Yossi thought, “this is the area assigned to the tribe of Naftali, and we have to enter it crawling on our stomachs.” At 6:15 PM the small aperture in the gate opened and they passed through. As they had hoped, it was raining, and the thick fog was to their advantage. At that moment, ten thousand kilometers to the west, it was 11:15 AM, and Yossi’s two cousins were just entering the mikva to prepare for the Pessach holiday. They exited on a spiritual high, having purified themselves in body and soul to sanctify the holy name of HaShem. The 4 soldiers reached hill 432 after walking double time for 5 kilometers. They removed the camouflage and, settling in, pulled the grassy cover over them. Each soldier was assigned a direction. Talking was forbidden. If the murderers were sighted, a light tap on the shoulder would bring them all to the direction. After settling in, they began to pray Ma’ariv, and began the Seder.  It was finished within a half hour, and miraculously the four cups of wine had no detrimental effect on their senses. At 8 PM in New York, Reb Sender and his two sons returned from shul to begin the Seder. They were met with an uplifting scene. The table, the cushions to lean upon, the crystal wine decanter for the four cups of freedom, even the maror looked sumptuous, after not eating since lunch. It was then 3 AM in Eretz Yisrael, and the four soldiers were waging a heroic battle against boredom and sleep.  The minutes crawled by, and at the first approach of light they exited their outpost and returned through the minefield and electric fence to the base.  After reporting to the officer in charge, the four entered their tent, and collapsed on their cots without removing clothing or shoes, because in an hour they would have to begin the Shacharit service. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Hagada instructs every Jew to see himself and herself as if they were enslaved in Egypt and were freed by the hand of HaShem. The most effective way is to stand before a mirror and imagine that you are looking at a Jewish slave. After reading the aforementioned stories of the two brothers, stand before a mirror and ask yourself two questions: Which of the two brothers and their respective families are living a life closer to the word and spirit of the Torah? Where do you and your family fit into the story? Chag kasher vesamai’ach! Nachman Kahana Copyright © 5775/2015 Nachman Kahana