When Muslims Murder Palestinians

By Marc Goldberg "It's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return" -Mahmoud Abbas While the Israeli Defense Force were storming into Gaza in 2014, the streets of Europe were overrun with demonstrators. There were virtual riots outside of the Israeli embassy in London, tens of thousands of people marched there in support of... With every march came cries that the IDF were perpetrating a massacre in Gaza ... There was no massacre of Palestinians at the hands of the IDF last summer. But in Syria there is - right now! But you would be forgiven for being unaware of it. For this time there aren't tens of thousands demonstrating on the streets. There are no demonstrations at all. There are no rallies. There are no screams of massacre. There are no demands on governments to take action. There is simply a sad, deafening silence! It's not as if people don't know what's happening in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria , Yarmouk. The story took pride of place on Sky News, it has been published by every major newspaper around the world. Yet there is no action. The heat, the friction, the activism of the summer is nowhere to be found. In the United Kingdom (and around the world) there is no shortage of organizations dedicated to the Palestinian cause. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign was the main organizer of the demonstrations and of a boycott campaign against Israeland yet the cause of Palestinian suffering in Syria is noticeable only for its absence from their website. There are no events planned, there are no calls for aid, there are no plans to lobby Members of Parliament to take action. There is silence... when a real massacre of Palestinians happening there is silence from the very organization which exists to campaign on behalf of Palestinians. This is a bizarre state of affairs indeed. But then perhaps they are only following the example set by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestine Authority President. His words concerning Palestinians in Syria from 2013 are proving to be truly prophetic today: "It's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return" Perhaps the silence regarding Palestinians in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East comes from a belief that it is only worth demonstrating when a Palestinian is killed by an Israeli. Even if that means throwing around words like massacre, when there isn't one, and ignoring a real one while it happens...

At 67 Israel Exudes long term Optimism

By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

67 years ago, upon Israel's declaration of independence, Life Magazine noted (May 31, 1948, pp. 21-28) the odds facing the 600,000 Jews of the newly-born economy-starved and militarily-embargoed Jewish State: "King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan sent his Arab Legion against Jerusalem…. Egypt's planes repeatedly bombed Tel Aviv.  Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia pitched in…. The Arabs cut off Jerusalem from the coast by blocking the road to Tel Aviv…. The old walled city came under artillery fire…. A three-pronged attack was compressing the [Jewish] defenders into the Jewish Quarter of the Old City…. While King Abdullah's Arab legion was spearheading the Arabs' land offensive…. The Jews had little but light anti-aircraft to fight off these attacks…. A country the size of Connecticut is ringed by hostile neighbors…. Time and geography favor the Arabs, and England, which does not recognize Israel, is sending the Arab states arms, [while] Israel's friends in the US aim to lift our embargo on arms…. Can Israel survive?" 

In defiance of the jagged cutting edge of the Middle East and the world at-large, and in spite of boycotts, sanctions, embargoes, condemnations, wars, terrorism and diplomatic adversity, the Jewish State has catapulted from the 1939-1944 Holocaust, and the near-destruction during its 1948-1949 War of Independence, to world class stellar performance in the areas of economy, technology, science, medicine, health, agriculture, irrigation, first responding, military and counter-terrorism, and sharing its exceptional achievements with the Third World, the West, and especially with the USA.

At 67, Israel reaffirms a historic fact: pressuring the Jewish olive produces superb oil.

At 67, against all odds, and beyond the wildest expectations, Israel demonstrates that principle-driven, highly-motivated and defiant societies are capable of transforming tough times into challenges and opportunities, while surging to new heights. 

At 67, Israel enjoys splendid integration into the global economy and Israel's economy is praised by the International Monetary Fund and the three leading rating companies, Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch Ratings.  Israel's GDP and industrial exports total $300bn and $47bn, respectively, compared to $1.5bn and $5mn, respectively, in 1948.  Israel's GDP growth (3%) is similar to the USA and higher than Canada (1.9%), Britain (1.6%), Germany (1.1%) and the OECD average (1.3%). Israel's unemployment rate (6%) is lower than the OECD average (7.5%). Israel's debt-to-GDP ratio (67% and declining) is lower than the USA (106%), the Euro Bloc (108%), the G-20 (97%), Britain (92%) and Germany (75%). Israel has the largest (per capita) number of startup companies in the world, the highest (per capita) ratio of university degrees, the highest ratio of research and development personnel (140 per 10,000 workers), and is a research and development hub of some 250 US high technology companies.  Overseas investment in Israel is at a record level and trade with India and China is skyrocketing.

At 67, Israel is facing a potential wave of Aliyah (Jewish immigration), which could be the most effective engine of growth, attracting more investment to Israel, enhancing Israel's Jewish demography, and bolstering Israel's posture of deterrence in a dramatic manner.  A pro-active Aliyah policy could generate 500,000 Olim - during the next five years – from France, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Britain, Argentina and the USA, due to the relative strength of Israel's economy, the rise of global anti-Semitism, the gradual Islamification of Europe, and the expansion of Jewish/Zionist education in major Jewish communities.

At 67, Israel is – in contrast to the tumultuous, unpredictable, unreliable, violent and generally anti-US Arab Street – the only stable, predictable, reliable, capable, willing, democratic and unconditional ally of the US, regionally and globally. In 1969 and 1978, the Kaddafi and Khomeini revolutions transformed Libya and Iran from pro – to anti – US regimes.  In 2003, the rise of Erdogan changed Turkey from a pro-US to an anti-US Islamic orientation. In 2012, the pro-US Egyptian military regime was replaced by the anti-US Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization. A regime-change in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States would trigger a similar anti-US shift.  On the other hand, Israel's right, left, hawks and doves are inherently and unfailingly allies of the US.  

At 67, Israel is increasingly involved in the mutually-beneficial, two-way-street, win-win ties with the US, providing the US with critical intelligence on Islamic terrorism, exceeding intelligence received by the US from all NATO countries combined.  Moreover, Israel is the most battle-tested, cost-effective laboratory of the US defense industries, sharing with US manufacturers thousands of upgrades and modifications, enhancing the US global competitiveness, exports, research and development and employment. Israel is to the US defense industry what triple-A tenants are to shopping malls: increasing value and drawing clients - a mega-billion dollar bonanza.     

At 67, Israel's robust demography leads the Free World with more than three births per Jewish woman, providing a tailwind to Israel's economy and national security. In 1995, there were 2.3 Jewish births per each Arab birth; in 2014 – 3.4 Jewish births. The number of Jewish births surged from 80,400 in 1995 to 136,000 in 2014 – a 68% increase – while the annual number of Arab births has stabilized over the years.  From 600,000 Jews in 1948, Israel's Jewish population has grown to 6.5 million, benefitting from a robust tailwind of fertility (especially among secular Jewish women!) and net-immigration, while Arabs have experienced an unprecedented modernity-driven decline in fertility, in addition to net-emigration.

Against the backdrop of the last stormy sixty-seven years, one may conclude that the sustained wars, terrorism and diplomatic adversity have been merely bumps on the road of unprecedented growth and development, benefitting the Jewish State, the USA and the rest of the world.

We Have Forgotten How to Remember

By Moshe Feiglin

Translated from the Hebrew article on NRG

It is not easy to write the following words. After all, the pain is the same pain. Isn’t a person murdered in a terror attack part of those who have fallen for the rebirth of Israel?  Yes, the pain is the same pain. But those who have fallen in battle deserve special respect; the parents of the fallen soldier deserve to feel special pride – a pride that supersedes the pride felt by the families of victims of terror.

Israel’s Memorial Day does not have to be a day of mourning. Memorial Day is the day that we should honor those who have sacrificed their lives for us. It is a day that we should salute them, internalize their legacy, lower our heads and thank their families. It is a day of salute – not another Holocaust Day.

Unfortunately, Memorial Day has become a day of personal mourning and nothing more; the purpose for which these soldiers died has lost its meaning for us. After all, the High Court has already decided that the Nakba (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’) can also be observed on Israel’s Independence Day. In other words, everything is virtual: Independence Day, Nakba – nothing is real. All that is left is the pain.

Everything has become confused. ‘Victory’ has become a dirty word. We do not claim to represent the truth or justice, so there is nothing to really fight for. This makes victory just another form of barbarity. The only justice that we are willing to adopt is the justice of the Western world: the justice of the victim.

Don’t even begin to think about a military y parade on Independence Day. “The only procession that our present day IDF Chief of Staff can lead is the procession from Auschwitz to Birkenau,” wrote Makor Rishoneditor Amnon Lord. How sadly right he is. All the millions being spent here in the attempt to inject happiness into Independence Day will not bring joy to the day that has lost all meaning.

“The fallen will never return.” So what difference does it make how they fell and for what purpose? Memorial Day, bereft of its meaning, ultimately serves as a day for denial of memory. For if we remove the personal suffering from its true national context, then the personal suffering itself becomes a personal point, quickly forgotten by the general public. This is not a simple question of semantics. This issue has operational significance.

Our sons are being sent to run through the alleys of Gaza and die for nothing. The military plan currently being endorsed by Ha’aretz and touted by an array of politicians from both Right and Left is to conquer the Gaza Strip from the Hamas and give it to Abu Mazen. What is the purpose? “First we will take over Gaza,” explained a rightist MK to me. “Afterwards, we will see…” By the way, the same MK supported the expulsion from Gaza, euphemistically called “The Disengagement”.

What do they care? We leave Gaza, we return to Gaza – the price that we pay has no meaning in an era in which there is no real remembrance. They lightheartedly send our soldiers to be killed capturing the same released terrorists that their friends died capturing last time. The lives of our soldiers have become very cheap in the era in which remembrance has lost its meaning.

These Numbers Should Change Your Life!

By Shmuel Sackett

Does the number 23,320 mean anything to you?

How about 4,958 or 553 or 116 or 52?

Do these numbers even ring a bell? They should… they definitely should. These numbers should send shivers down your spine because they are all connected to holy IDF soldiers who were killed in battle while fighting to defend the Land that G-d gave to Abraham and that was then inherited by… YOU!

23,320 is the total number of G-d’s messengers killed while protecting the Jewish nation.

553 is the number of soldiers who tragically have no burial place in this world.

4,958 is the number of IDF widows who cry themselves to sleep each night, all alone.

52 are how many military cemeteries there are in the small State of Israel.

And finally, 116 is the number of soldiers killed in battle since last year’s Yom Ha’Zikaron (Israel Memorial Day) – an average of one every three days.

These are real numbers that stand for real people. When asked what they gave their life for, many people would answer – as I wrote above – “to defend the Land” when, in reality, it is much more than that. Yes, the Land of Israel is important and we defend it with every ounce of strength we have. Jewish law permits us to violate Shabbat to defend the land and although we choose to live, we are ready and willing to give our lives in its defense. However, when you sit down and think about it, we are defending much more than rocks and mountains. Our holy IDF soldiers are defending our status as a nation (Am Yisrael) and are bringing honor to our Father in heaven. To a Jew, nothing is more important than this and every IDF soldier is a walking, talking and breathing “Tzaddik” who is sanctifying G-d’s Name each and every day.

Many years ago I spoke in California and mentioned this concept. While most people in the room identified and agreed with what I said, one guy got very upset. He was a Yeshivish-looking fellow and he questioned my use of the word “Tzaddikim” when I spoke about the IDF soldiers. He said that he was certain that a few soldiers were probably very righteous but that I called them ALL “Tzaddikim”??? Every single one? What about the IDF soldiers who have tattoos and eat on Yom Kippur? They are certainly not “Tzaddikim” and by calling them that I was insulting many great Rabbonim who really were Tzaddikim. He suggested that I rewrite my next presentation with new words that were more accurate and not simply exaggerated hype.

My answer to him was direct and very clear. “My dear friend. I listened to what you just said and I want to make it very clear that I do not intend on changing one word of my presentation. I called the IDF soldiers “Tzaddikim” because they are!! Each and every one is a “Tzaddik”, including the one who inked an image of Madonna on his right bicep! Let me tell you why.

There is a very famous verse in Isaiah, chapter 60, verse 21: “And all Your people are Tzaddikim…” (Pirkei Avos begins with this passuk) Many commentaries ask a simple question – similar to what you just asked: “ALL Your people” are Tzaddikim??? Every one? Can’t be… but that is what the verse says – that they are ALL Tzaddikim! The best answer I have seen is from the famous Chassidic master, Reb Elimelech, author of the Noam Elimelech. He says the following: This verse refers to the Nation of Israel, not to individuals. It actually says “ve’amech kulam tzaddikim” which literally means that the Nation are all tzaddikim. When talking about individuals, there are those who are righteous and yes – there are those who are evil. But this does not apply to the nation. The Nation of Israel – as a whole – is one big Tzaddik and the secret to a Jew’s success is to be connected to that nation. As long as a Yid is connected to the concept of Jews as a nation he/she is a 100% pure Tzaddik!

Now you understand why I called every soldier a “Tzaddik”.  Because there is no Jew in the world more connected to the Jewish NATION than an IDF soldier. He freezes in the wintery nights doing his guard duty, crawls in mud near the Lebanon border to track Hezbollah, faces terrorists daily in Ramallah and Jenin, blows up Hamas tunnels in Gaza and cleans his tank so it is ready for battle… all because of one thing: His mission from G-d to defend the Jewish nation! As the Noam Elimelech says, when one is a member of the Jewish nation he is a definite Tzaddik.  So yes… every soldier, no matter how they look or what they eat are pure Tzaddikim “

This is what I told the guy in California and this is what I truly believe. Therefore, to put things in proper perspective, when Israelis commemorate Yom Ha’Zikaron this week, it will be to remember 23,320 Tzaddikim who perished to sanctify G-d’s Name. May their merit protect us all!

Child 44, Israel Style

By Moshe Feiglin

I have no intention of going to see Child 44, based on Rob Smith’s novel. Reading the book is horrifying enough.Child 44 is a good thriller – not a literary classic. But for those who can get through the descriptions of cannibalism, it is an important read, because it reminds us to which depths Communism (or Communist Atheism) can drag the society that promotes it.

In the 1930s, Stalin starved tens of millions of farmers to death – bringing about the widespread phenomenon of cannibalism – on his way to equality and social justice under the auspices of the State.

After the war, at the beginning of the 1950s, the esteemed “Sun of the Nations” (with the assistance of some of the Left in Israel) planned to destroy the five million Jews who remained in the Soviet Union. His plan was launched with the famous trial of the doctors, which is also mentioned in the book. But literally at the threshold of a second Holocaust, a ‘Purim miracle’ took place: Stalin died and the Jews were saved.

The plot of Child 44 revolves around an interesting phenomenon in the Soviet regime. In Stalin’s Soviet Union, there was ‘no crime’ except for crimes against the State. As a result, there was no real police force, except for a type of low ranking militia. Of course, there was the NKVD – a highly desirable place to work – whose job was to protect State security.

Does this sound confusing? Not when you begin to understand the warped logic of the Communist regime. The social experiment for which millions of victims were sacrificed was supposed to give birth to a just society in which there were no social classes. According to the Communist theory, if there is no competition, there is no reason to commit a crime. So what happens when a child is brutally murdered? (That is how the story begins). They explain to the family that their child died in a train accident.

But the neighbor saw the murderer and she can describe him.

At that moment, the neighbor and the family turn into a threat to the State. They have two choices: Either to cling to their sorrow and their demand for a just investigation – and to finish off in one of the gulags. Or to adopt the official version.

The plot thickens when there is not one murder, but a string of similar murders throughout the Soviet Union. After each murder, the local police blame a strange accident or a hapless mentally ill person who is summarily removed from the mental institution and shot. Every explanation that does not ruin the Communist theory is included in the official file. The police do nothing to really investigate and find the murderer because the motivation of the Ministry for Internal Security in the great dictatorship is not public safety or truth, but rather, reaffirming public trust in the State and its policies.

When the 44^th child is murdered, the State begins to lose control of the grand bluff.

You have to read Child 44 to understand the warped logic that motivates Israel’s Police and security services to make every effort to hide every terror murder from the public and to try to camouflage it as something else.

It is not laziness. It is also not senseless cruelty. It is the concerted effort of Israel’s defense establishment to reaffirm the public’s trust in the State and its policies.

When will the grand bluff finally be revealed?

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

By Michael Fuah

Holocaust Day, commemorated this past week, is the day that we memorialize what happened when G-d turned His face from us and allowed the Holocaust to happen – a major desecration of His Name in the world. “And they desecrated My Holy Name when it was said about them, ‘These are G -d’s nation and they have gone out of His Land.'” The exile itself is a desecration of G-d’s Name, says the prophet in Ezekiel 36:20.

But Ezekiel continues his prophecy: “And I will say, ‘It is not for your sake that I do this, House of Israel, but for the sake of My Holy Name that you have desecrated among the nations. And I will sanctify My great Name that is desecrated among the nations, and the nations will know that I am G-d, says Hashem Elokim. And I will take you from the nations and I will gather you from all the lands and I will bring you to your Land.”

Israel’s Independence Day represents just the opposite of the Holocaust: a sanctification of G-d’s Name. On the ground, however, things seem to have gone awry. Since the establishment of the State of Israel and particularly when most of our Land was liberated in the Six Day War, we did not officially acknowledge and thank G-d for His miracles. The “My might and power of my hand” syndrome has not yet been dispelled. As a nation, Israel has yet to recognize that it was G-d behind the momentous and miraculous events that gave birth to the State of Israel.

G-d’s directing hand, though, does not allow us to deceive ourselves for long. Our attempts to solve the “Jewish problem,” to “normalize” the Jewish Nation and to transform it into a nation like all other nations is shattering before our eyes. The more that we try to be normal and the more that we lose our connection to our Jewish identity – the more that we lose our national legitimacy.

This year we will celebrate Independence Day with thanks to G-d for the wonderful opportunity that He has given us. In addition, we must promise ourselves to work hard to establish Jewish leadership that will give credit where credit is due: to the Holy One, Blessed Be He. We need real Jewish leadership that will help us to be ourselves: the Jewish Nation, the children of the Creator, who are working to perfect the world. Our independence and freedom depend on it. 

Shabbat Shalom

The Wine of our Lives vs. the Matza of this Generation: HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5775

BS”D  Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5775  Rabbi Nachman Kahana Yom HaShoah Ve’hagvura On the 27th of Nisan, we commemorate collectively and on the national level the 20th century Shoah in Europe. New investigations have proven that the number 6 million is inaccurate, with the true figure closer to 7.5 million Jews who were murdered or died in the Shoah. The people of my generation born in the 1920s and 30s bear witness not to one Shoah but to two, both emanating from the two faces of Aisav – the brother of Ya’akov and also his enemy – as appears from Ya’akov’s prayer to HaShem prior to meeting Aisav (Beraishiet 32,11): הצילני נא מיד אחי מיד עשו כי ירא אנכי אתו פן יבוא והכני אם על בנים: Save me from the hand of my brother from the hand of Aisav Aisav the deadly archer (27,3): ועתה שא נא כליך תליך וקשתך וצא השדה וצודה לי צידה ציד: Now, take your implements—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt wild game for me And the kiss of death of Aisav the “brother” (33,4): וירץ עשו לקראתו ויחבקהו ויפל על צוארו וישקהו ויבכו: But Aisav ran to meet Ya’akov and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. Aisav, the hunter, exerted his maximum efforts in filling his lust for his brother Ya’akov’s blood in the thousands of death camps spread over the length and breadth of Europe. And when Ya’akov was defeated, the Jewish people scarred and maimed counted our losses, with the confidence that HaShem would never permit another Shoah to befall His people. But we were wrong. The Shoah of Aisav the archer lasted for 6 years and ceased with the allied victory in Europe. However, the Shoah of the smiling Aisav continues to this day, gaining momentum in the land of Aisav, the brother. It is the Shoah of assimilation through intermarriage by many, and the rejection of the Torah and our status as HaShem’s chosen people by others. The Second World War ended with the Jewish population of the United States numbering approximately 6 million Jews. Today, after 70 years, the number has dwindled to under 5 million with a 70% intermarriage rate. According to the normal rate of population increase, the Jews of the USA should be now in the 30 million range. So the Shoah of America, the smiling Aisav, has severed from our nation many more than the Shoah of Hitler. The way to survival from both Shoahs is similar – to escape the goyim and return to Eretz Yisrael. Those who did so in the 1930s lived; the others perished. Today, those who do so will live to see their Jewish children and grandchildren. Those who remain in the galut will find it difficult to have a child who can say Kaddish over them. The Wine of our Lives vs. the Matza of this Generation Chag haPessach has passed. But despite any and all pre-holiday planning, every Jewish home will invariably have to contend with a handsome supply of residual matzot and wine, at least until Shevuot. This is obviously pre-planned from Heaven to teach us that the lessons of matzot and wine do not end with putting the Pessach dishes away. The major lesson that emanates from the matza and wine began at the early dawn of civilization with the episode of Migdal Bavel – the Tower of Babel – in the book of Beraishiet (11,4-8): (ד) ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ: (ה) וירד ה’ לראת את העיר ואת המגדל אשר בנו בני האדם: (ו) ויאמר ה’ הן עם אחד ושפה אחת לכלם וזה החלם לעשות ועתה לא יבצר מהם כל אשר יזמו לעשות: (ז) הבה נרדה ונבלה שם שפתם אשר לא ישמעו איש שפת רעהו: (ח) ויפץ ה’ אתם משם על פני כל הארץ ויחדלו לבנת העיר: 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; so we will not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “They are one people speaking the same language which has initiated this, so nothing they plan will be beyond their ability to perform. 7 Come, let us descend and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. The ubiquitous automobile can explain what happened there. A car has an accelerator and brakes by which the driver controls the speed of the car’s advance. A society united in thought will also be united in deed and will advance very rapidly in the realization of its goals. On the other hand, dissention within society serves as the “brake” to reduce its advance in accordance with the intensity of the dissention. The people of Babel, who comprised all of humanity at the time, had established a goal to reach heaven and make war on the Creator. This was the accelerator of society, driving it forcefully forward. HaShem decided to suppress and restrain their “ambitious” goal, but with less catastrophic means than the flood of Noach’s time. HaShem created the “brake’ which would subdue and diminish their aggressive, forward-moving tendencies and eventually terminate their national goal by creating dissention caused by misunderstanding, “so they will not understand each other”. The two major components of the seder are matza and wine. Wine by its very nature infuses one with robustness and often uncontrolled vigor. Matza is essentially the opposite. It is a “brake” produced by holding back the dough’s natural instinct to expand. The seder is teaching us a great theological-historic lesson. HaShem vigorously began the process of Jewish physical and spiritual emancipation from human bondage to become HaShem’s chosen nation. The ten plagues. The dividing of the sea and revelation at Mount Sinai. That is the wine. However, for reasons known only to the Almighty, He applied the historical “brake” on the process to slow it down to a pace which would take another 4000 years to reach its climax. That is the matza. We see these two energies at work in our time. Although there were always Jews who came to Eretz Yisrael, like the students of the Vilna Gaon and the Chassidic aliya, the rising wave of nationalism in Europe took hold within many of the Jewish people and created the Zionist movement. It was a vigorous idea. Enthusiasm grew as the idea of a Jewish State began to permeate many segments of our nation. Enter the “brake” of pessimism, denial and constraint. Not yet. Wait for the Mashiach. The Zionist movement is not observant. Only God who dispersed us into galut has the “right” to bring us home, etc. In 1948, when the Medina was established, the hopes and prayers of 2000 years exploded into song and dance. A holiday was declared and Hallel was recited – it was the hand of God. Enter the forces of negation. No Hallel. No holiday. Just one more event in the family of Man. Stay put in the galut. Nothing of any spiritual consequence has occurred. And many who said Hallel in the first year did not do so in subsequent ones. Enter the Six Day War. “Temple Mount is in our hands,” declared General Motta Gur to his troops. Our joy could not be contained. For the first time in 2000 years, we became the sovereigns of Jerusalem. The Kotel, Hallel, Jewish military heroes. Come the forces of constraint. It is forbidden to enter the Temple Mount. Leave the holiest place in the world in gentile hands. Don’t build the city of Emanuel, because it will only anger the goyim. Army service is an affront to HaShem. No prayers for the Medina nor for the welfare of the soldiers. Don’t bother to create a formidable military. HaShem will save us. Just learn Torah. Those who press forward to annex Shomron and Yehuda, to build in the area of E1 connecting Maale Adumin with Yerushalayim, to throw away an idea of a state for the Arabs, to encourage people to ascend the Temple Mount, to destroy the thousands of Arab homes built illegally and to apply the death sentence to terrorists – these and more are the “wine” of our lives. The negation of these advancements of Am Yisrael along our trek towards national rejuvenation is the “matza” of this generation. Each point of view serves a purpose. Unrestrained vigor can be catastrophic and even suicidal; indolent, slothful restraint leads one to a life of desolation, blankness, destitution, exhaustion, hollowness, waste and depletion. They both have meaning when mutually challenging. Each of these opposing forces in our national-religious life has the backing of Torah scholars. So, there are no tzadikim and resha’im here. On the contrary, this is HaShem’s way of regulating the advance of Am Yisrael vis-a-vis the threatening gentile world. However, I offer my thanks to HaShem for allowing me to be inclined towards the “wine” of our nation, having escaped the negativity of my teachers and rabbis who barely recognized that something had occurred to Am Yisrael in 1948. In conclusion: At the seder, the matza invokes one bracha whereas the wine invokes five. The lesson is clear. Shabbat Shalom, Nachman Kahana Copyright © 5775/2015 Nachman Kahana

The Jewish State and its Citizens: Questions and Answers with Moshe Feiglin

Shalom Moshe,

I don’t know if you remember, but about a year ago you met with a group of people who were working on Kibbutz Yahel. I was fascinated by you; particularly because I define myself as a leftist, a Meretz activist and former Shomer Hatzair member. What interested me most was your approach toward liberty and your solution for the Occupation. Since that talk that you gave, my worldview has destabilized. On my search for truth I have met some very interesting people, who continued to destabilize my entrenched world view. I would like to ask you a number of questions and hope you can answer them.

1. You have spoken extensively on the topic of privatization of many state-run systems, among them public transportation. Your logical claim is: “Why should I desecrate the Shabbat for those who wish to travel on Shabbat?” Your solution is to privatize public transportation and if a community wishes to fund its own buses on Shabbat, so be it. By the same logic, I would like to ask the following:
2. Why should the State define who is an acceptable life-partner? Why should it only be a man and a woman? Isn’t this the same reasoning as buses on Shabbat? The State should not decide what constitutes a couple, because if I wed a man under state auspices it would debase your faith system. So shouldn’t every person be able to wed whom and what he pleases in his own community?
3. Why does the State have to define itself as Jewish? Why shouldn’t every person define himself as he pleases, with the State’s role to protect its citizens from discrimination and terror?
4. You speak about ending the occupation of Judea and Samaria.
5. Does that include revoking the citizenship of the Arabs who live within the Green Line?
6. Why not revoke the citizenship of all those who do not define themselves culturally as Jews, such as atheists, seculars, etc.? That is just the logical conclusion of that approach. In other words, what separates the atheist or secular from those who define themselves as Palestinians and comprise a threat to the State of Israel as a Jewish state?
7. Where should the State be involved? In education? Health?
8. Do you think there is an ethical problem with ruling over the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians?

You often say that the problem that the Moslems have here is not the occupation, but the fact that there are Jews in Israel. In other words, the fact that we rule over the Arabs is the result of Arab aggression, such as the 1929 massacres – which predated the State of Israel. Do you not think that the present situation blurs the religious reasons for the conflict and it is now based on the insufferable reality that the Arab children grow up under limitations, witnessing their parents being arrested? In other words, although it may have started as a religious problem, it has metamorphosed into a problem of occupation?

There are people in Israel who define themselves as leftists, secular and Zionists, who do not see much importance in keeping the Land of Israel. Do you not think that there may be those Arabs who live here who may truly be interested in this solution?

Thank you very much,

P.S. I hope that your party will gain momentum, because currently you are the only one challenging the ‘solutions’ of the Left and also the Likud for the Middle East (Land for Peace). I see that slowly but surely, the discourse will change to the question of a sovereign Jewish State in the entire Land of Israel, or a state of all its citizens. I see this as good news. Little by little, we are discovering our true values.

23 Nissan, 5775/April 12, ‘15

Dear…

Thank you for your thoughtful letter. I usually answer letters like yours in a few short sentences. But when I read your words, I realized that you have touched upon very basic questions, so I have made time to write some fundamental answers:

The main axis around which your questions revolve is the proper relationship between the state and the citizen in general – and between the Jewish State and its citizens, in particular.

People always ask me what the sources of my inspiration are. Religious people ask me who my rabbi is; seculars ask me who my philosopher is and many people have decided that I am an Israeli libertarian. The truth is, that just as I do not have one Rabbi (except for the rabbi with whom I consult on issues of Jewish law) there is also no one school of thought to which I belong.

Like the libertarians, I also think that the role of the State – except for security, justice and vital infrastructure – is mostly not to get in the way. But that does not mean that the state is a security company. A state is not a strictly technical organization. It represents both national and ethical essence. A nation – in other words, a group that has developed beyond the personal, family and tribal level and reached a national structure – carries with it certain values. The role of the nation state, in addition to providing individuals with security, is the protection, development and dissemination of those values.

The nation does not create values only as a by-product. On the contrary: the values build and sustain the nation. (This is my major argument with Netanyahu. He talks about existence and uses destiny as a political tool, as he demonstrated with the Nation Bill – while I remain steadfast in my approach: the necessity of a destiny, without which no long-term existence can be sustained).

The nation states are currently disintegrating. This is happening for one of two reasons. Either (mostly in the Mid-East and Africa) they are tribes that have never developed to the required level of national culture, so the structure of a modern nation state (which was generally forced upon them by the West after WWI) never fit them in the first place: Or they are nations with a very developed national culture and tradition (generally Europe) attacked by a deadly virus (which appears under many attractive names, such as multiculturalism) that pulverizes the cultural glue that fostered the development of the modern nation state.

Do you remember the mesmerizing footage of the Twin Towers imploding? That is what we are witnessing right now in Europe; a 2000 years old civilization collapsing into itself.

By the way, when the demonstrations began in Tahrir Square against Egypt’s President Mubarak, many gleefully greeted the ‘Arab Spring’ (the Middle-Eastern version of the ‘Prague Spring’). Similar to the ‘peace festivals’ of Oslo, this time we also see up-close how shortsighted the television analysts and pundits really are. It seems that the faith-based perspective affords us with better tools for understanding reality.

At the onset of the ‘Arab Spring’, I wrote that the masses in the Square did not have the cultural foundations for the construction of a higher national platform. I wrote that the revolution expresses liberation from the West’s arrangement – that had been forced upon them – into the chaos that will eventually end with a return to the natural Arab tribal structure.

What has happened since then in the Middle East completely fits this forecast. I am confident that my forecast for Europe will eventually take place, as well.

At first glance, it looks like the Arab/Moslem civilization is conquering its European/Christian counterpart. But in fact, both towers are collapsing simultaneously and I have no idea what reality will look like when the dust settles. What I do know is that Israel is perhaps the only nation that has the cultural potential to withstand this great upheaval. More than anything else, it is the demographic wonder that points to this. The Jewish Israeli woman – including the secular Tel Avivian – is the only woman in the world today that gives birth to more children than her mother. She is also among the only women in the world who give birth to enough children to sustain and develop civilization. In less than 100 years since Auschwitz, the Jewish Nation in Israel will be producing more 18 year olds than the German nation. (Dying Civilization, David Goldman).

A state is much more than a technical tool. Its role is to guard and nurture the values of the nation that established it. These values are what ultimately guard and preserve the existence of the state.

If this is the situation in any state, it is even more true of the Jewish State. The Jewish State, the state of the People of the Book and the children of the prophets – is a state that heralds a cultural, ethical and spiritual message – more than any other state. This is the conscious and sub-conscious expectation of humanity from us. It is the source of Israel’s power and wondrous survival. But it is also the basis for its terrible weakness. Without vision, Israel’s national collapse is steep and painful – more than that of any other nation.

And so, the perspective that sees the state as a security/insurance company is about as far from my understanding as one can get. I see the state – any state – as a vessel that holds values. I see the State of Israel as the vessel that is supposed to preserve, nurture and realize the values of the nation that has touched eternity. I even see another dimension in the State of Israel: the dimension of holiness. That is why I say the Hallel prayer of thanksgiving (with a broken heart) on Israel’s Independence Day.

I live very well with this dialectic of a holy state on the one hand and the need to treat it with a healthy irreverence, on the other. Really, there is no contradiction. On the contrary, the dialectic reflects the correct approach to its importance and value. But values must have a hierarchy. G-d’s first commandment to the Children of Israel is: ‘I Am G-d’. Not ‘I am the State.’ There are some religious circles that have forgotten this. Without noticing, they have exchanged G-d for the sanctity of the state, even positing that the State of Israel cannot err. According to their reasoning, every dictate of the State must be fulfilled – even if it is foolish. Some secular politicians and religious circles have turned the state into a pagan deity. They have made it an end and not a means. They have pulled the train that was supposed to have towed all of the lofty ideals – off track. As holy as it may be, the train has begun to flatten and destroy everything near it.

Now that my viewpoint on the State is clearer, I will try to answer your specific questions:

1. As I see it, it is not the State’s role to wed couples or divorce them. That role should be saved for the community. We invite many guests to our weddings – not just to increase the joy, but mainly to receive the community’s endorsement for the new status of the newly-formed family. From the State, we get a piece of paper; that is all. People wed and divorced before the establishment of the State and it would be good if the State would not be involved in this area of our lives. If there would be a community that attaches the same values to both homosexual and heterosexual unions, so be it. But for most of humanity, and certainly the majority of the Jewish Nation, homosexual unions do not have the same status as the values of the classic family. I am not getting into questions like the right of the child to have both a father and mother as opposed to the right of the adults to experience happiness, nor the debate over the essence of love and the quality of the investment in raising children. I am assuming that homosexual couples invest all their energies and love in their children on the same level that normative couples do. I believe that technical rights (such as tax points, etc.) should not be denied to children growing up with such a couple. But from an ethical standpoint, in Jewish culture a homosexual couple is not considered a family. Thus, the attempt to coerce this moral standpoint upon society completely contradicts the entire reason and foundation for the existence of the State of Israel, as I have explained until now.

Thus, when MK Adi Kol (Yesh Atid) proposed a bill that aimed not only to rectify a technical injustice with the tax points (which I would have supported) but to draw moral equivalence between a homosexual couple and the normative family – in other words, when an MK attempted to legislate a fundamental change in the values of the Nation – I opposed it (against the coalition, as well).

This  is a simple example of the minority forcing its values on the large majority. I completely oppose religious coercion (and religious legislation) but by the same measure, I also oppose secular coercion. The liberty that you mentioned  – a Jewish value of the first degree – is the only foundation upon which Jewish culture can develop. The State of Israel must carefully protect it.

By the way, the Jewish Home party voted in favor of the bill. Hmmm…

About the Arabs of Judea and Samaria:

I am not referring to a separate autonomy. Ramallah has to turn into Ramle (in the beginning) and Gaza – to Jaffa. Both Ramle and Jaffa have Arab majorities, but they are under full Israeli sovereignty, with an Israeli flag flying from every school building.

1. I am not talking about nullifying the citizenship of the Arabs of Israel. But they must recognize that Israel is the Jewish State and be loyal to it as such. I once asked MK Hammad Amar (a Druze), “How do you live with the fact that a relative of mine can come to Israel and receive Israeli citizenship whenever he pleases, while your relatives may not do so.?”  He answered that he has no problem with that situation. He recognizes the fact that he lives in a Jewish State. Like the Druze community, the rest of the non-Jews who wish to live in Israel will have to internalize that fact.

We recently celebrated the Seder Night. We sat around the table with the entire family. I know the wise son, the evil son, the simple son and the son who doesn’t even know how to ask a question. I do not know of a “Palestinian” son. We have all sorts of neighbors, with whom we wish to live in mutual respect and peace. But they are not part of the Jewish “salad”. Our atheist, secular and ‘wicked sons’ all play an important role in challenging our public discourse and developing the Jewish-Israeli culture. None of us has all the pieces of the huge, complex puzzle. Each of the sons has some of the pieces in his pocket. We need them all in order to build the entire picture.

2. According to Maimonides, the king is responsible for his nation’s security and justice apparatus. The state must provide security and national infrastructure. Above and beyond that, the State’s main goal is not to get in the way.

The process of transformation from slavery to the State to liberty for the citizen must be gradual and parallel. Construction of the alternative mechanisms must be simultaneous, affording freedom of choice. This is true for education, health and welfare.

Responsibility must be restored to the citizen; first and foremost, responsibility for the education of one’s children. In my opinion, there is room for an education tax, as education is a primary, undisputed national interest. The tax, however, must return almost intact to the public  (today, a large percentage is swallowed up by the apparatus, itself) in the form of education vouchers, to be redeemed by parents at the school of their choice. Welfare must be transferred to the authority of the community. National Insurance should insure the nation. Today, most of the National Insurance funds are invested in the Arab public, who are (an estranged ) minority of the population and pay just a few percentage points of their share into the National Insurance fund.

The situation in the health arena is catastrophic.  Centralized government has created a swamp of corruption, which for the past twenty years, has transferred a portion of the money allocated to the government-run hospitals into the pockets of the well-connected. The reform and competition in the cell-phone field has transformed the telephone owner from a hostage into a king. The same should be done for the ill: true competition in health services. The State must create a safety net – and like mandatory car insurance, every citizen should insure himself with basic health insurance so as not to become a burden on the public.

3. Yes, there is an ethical problem with ruling over the “Palestinians”. It is not ethical to rule in somebody else’s Land. But in truth, there is no such thing as a “Palestinian” nation and the Land of Israel was never the land of this non-nation.

4. Because we refused to declare Israeli sovereignty in Israel’s heartland immediately after it was liberated, and because we recognized the existence of the invented nation, a second and third generation have been born into the ‘occupation’ that we created with our very own hands. Thus, the hatred of the occupied toward his occupier was added to the religious and national hatred that you described. Israel must end the occupation and reflect absolute certainty and self confidence about our connection to our Land – and the coming generations will be able to get on with their lives.

5. Like any society, Arab society also includes many  fine people. Their human rights and honor must be safeguarded. But from a national standpoint, they never wanted the partition option and a ‘Palestinian State’ is their nightmare. The reason for that is simple: Their national self-determination is not a Palestinian state, but rather, the destruction of the Zionist state. They never demanded a state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza for themselves when those areas were under Arab occupation – Egyptian and Jordanian (as a result of the Arab invasion on the eve of the 1948 War of Independence).

They never accepted the generous proposals of Israel’s leaders (Peres, Barak and Olmert) and always started a war when the powers that be attempted to force them to finally establish their own state. They even rejected the proposal of the Egyptian president to receive land in Sinai upon which to establish a state.

“Palestinian” “nationalism” exists strictly in the areas held by the Zionist (They would do fine with the Jews, but that is the topic of a different article.) At the second that the State of Israel would G-d forbid disappear from the map, the “Palestinian” entity would immediately disappear as well – and there is not one Arab to whom I said that who did not agree with me.

Amen, may you be blessed.

Moshe Feiglin

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.