On Yom Kippur, Jews around the world atone for their sins. It is a day for individual prayer, reflection and forgiveness. But it does not have to be limited to the individual. Israel, meaning both a nation and all Hebrew peoples, is a candidate for atonement, too.
Over the years, I have witnessed a growing phenomenon: that of Jew-bashing by other Jews. For the most part, this form of hatred stems from two sources; curiously, diametrically opposed to each other, yet united by their ignorance and intolerance. Given the climate of the post-9-11 world, both groups feed into a culture that promotes murdering Jews, themselves included.
The first group consists of those Jews who hate Israel. Andrew Shapiro, Noam Chomsky, the Sulzbergers, Tom Segev all fall into that category to a greater or lesser degree. And most recently, there is the group of writers who want to prosecute the Israeli military for defending its citizens. While many of these people claim not to hate Israel, their behavior says differently.
Adam Shapiro is the Jewish student from Brooklyn who came out in support of genocide bombings and praised Arab terrorism. Noam Chomsky, while saying he has nothing against Israel, writes hateful and frequently inaccurate treatises often quoted by hate groups as examples of why Israel and the Jews must be destroyed.
The Sulzbergers are the family that runs the New York Times. When covering Middle East events, they do so with such bias that one might think the victims of terror deserved their fate or that Israel carried out a military offensive without provocation. Meanwhile, Tom Segev is an Israeli historian who travels around the world defending Hamas and other Arab terrorists by comparing these murderers to Menachem Begin and Yitzchak Shamir, thus feeding into global anti-Semitism.
And finally, there are the prominent Israeli writers who want Israeli air force commander Dan Halutz to face criminal prosecution for the raid that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 14 others in Gaza City in July. Apparently they are putting the lives of genocidal monsters above that of innocent fellow Jews who would be future victims if not for that raid.
Criticizing Israeli policy is one thing, but when that criticism endangers the lives of Jews or fuels anti-Semitic acts, it is nothing less than hatred disguised as free speech or liberal leanings. Aiding and abetting people who would see the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Hebrew people, either by word or deed, is akin to assisting in genocide. Such behavior begs for atonement.
Then there are the Jews who criticize other Jews for their lack of ?appropriate? observance. One?s observance or lack thereof is between the individual and HaShem. When one Jew publicly criticizes another Jew about their form of Judaism they only assist the anti-Semites by giving them fodder for their hatred. By their criticism, they are contributing to the downfall of all Hebrew peoples.
The next candidate for atonement is Israel as a nation, or rather as a government. This past year has seen the Israeli government commit not mere blunders, but actual transgressions against the very people it is obliged to protect.
Most recently, the Israeli government decided to release hundreds of dangerous criminals, despite many warnings about such a move. Since their release, there have been a number of genocidal attacks on Israeli citizens perpetrated by the recently freed prisoners. The latest was a home invasion last week, where a 7-month old baby and a young father were murdered. All those government officials, especially Ariel Sharon, are complicit in all these deaths, for they were not merely foreseeable, but predictable. No matter what external pressures are put on the Israeli government, the safety and welfare of her citizens must be paramount or the government is working with the enemy by default.
Also, the Israeli government recently lessened an assault designed to eliminate a chief terrorist with a history of planning and executing genocidal attacks. The reason? Because some of the terrorist?s friends and family were in the vicinity. This terrorist then launched a series of attacks that killed scores of Jewish families. When the Israeli government is more concerned with an enemy?s relatives than it is with its own citizens, the Israeli government has become the enemy of its own people. It needs to not merely atone, but to change its behavior.
Meanwhile, aside from being a governing body for the citizens living there, the Israeli government is unique in that it is the representative of all Hebrew people and the guardian of all Jewish heritage, past, present and future. This puts an exceptional burden on the Israeli leaders, but one that they must be willing to bear, lest they betray all Judaism. The current government seems to be oblivious to this responsibility. By banning Jews from their holy sites, allowing Muslims to destroy any evidence of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and negotiating away land and historical sites that belong to the Hebrew people, the Israeli government has shirked its responsibilities and betrayed the people it is supposed to represent.
So will Israel, as a people and a country, atone? I pray that it will and thus be written in the Book of Life for all eternity.
Over the years, I have witnessed a growing phenomenon: that of Jew-bashing by other Jews. For the most part, this form of hatred stems from two sources; curiously, diametrically opposed to each other, yet united by their ignorance and intolerance. Given the climate of the post-9-11 world, both groups feed into a culture that promotes murdering Jews, themselves included.
The first group consists of those Jews who hate Israel. Andrew Shapiro, Noam Chomsky, the Sulzbergers, Tom Segev all fall into that category to a greater or lesser degree. And most recently, there is the group of writers who want to prosecute the Israeli military for defending its citizens. While many of these people claim not to hate Israel, their behavior says differently.
Adam Shapiro is the Jewish student from Brooklyn who came out in support of genocide bombings and praised Arab terrorism. Noam Chomsky, while saying he has nothing against Israel, writes hateful and frequently inaccurate treatises often quoted by hate groups as examples of why Israel and the Jews must be destroyed.
The Sulzbergers are the family that runs the New York Times. When covering Middle East events, they do so with such bias that one might think the victims of terror deserved their fate or that Israel carried out a military offensive without provocation. Meanwhile, Tom Segev is an Israeli historian who travels around the world defending Hamas and other Arab terrorists by comparing these murderers to Menachem Begin and Yitzchak Shamir, thus feeding into global anti-Semitism.
And finally, there are the prominent Israeli writers who want Israeli air force commander Dan Halutz to face criminal prosecution for the raid that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 14 others in Gaza City in July. Apparently they are putting the lives of genocidal monsters above that of innocent fellow Jews who would be future victims if not for that raid.
Criticizing Israeli policy is one thing, but when that criticism endangers the lives of Jews or fuels anti-Semitic acts, it is nothing less than hatred disguised as free speech or liberal leanings. Aiding and abetting people who would see the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Hebrew people, either by word or deed, is akin to assisting in genocide. Such behavior begs for atonement.
Then there are the Jews who criticize other Jews for their lack of ?appropriate? observance. One?s observance or lack thereof is between the individual and HaShem. When one Jew publicly criticizes another Jew about their form of Judaism they only assist the anti-Semites by giving them fodder for their hatred. By their criticism, they are contributing to the downfall of all Hebrew peoples.
The next candidate for atonement is Israel as a nation, or rather as a government. This past year has seen the Israeli government commit not mere blunders, but actual transgressions against the very people it is obliged to protect.
Most recently, the Israeli government decided to release hundreds of dangerous criminals, despite many warnings about such a move. Since their release, there have been a number of genocidal attacks on Israeli citizens perpetrated by the recently freed prisoners. The latest was a home invasion last week, where a 7-month old baby and a young father were murdered. All those government officials, especially Ariel Sharon, are complicit in all these deaths, for they were not merely foreseeable, but predictable. No matter what external pressures are put on the Israeli government, the safety and welfare of her citizens must be paramount or the government is working with the enemy by default.
Also, the Israeli government recently lessened an assault designed to eliminate a chief terrorist with a history of planning and executing genocidal attacks. The reason? Because some of the terrorist?s friends and family were in the vicinity. This terrorist then launched a series of attacks that killed scores of Jewish families. When the Israeli government is more concerned with an enemy?s relatives than it is with its own citizens, the Israeli government has become the enemy of its own people. It needs to not merely atone, but to change its behavior.
Meanwhile, aside from being a governing body for the citizens living there, the Israeli government is unique in that it is the representative of all Hebrew people and the guardian of all Jewish heritage, past, present and future. This puts an exceptional burden on the Israeli leaders, but one that they must be willing to bear, lest they betray all Judaism. The current government seems to be oblivious to this responsibility. By banning Jews from their holy sites, allowing Muslims to destroy any evidence of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and negotiating away land and historical sites that belong to the Hebrew people, the Israeli government has shirked its responsibilities and betrayed the people it is supposed to represent.
So will Israel, as a people and a country, atone? I pray that it will and thus be written in the Book of Life for all eternity.