Poodles vs. People

Here is a sad little fact worth considering: over 600 Jewish families expelled from their homes in Gaza back in August remain scattered about in a dozen hotels around the country, with neither the government nor the media showing much interest in their fate.

The promise made by various officials prior to the withdrawal that “there is a solution for every settler” has turned into a bitter and cruel joke. So many of the evacuees still do not know where they will be making their future homes, even as they are forced to confront an unpleasant and unhelpful bureaucracy.

Many have been unable to find permanent work, since they don't know where they will be living a month from now, while others have not been allowed to access the containers holding all of their personal belongings.

And now, adding insult to injury, a hotel in Ashkelon reportedly plans to evict 30 families from Gush Katif on Sunday due to a contractual dispute with the government. And so, just two months after they were ejected from their homes, these people face the prospect of once again being forced to move, on the eve of the holiday of Sukkot.

It might be tempting to say that Gaza’s Jews were “tossed to the dogs”, but even that understates the situation.

Just last week, Environment Minister Shalom Simhon issued a press release proudly announcing his decision to allocate an additional 1 million shekels to improve animal welfare in Israel, including assistance to “animals in distress”. This comes on top of the 2.5 million shekels he has already dispensed for similar purposes.

And so, in the twisted moral calculus of our government, there is plenty of extra money to find shelter for cats or dogs, but not for the thousands of Jewish citizens made homeless by the expulsion from Gaza.

When a government starts favoring poodles over people, that's as sure a sign as any that it's time for it to go.

Making Concessions to Hamas?

Israel this week made an astonishing concession to Hamas, with barely a peep of protest to be heard anywhere.

Despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s previous threats, Israel has now agreed not to interfere in Palestinian elections even if Hamas is allowed to take part.

As Yediot Aharonot reported the other day, “Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz tells U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Israel would not interfere with Palestinian elections even if Hamas participates, backing off earlier threats.”

The absurdity of this stance was made lethally clear when Hamas took credit for the murder of a 20-year old Israeli soldier on Wednesday, the very same day that Mofaz was giving the terrorist group a free pass to participate in the upcoming Palestinian balloting.

And so, we are back to the old pattern of Palestinians killing Jews, and Israel responding with capitulation, cowardice and weakness.

The government’s handling of this issue is an utter and complete disgrace, if only because it suggests that armed terrorist groups such as Hamas can be considered legitimate participants in democratic processes.

At this rate, don’t be surprised in a few months’ time if Israel tries to start opening talks with the terror group. With a government as depraved as this one, it seems that just about anything is possible.

A Spark of Hope in Trying Times

In these trying times for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, it is especially important to remember that not all is dark and gloomy.

Just last week, a very special ceremony took place in Jerusalem, one that underlines both the power of Jewish memory as well as G-d’s unfolding plan to restore His people to their Land.

For the first time, descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, got married under a wedding canopy in Jerusalem.

With the help of Shavei Israel, the organization that I head, Shlomo and Dina Jin recently completed their conversion back to Judaism by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and they have now been joined together as husband and wife in accordance with Jewish law. Their daughter Shalva, who also returned to Judaism, recently completed a year of volunteer national service (Sherut Leumi) at the Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, and will soon begin her studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The Jin family hails from Kaifeng, on the banks of the Yellow River, where Jews first settled over 1,000 years ago. At its peak, under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the community may have numbered as many as 5,000 people. But by the middle of the 1800's, assimilation and intermarriage had taken a heavy toll, weakening the community spiritually and numerically. The last rabbi of Kaifeng died sometime in the first half of the 19th century; a few decades later, the synagogue and the community it had served were no more. Until today, however, there are still some 500 people in Kaifeng who continue to cling to a Jewish identity.

The return of the Jins marks the closing of an historical circle. Nearly 200 years after the Kaifeng Jewish community essentially ceased to exist, the first of its offspring have now come home to Jerusalem.

This symbolizes the indestructible spirit of the Jewish people – as well as the fact that even in the face of governmental retreat and withdrawal, the march of the people of Israel toward redemption continues to move forward.

An Independence Day Message

As Israel celebrates the 57th year of its independence, it would be easy to look around and start to wonder what all the excitement is about.

Talk of withdrawal from parts of the Land of Israel, the ongoing assault on Jewish and national symbols, and the weakness of our politicians is enough to drive even the most committed optimist to moments of despair.

But a Jew is not permitted to succumb to despair, so here is a brief, but inspiring story well worth repeating:

The Ponevezher Rav was approached by someone a little more than 30 years ago who wanted to know what the esteemed rabbi thought about the situation in the State of Israel. "Rabbi, please tell me - is the cup half full or is it half empty?"

To which the Rav answered: "The important thing to remember is that there is a glass at all. Whether it is half-full or half-empty matters far less."

The point of the story is clear - we often get so caught up in the daily turn of events here in Israel, that we lose sight of the larger miracle - namely, that the Jewish people have a State.

It may not be perfect, and we all have a lot of work to do to make it so, but on this day especially, we should all look heavenward and declare: "Thank G-d for the State of Israel."

Clearing Up the Muddy Moral Waters

In an age when many media pundits and even decision-makers often seem to have difficulty differentiating between good and evil, it is refreshing to see that all the patient and hard work of pro-Israel activists occasionally does pay off.

Indeed, moral clarity enjoyed two minor, if not insignificant, triumphs this week, giving us all cause to redouble our efforts on behalf of what we know to be true and good.

The first “victory”, if one can call it that, came this past Sunday in the New York Times, where the paper’s Public Editor, Daniel Okrant, weighed in on the use of the word “terrorism”.

Of course, for most straight-thinking people, this hardly constitutes much of an issue, since any fair-minded observer long ago concluded that when Palestinian suicide bombers blow themselves up on an Israeli passenger bus, it constitutes an act of terror.

But we are talking about the New York Times, where straight-thinking doesn’t always apply, replaced instead by a politically-driven agenda which slants the news.

And that is precisely what makes Mr. Okrant’s musings so unusual, for in his bi-monthly column he wrote,

Beheading construction workers in Iraq and bombing a market in Jerusalem are terrorism pure and simple.

Given the word's history as a virtual battle flag over the past several years, it would be tendentious for The Times to require constant use of it, as some of the paper's critics are insisting. But there's something uncomfortably fearful, and inevitably self-defeating, about struggling so hard to avoid it.

And so, while he steps back from insisting that Times reporters make “constant” use of the word, Okrant does seem to push for its more frequent utilization when characterizing Palestinian attacks on Israel. That, at least, is a step in the right direction.

The same goes for the European Parliament, which passed a non-binding resolution Thursday labeling Hizbullah a terrorist group and urging EU ministers to take action against them.

Again – anyone who has followed Hizbullah’s decades-long career of hijackings, kidnappings, bombings, shootings and rocket attacks, knows all too well just how horrific a group it can be. But this basic fact seems too politically or financially inconvenient for various European governments such as the French and the Spanish, so perhaps the parliamentary resolution will turn up the heat on them on this issue.

In both cases, it seems safe to say that years of lobbying and petitioning by Israel and its supporters played a role in these subtle shifts of policy. It may not be much, but it is certainly a good start, so let’s take comfort in knowing that at least in certain spheres, our message is finally beginning to get through.

Shabbat Shalom.