A Happier Story
A Jew sees his friend is reading the Neo-Nazi Times.
"Yankel, Have you gone mad?" asks David. "You are actually reading this
anti-Semitic trash?"
"The Jewish papers," Yankel responds, "are so depressing these days. Jews
being blown to pieces in nightclubs; Jewish children intentionally burned alive; pictures of heart-wrenching funerals; reports about Jewish self-doubt and mass assimilation, and countless more tzaros (problems).
"In the Neo-Nazi paper, the Jews own all the money, have all the power and rule the entire world. It's such a happier story!"
The Two-Sided Myth
Every decent human being ought to be sickened by the popular depiction of the present Middle East conflict as a "two-sided story," with each side professing valid points and guilty of its own misconduct.
To be sure, Israel is not perfect, and it has made its share of errors (the greatest one of them being its recent philosophy of appeasing terrorists). Yet, to equate Israeli and Palestinian "acts of violence" is a grotesque perversion of truth. To state that "both sides must stop the violence," is a stab in the heart of moral innocence. Israel yearns to live in peace with its Arab neighbors, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians surrounding it crave for its complete destruction and the demise of every Jew living therein.
The well-known response to this accusation - that Palestinians seek not the destruction of Israel, but are merely fighting for an end to the Israeli occupation suppressing three million Arabs - is a monstrous lie.
Less than two years ago, Israel offered a total end to the "occupation." Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak conceded to PLO leader Yasser Arafat 100 percent of Gaza, home of the bloody Hamas group, and 97 percent of the West Bank, as parts of a Palestinian state centered in eastern Jerusalem. The Palestinian leadership rejected the offer and initiated the bloodiest terror campaign in the history of modern Israel.
How much longer will the world allow the Arabs to blow up innocent people under the guise of victims attempting to liberate themselves from occupation?
The call of the hour is for Israel to act with moral clarity and persuasion. Israel should be encouraged to crush the Palestinians' terrorist network, destroy the Palestinian Authority, kill the terrorists and banish Arafat forever. Israel must reclaim its exclusive military control over the entire Eretz Israel, the land given to the Jews by G-d, including all of the territories. Only then will the Palestinians and the Jews be free.
Cruel Love
People talk about the need for Israel's compassion toward the Palestinian militants and their henchmen. Why does nobody talk about the little children being killed precisely because of Israel's display of compassion to their murderers?
Compassion to terrorists is an act of pure cruelty. It is a display of cruelty toward all of the innocent people who will be butchered in the future. Sixteen people lost their lives at a pool club in Israel because of Israel's compassion toward the Palestinian Authority. For four weeks, as Israel invaded the West Bank, there was not one suicide bombing. Then, Israel was pressured to withdraw its troops and give Arafat another chance, and 16 mothers and fathers were killed. Why should we have more compassion on ruthless murderers than on innocent Jews being blown to pieces? Can anybody explain the logic behind this popular moral perversion?
Unless a miracle happens -- and Israel has survived on miracles -- the Palestinians will force Israel to annex all of the territories. They will continue to slaughter Jews until Israel realizes that, unless it reclaims complete military and security sovereignty on every inch of the territories, not one Jew in Israel will be safe.
The hope of every decent person should be that Israel musters the courage and vision to do this now, before the Arabs make it inevitable.
[My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.]
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Rabbi Jacobson is an internationally known lecturer on Israel, Torah and Jewish mysticism. He can be reached at YYJacobson@AOL.com.
A Jew sees his friend is reading the Neo-Nazi Times.
"Yankel, Have you gone mad?" asks David. "You are actually reading this
anti-Semitic trash?"
"The Jewish papers," Yankel responds, "are so depressing these days. Jews
being blown to pieces in nightclubs; Jewish children intentionally burned alive; pictures of heart-wrenching funerals; reports about Jewish self-doubt and mass assimilation, and countless more tzaros (problems).
"In the Neo-Nazi paper, the Jews own all the money, have all the power and rule the entire world. It's such a happier story!"
The Two-Sided Myth
Every decent human being ought to be sickened by the popular depiction of the present Middle East conflict as a "two-sided story," with each side professing valid points and guilty of its own misconduct.
To be sure, Israel is not perfect, and it has made its share of errors (the greatest one of them being its recent philosophy of appeasing terrorists). Yet, to equate Israeli and Palestinian "acts of violence" is a grotesque perversion of truth. To state that "both sides must stop the violence," is a stab in the heart of moral innocence. Israel yearns to live in peace with its Arab neighbors, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians surrounding it crave for its complete destruction and the demise of every Jew living therein.
The well-known response to this accusation - that Palestinians seek not the destruction of Israel, but are merely fighting for an end to the Israeli occupation suppressing three million Arabs - is a monstrous lie.
Less than two years ago, Israel offered a total end to the "occupation." Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak conceded to PLO leader Yasser Arafat 100 percent of Gaza, home of the bloody Hamas group, and 97 percent of the West Bank, as parts of a Palestinian state centered in eastern Jerusalem. The Palestinian leadership rejected the offer and initiated the bloodiest terror campaign in the history of modern Israel.
How much longer will the world allow the Arabs to blow up innocent people under the guise of victims attempting to liberate themselves from occupation?
The call of the hour is for Israel to act with moral clarity and persuasion. Israel should be encouraged to crush the Palestinians' terrorist network, destroy the Palestinian Authority, kill the terrorists and banish Arafat forever. Israel must reclaim its exclusive military control over the entire Eretz Israel, the land given to the Jews by G-d, including all of the territories. Only then will the Palestinians and the Jews be free.
Cruel Love
People talk about the need for Israel's compassion toward the Palestinian militants and their henchmen. Why does nobody talk about the little children being killed precisely because of Israel's display of compassion to their murderers?
Compassion to terrorists is an act of pure cruelty. It is a display of cruelty toward all of the innocent people who will be butchered in the future. Sixteen people lost their lives at a pool club in Israel because of Israel's compassion toward the Palestinian Authority. For four weeks, as Israel invaded the West Bank, there was not one suicide bombing. Then, Israel was pressured to withdraw its troops and give Arafat another chance, and 16 mothers and fathers were killed. Why should we have more compassion on ruthless murderers than on innocent Jews being blown to pieces? Can anybody explain the logic behind this popular moral perversion?
Unless a miracle happens -- and Israel has survived on miracles -- the Palestinians will force Israel to annex all of the territories. They will continue to slaughter Jews until Israel realizes that, unless it reclaims complete military and security sovereignty on every inch of the territories, not one Jew in Israel will be safe.
The hope of every decent person should be that Israel musters the courage and vision to do this now, before the Arabs make it inevitable.
[My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.]
----------------------------------
Rabbi Jacobson is an internationally known lecturer on Israel, Torah and Jewish mysticism. He can be reached at YYJacobson@AOL.com.