Why would the PLO and other Arab haters-of-Israel object to having the Cave of Machpelah put on a list of places Israel seeks to renovate? Surely, even from their perspective, such activities will benefit them as well. In fact the Israeli government has already spent much time and money to make Machpelah a place where both Arabs and Jews can worship in a peaceful and comfortable environment.
Let’s look at the other side of the coin for a minute. How is it that the Israeli government “understands” why Jews should be forbidden to pray at our most sacred site in the world, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem? It is hard to fathom how Arab violence at our holiest site has achieved its goal with the collusion of the Israeli government, effectively preventing Jews from praying there. Although this site, much like the Cave of Machpelah, was liberated by the IDF in June of 1967, today it remains under exclusive Arab custody. Read More…
About thirty years ago my wife and I and our three young daughters came home to Israel. There was only one reason why we came. It was because Israel is the only home of the Jewish people and we wanted to be there.
It certainly was not a simple move. Any move, even across the street, is a major trauma. To take your family into a different country with a different culture and a different language clearly makes it even more traumatic. And when you are moving to a country which is at war, and when the government insists that we must live together with enemies who seek our destruction, then it takes a tremendous amount of faith to stand up to these challenges.
We did not move to Israel because it is a “democracy” (which it really isn’t). We did not move here because we have a government which cares about the country (which it doesn’t). And we certainly did not move because our life wasn’t good in the USA (which it really was). We came home simply because it is our homeland and, while our grandparents could not move here, we could. Read More…
In the 1930s, a Jew by the name of Ze’ev Jabotinski traveled throughout Europe warning his fellow Jews that they were sitting atop a volcano that was about to erupt. He begged them to get up and leave the Exile while they still could and come home to "Palestine" (which in those days was a Jewish concept, not an Arab one). Jabotinski was ridiculed for saying things that people preferred not to hear; millions perished for their refusal to face reality.
I daresay that the American Jew today stands in the same shoes as the Jews of Europe did in the 1930s. I was born in the United States and was always proud of my American citizenship. As American as anyone, I never dreamed of comparing that wonderful country with Germany or with any other country for that matter. America was different. It was the land of opportunity and equal rights. The founding fathers of the United States of America had lofty ideals and had founded their new country upon Biblical principles. It granted freedom of religion to all. Democracy granted freedom of speech and implied that all men were equal.
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It must be stated, clearly and unequivocally, that the blackmail of the Jewish State via Hamas kidnaping a Jewish soldier is a direct result of Israel’s policy to negotiate with those who seek our destruction rather than destroy and remove them. In truth we are only negotiating with ourselves. The Arabs have no intention to abandon their goal to destroy Israel under any circumstances. Every time we make a “gesture” for peace we are hammering another nail into our national coffin.
Why do our leaders consistently talk about giving away parts of our country to our enemies? When Sharon gave away Gaza to the PLO he had no illusions that peace would result. He stated from the outset that not one Jew would remain in Gaza. Is that a vision of peace? And, even worse than that, he ordered all Jewish graves dug up and the remains removed for reburial outside of Gaza. Is that a vision of peace? Our leaders know very well who our alleged “peace partners” really are, yet they continue to pretend that we are engaged in a peace process. Our enemies are at war with us and we continue to make peace. Clearly our continued existence is nothing less than miraculous. Read More…
Chanukah is a joyous Jewish holiday. The Festival of Lights was meant to remind us of the miracles performed for our ancestors when our Jewish way of life was seriously threatened from both foreign enemies and Jewish traitors. Unfortunately too many of our leaders, while celebrating this holiday with joy and pride, fail to recognize its significance.
Today we are living under circumstances remarkably similar to those days. While, indeed, we do enjoy self rule in our own country, our hapless leaders have seen fit to compromise Jewish principles and values in a futile effort to curry favor with powers they deem greater than us.
What they choose to call “democracy”, a concept whose values change with the wind, has become a foreign god which demands total obedience, even when its values clash with Jewish ones. Read More…
Denial is a medical term defining a condition of alcoholics or addicts in which they convince themselves that they are sober when they are really high or drunk. It is not a lie, as the person really believes his self-deception. It seems that this condition also applies to the government of Israel. I am sure that they do not intentionally seek to harm the country. They have all kinds of justifications to stop building; give away parts of our country to deadly enemies, and trade hundreds of murderers as blackmail payment for a kidnaped soldier. All of these moves, which seem to have sincere and positive motivations behind them, deny logic, common sense and tens of years of experience which have consistently proven such moves to be disastrous.
When Prime Minister Netanyahu declares his painful concession of halting building new communities in our homeland, and calls upon our enemies to recognize our gestures and make peace with us, he is demonstrating the concept of denial. He refuses to recognize that the Arabs do not want to make peace with us. He refuses to recognize the fact that the very concept of a palestinian entity is a denial of the legitimacy of a Jewish State of any size. It is like someone going for a swim in a swimming pool despite the fact that there is no water inside. Read More…
Once again Mr. Netanyahu has wooed us with his magnificent oratory, presenting an idyllic picture of how true peace can and should be achieved. And, once again, he has chosen to omit Divine Jewish Destiny from his presentation. While he is the Prime Minister and does have the obligation to protect and defend our nation, he does not have absolute authority. No Prime Minister and no Knesset have the right to abandon any part of the holy Jewish inheritance which is currently under our possession, nor to even suggest that we abandon our hope to regain those parts of our ancient homeland which have yet to return to Jewish control.
And, as to military ethics, no army in the world has the obligation to protect and defend the civilian population of its enemies. Had Truman possessed the concern for enemy civilians that Netanyahu has shown perhaps World War II would still be going on… and maybe with different results. Had Israel responded to Arab attacks from civilian populated areas with full force and disregard for civilian casualties, not only would the threat of future attacks be almost completely eliminated, but the practice of hiding behind “innocent” civilians would have quickly come to an end. Such a stance might be brutal, but it certainly is not immoral. Placing our civilian population in grave danger by not taking such action is highly immoral. Read More…
The Jewish People exists to defy logic. Our very existence flies in the face of logic. Clearly we should have disappeared thousands of years ago. The most powerful nations in every generation sought our destruction, yet they have all disappeared and the tiny Jewish nation is still around.
Our return to our ancient homeland cannot be explained in logical terms. It is an event which was predicted thousands of years ago, yet it could not have happened logically. Jews from all over the world have been streaming into this tiny country. We have rejuvenated our ancient language and fended off enemies who overwhelmingly outnumber us and continue to seek our destruction. We have been murdered by suicide bombers and rock throwers. We are presently under threat of nuclear attack. And, worse than all of these things, we have leaders who insist upon pretending that we can live in peace with those who seek our demise. Any other such nation would have perished long ago. Yet Israel grows and thrives. All of this is in defiance of logic. Read More…
This Rosh HaShannah marked the 23rd year that I have been sounding ths Shofar for the early morning minyan at the Cave of Machpela in Hebron. Once again the G-d of Israel blessed my lips and enabled me to sound the notes. Although I tried to relax and just let the sounds come out, when I finished the first series of blasts and placed the Shofar on the table my hands were shaking. It was as if my body and soul were drained of energy. It is hard to fathom the intense physical and emotional strain involved while performing what should be an easy task. Yet this Commandment transforms a simple object into a tool of the Almighty. Not only is the Shofar a tool, but he who sounds that Shofar also becomes a tool which connects all those who hear those holy sounds to our Creator. Read More…
