For Zion's Sake: How to Answer the Haters

How to Answer the Haters

One of the most important claims for Israel's defenders, both American Jews and Israelis, is Israel's willingness to compromise for peace. "Israel's greatest desire is peace, and is willing to sacrifice for it", they proudly proclaim, in contrast to the 6 decades of Arab rejectionism. Another essential point cited by supporters of Israel is that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle-East", after which they go on to list the number of ways in which Israel is similar to the United States.

Israel is certainly the only country in the Middle-East with free elections, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Despite any problems with Israeli democracy, it is infinitely better than Saudi or Iranian theocracy, Egyptian or Syrian dictatorship or the host of other thuggish regimes that rule the Middle-East. However, if this is the cardinal argument in favor of Israel, then Israel advocates are faced with a terrible dilemma: Israel's Jewish and Zionist character are inherently opposed to true, liberal Western-style democracy. Israel is, by definition, a Jewish state, which means that Jews must be the majority of the population. Israel's people, culture, religion, language, holidays and character are thoroughly Jewish. Even if an Arab has equality before the law and the right to vote, he is automatically culturally alienated from a state which belongs to another people. No Arab can sing Hatikvah with pride, beaming as he recites the words "the soul of a Jew yearns". Neither can he identify with a flag which is designed to resemble the Jewish prayer shawl and that features the Star of David, symbol of the Jewish people. He cannot celebrate Yom HaAztmaut, Israel's Independence Day, as this is the day of his defeat at the hands of the Jews. All lovers of Israel must realize that Israel, as long as it is a Jewish state, can never be a perfect democracy in the sense of Canada or the United States. This is not meant to criticize or deligitimize Israel- it is simply the stating of a fact.

Similarly, Israel can never have a complete separation of Synagogue and State, as is in the United States. Whatever role religion should play in the public sphere, most Israelis agree that it is important for Judaism to play a role in the Jewish State. For the concept of a Jewish state to have any significance, Israel must have some sort of Jewish character.

Here we see the fundamental flaws of liberal Israel advocacy. Israel will never be a perfect democracy, nor will it ever be thoroughly American or Western, if it is to be Jewish. In the same vein, Israelis and American Jews present peace as the most important of Israeli goals, as if Israel without peace is useless. Israel's obsessive compulsion to pursue a reckless policy of appeasement and surrender in the name of "peace" is tauted as proof of Israel's supreme righteousness. From Jewish children in Hebrew schools and summer camps, brainwashed by "peace", to liberal American Jews and Leftist Israelis still enamored by Rabin and Oslo, we are constantly reminded that "Israel is all about peace".

Since the earliest beginnings of Jewish re-settlement in Israel, there has been constant conflict with the Arabs. In the 90 years since the Arab pogroms in the 1920s, the bloodshed has been without respite. Despite the initiatives of various US presidencies, the two sides seem too distant and irreconcilable for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The Jews and Arabs have far too many differences in terms of culture, collective past and their respective views for the future for any peace agreement in the near future. This being said, is Israel then to be considered a complete failure?

Peace is an important goal for Israel, but it is not the most important goal. The quest for peace does not give Israel its right to exist, nor does its democratic government or Western leanings make it the morally superior party. After all, one could easily establish a democratic, Western regime on the stolen lands of another nation, as was the case in Canada, the United or India, for example. After appropriating native land, it is only natural for this country to seek peace with the conquered.

What gives Israel the moral upper-hand in the conflict is the fact that the Land of Israel belongs indisputably to the Jewish people. It was in the Land of Israel that the Jewish people arose, built two Commonwealths, and fought courageously before being carried away by first the Babylonians and then the Romans. It was the Land of Israel in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sojourned, in which David fought and Solomon built, in which Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied and called the wayward Jews to repent. It was the Land that, upon remembering its glory, the exiled Jews sat down by the rivers of Babylon and wept. It is the Land upon whose agricultural cycle the Jewish calendar and holidays revolve. It is the Land which our Sages taught that the entire Torah rests. Jewish settlement and presence in Israel predates that of the British in Britain, the French in France, or the Romans in Rome. When the Greeks were only beginning to ponder the great philosophical questions, the Jews had already left Egypt, conquered the Land, established Jerusalem as their capital, built the Temple there, split into two kingdoms, been exiled by the Babylonians for 50 years, and returned to rebuild under Ezra and Nehemia.

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For Zion's Sake: How to Answer the Haters

For Zion's Sake: One Land for One People

One Land for One People

At Bar-Ilan, Binyamin Netanyahu laid the foundations for a Palestinian state. Along with that, he unwittingly nullified the Jewish State. Netanyahu outlined his vision for the Middle East: "In my vision of peace, there are two free peoples living side by side in this small land, with good neighborly relations and mutual respect, each with its flag, anthem and government, with neither one threatening its neighbor's security and existence."

Netanyahu's speech detailed the deep Jewish connection to the Land of Israel and attempted to correct many of the fallacies and inaccuracies contained in Obama's Cairo address. To thunderous applause, Netanyahu proclaimed that "the connection of the Jewish People to the Land has been in existence for more than 3,500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked, our forefathers David, Solomon, Isaiah and Jeremiah, this is not a foreign land, this is the Land of our Forefathers... The right to establish our sovereign state here, in the Land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: Eretz Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish People." Yet for all the powerful and refreshing Zionist rhetoric, Netanyahu undermined all of this with his call for a Palestinian state east of the Jordan.

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For Zion's Sake: One Land for One People

For Zion's Sake: Our Claim to Our Land

Our Claim to Our Land

In a few short lines, Barack Hussein Obama did more to delegitimize Israel than all previous US previous in 62 years. In his speech, he effectively accepted the Arab Islamic narrative of Middle-Eastern history and painted Israel's existence as a Holocaust consolation prize.

He said: "America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and antisemitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust... Six million Jews were killed - more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful." With these few sentences, Obama said that Israel's right to exist is based on anti-semitism and the Holocaust.

According to the anti-Zionist narrative, Israel is a colonialist state that has no place in the Middle-East. Following WWII, European powers, ridden with guilt over the Holocaust, allowed the Jewish people to set up a state in Israel, a land that the Europeans never had the right to give away. Based on this belief, we can see why Holocaust denial is an essential feature of Islamic anti-Israel discourse. If the Holocaust never happened in the first place, then surely Israel has absolutely no right to exist. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expresses this point well: "The West claims that more than six million Jews were killed in World War II and to compensate for that they established and support Israel. If it is true that the Jews were killed in Europe, why should Israel be established in the East, in Palestine?" "Moderate" Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, wrote his Ph.D. thesis denying the Holocaust.

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For Zion's Sake: Our Claim to Our Land

For Zion's Sake: The Cairo Obamination

The Cairo Obamination

Before the eyes of billions of people worldwide, the leader of the free world munched happily on Mohammedan tuches. In what is without a doubt the largest example of appeasement before terror and fascism since Chamberlain, Obama brought his message of love, peace and reconciliation to the Islamic world, in Cairo. Crying "peace, peace in our time", he repeated ad nauseum myths and revisionist history about "civilization's debt to Islam", his hope for peace between "all the children of Abraham", and apologized for America upsetting the Islamic world. This speech is extremely significant in light of the declaration of jihad against the United States and the Western world, since the victim of aggression cannot even recognize that he is at war. Here are parts of Hussein Obama's speech, with my comments interspersed.

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement.

Such higher learning is manifested in Al-Azhar's Grand Sheikh's approval of suicide bombings on Islamic grounds.

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For Zion's Sake: The Cairo Obamination

For Zion's Sake: The Hope Lives

The Hope Lives

World leaders goose-step zealously around the "two-state solution", hovering like vultures ready to carve up and divide Israel. Bibi just returned from Washington where he met with the chief supporter of this plot, President Obama. There, he was told in no uncertain terms that Jewish couples in Judea and Samaria cannot be allowed to have children or build homes, and that the US intends to negotiate with Iran, and not deal with the nuclear ayatollahs militarily. To his credit, Bibi did not fold under the intense pressure. One this is clear: the United States is preparing to sacrifice Israel as a scapegoat for "peace" and "reconciliation" with the Arab world.

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For Zion's Sake: The Hope Lives

A SOLDIER AND AN OLD WOMAN

A Soldier and an Old Woman

From Aish by Ruchama King Feuerman

The Six Day War had ended. The generals assembled the commanders and foot soldiers for a customary review and analysis of the battle. After the military questions had been asked, and the investigative committee was about to disperse, a commanding officer pointed to one of the soldiers. "Wait a minute. I have a question for you. Yes, you, the soldier who put up the flag on the Temple Mount."

The soldier nodded.

"Where did you get an Israeli flag, and why did you put it up?"

The soldier spread out his hands and smiled, a gesture that indicated that here was more than just a one sentence response. He told the following story:

The night before the Old City was liberated, a contingent of soldiers fighting near the Old City took cover in a shelter in a Jerusalem neighborhood. Hordes of children, mothers, old men and women packed inside the bunker alongside the soldiers. People looked frightened and bereft. The government had imposed a news black-out so that the Arab countries wouldn't be able to figure out their positions. And the news -- originating from Jordan, Egypt and Syria -- was enough to induce hysteria: calls from Saudi King Faisal for the total elimination of Israel, calls from every Arab country to push the fledgling country into the sea.

Things looked so bad, Israelis famously converted public parks into mass graves, in preparation for the expected casualties. (Israel's Chief of Staff, Yitzchak Rabin, had even suffered a nervous breakdown.)

As the soldier sat there in the bunker, hopeless and uncertain, he saw an old woman slowly make her way over to him. "Excuse me," she said, standing at his side. She held a satchel in her arms.

He lifted his eyes. "Yes, Doda. Tell me, what is it?"

"Tomorrow you'll go to the Old City and you'll go to the Kotel."

He shook his head at the absurdity. He said, "No, we won't." There were no army plans to liberate the Old City. First, they were fighting just to hold their positions. Also, overtaking the Old City would entail hand-to-hand combat which was greatly feared: Many people would die. Moreover, any bombardment of the Old City might demolish even more of the holy sites than had already been destroyed by the Jordanians. He tried to explain all of this.

The old woman looked at him, steady-eyed. "No, you will go," she said, not as if she were trying to convince him, but as if relaying simple facts.

He shrugged. An old woman's delusions. He wasn't going to argue with her.

Before he turned away, she said, "I have a favor to ask you." She reached into her satchel and took out an Israeli flag. From the way she touched it, it was clear the flag had some personal meaning for her. Had she made it? Perhaps it had been draped over a loved one's grave? But what was she now saying? "When you go, please take this flag, and when you get to the Temple Mount, I want you to hang it up there." She held out the flag.

The soldier repeated, "We're not going into the Old City."

"You're going," she said. Again, she held out her arm.

A thought struck him. "I can't take it," he told her. "It's against army regulations."

"It'll be all right. Just take it."

"I'll get in trouble. You're only allowed to carry a few specified items."

Please," she said hoarsely. "Do me this favor."

He shrugged again. Why was he arguing with this old woman? Let him take the flag, let him make an old woman feel good. He could always get rid of it later.

The next day, the Israeli army, contrary to everyone's expectations, took the Old City. Sure enough, the soldier's unit ended up at the Temple Mount. As he and the other soldiers came close to the Western Wall, he suddenly remembered the flag and the old woman's words. Yes, he would do it, he would! He enlisted two buddies, and together they draped the flag over the grating on the upper left most side of the Kotel, and there they hoisted and hung the Israel flag.

The commanding officer conducting the investigation said to the soldier, "And what were you thinking when you put up that flag?"

The soldier said, "I was thinking that this was the answer to 2,000 years of Jewish suffering."

And so ends the story of the soldier, our hero.

But there's an unsung hero, too. What about the old woman who supplied the flag? One wishes the investigating officers had tracked her down. What did she have in mind as she entered a shelter with an Israeli flag in her satchel? And who was she, anyway? The only identifying feature is that she was old and carried a bag. But her advanced age already tells us plenty: that she knew something about Jewish history, probably having personally lived through it...World War I, Arab attacks, the Holocaust, the War of Independence, 1956. What hadn't she seen?

There, in Israel's darkest moment, outnumbered and surrounded by enemies, terrified that the next morning there will be no Israel, the old woman sees what no one else can see, what no one else is capable of conceiving. She insists on her vision, she practically browbeats the soldier into carrying out her plan. We'll never know how she knew, only that, like many Jewish women before her -- the Matriarchs, the midwives in Egypt, the righteous women in the desert -- she just knew. There are two kinds of prophecy. One that predicts the future, and one that makes the future.

taken from: For Zion's Sake

FOR ZYON'SAKE - PAPAL BULL

Papal Bull

While the Pope's speech at Yad Vashem left much to be desired, he had no such restraint when speaking at a "Palestinian" refugee camp. Speaking before Israeli officials, government representatives and Holocaust survivors at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, the Pope could not bring himself to mention the words "Nazis", "murdered" or "six million", nor did he apologize for the silence of the Vatican during the war, and its apathy to the plight of the Jews. The chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who is a Holocaust survivor, expressed disappointment at the pope's speech, saying that "there certainly was no apology expressed here. Something was missing. There was no mention of the Germans or the Nazis who participated in the butchery, nor a word of regret," Lau said. "If not an apology, then an expression of remorse."

Despite this, the Pope did not hold back in his call for an Arab terror state in the heart of the land of Israel and the return of the Jewish people to exile. Speaking before Fatah arch-terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, the Pope declared his support for "a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of... [their] forefathers". He used the opportunity to criticize Israel over erecting a security fence designed to prevent Islamic suicide bombers from blowing up Jewish men, women and children in cafes, restaurants and discotheques, a security fence only made necessary by relentless Islamic terror. Abbas, who is constantly referred to as a "moderate" in the West, used the opportunity to lament "the Nakba [catastrophe] 61 years ago" ie. the founding of the State of Israel. Straight from Yad Vashem, the Pope allowed himself to be used as propaganda for those who seek to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish State. PA spokesmen used the Pope's visit to reiterate the Arab "right of return", the flooding of Israel by Arab refugees with the intention of demographically destroying the state.

The Pope's pilgrimage is a case study in hypocrisy, falsehoods and lies. The Pope may have cried crocodile tears at Yad Vashem but he is far from expressing remorse over the Holocaust. His Church has been consistent in whitewashing its wartime record, reinstating Holocaust-denying bishops, promoting ludicrous and obscene comparisons between the Nazis and the IDF, as well as supporting the Durban II conference, in which a Holocaust-denying and genocide-enabling leader was the keynote speaker. The Pope has launched a campaign to exonerate Pope Pius XII, the Pope who closed his eyes as the Jews of Rome were round up from beneath his window, without hurting Jewish sensitivities. The Pope caused a huge scandal when he lifted the excommunication against a bishop who stated that there is no proof that gas chambers ever existed, and only relented after international outcry. Cardinal Renato Martino, the head of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace and a former Holy See envoy to the United Nations, provoked an uproar when he repeated the revisionist libel that Gaza today resembles a Nazi concentration camp. In addition to this damning record of Holocaust-denial, obfuscation and unwillingness to confront the past, he met with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose doctoral dissertation questions the veracity of the Holocaust and argues that Zionist leaders collaborated with the Nazis in the extermination of European Jewry. He writes in his thesis: "It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand."" This "moderate" Holocaust denier was also involved in the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, and countless other terrorist attacks.

The Vatican has consistently promoted the internationalization of Jerusalem and taken a pro-"Palestinian" stance. It was only in 1993 that the Vatican recognized Israel. The reason for this hostility is that the State of Israel and Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem poses a tremendous theological problem for Catholicism. Church doctrine taught for millenia that Jews were "the witness", cursed to wander without a home as proof of their rejection of Jesus, and that they would never return to Israel. In 1948, and then again in 1967, an enormous issue was raised for theologians. By expressing support for a "Palestinian" state in the "land of their forefathers", the Pope is continuing this same deadly replacement theology. One would think that the supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church would at least have a cursory knowledge of Scriptures, which says quite clearly that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. He must certainly be aware that there has never in history been a sovereign "Palestinian" state, nor was there ever a distinct "Palestinian" people, culture or entity. In fact, the "Palestinian people" were invented only in 1967 when it became apparent to the Arabs that a new strategy had to be devised to throw the Jews into the sea. Certainly the world's oldest people, with ties going back to the Bible, over 3500 years ago, should not be expected to give up its homeland to make room for the world's newest people, an artificial entity created 42 years ago. The people today referred to as "Palestinians" are squatters and invaders, having arrived in the 1900s from Jordan, Egypt, the Maghreb and Syria, attracted by the increased living standards caused by renewed Jewish settlement in Israel.

The Vatican has a lot of chutzpah. The original Jewish olim from Eastern Europe left for Israel because Church-taught hatred had made life so miserable for the Jewish people. During our entire sojourn in Catholic lands, we never had a moment of rest as we were persecuted and oppressed. The Church taught that Jews were wicked, sons of satan, and forced them to wear distinctive clothing and live in ghettos. Thousands of Jews perished at the hands of crusading swords or on the racks of the Inquisition. Entire communities in France and Germany were wiped out during the Crusades as mobs burst into Jewish homes and demanded: "Kiss the cross or kiss the sword!" The Holocaust, the most horrendous crime humanity ever committed, was only possible because of the two-thousand years of Christian anti-semitism. After watching the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1934, Hitler said out loud: "Perhaps I am rendering to Christianity the best service ever!" Having left, for the most part, Catholic lands for our own soils, the Pope has now followed us, demanding that we give up our land. Jews left Christendom yet Christendom has chased after us, pointing us back to the exile, to subjugation and lowliness.

I would like to point the pontiff to the Book of Joel. He would be wise to read and digest the fourth chapter, which speaks of the fate of those who divide up G-d's land. "For behold, in those days and in that time when I return the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and I will take them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will contend with them there concerning My people and My heritage, Israel, which they scattered among the nations, and My land they divided... And Egypt shall become desolate, and Edom shall be a desert waste, because of the violence done to the children of Judah, because they shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall remain forever, and Jerusalem throughout all generations. Now should I cleanse, their blood I will not cleanse, when the Lord dwells in Zion." 61 years after the return of Jewish independence, and 62 after the liberation of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the world still disputes our rights to our home. We must not fear since even when Edom ie. the Church and the West will be a "desert waste", "Judah will remain forever!" Pope may come and go, but the Jewish people are firmly planted in their homeland.

taken from: For Zion's Sake (http://masada1234.blogspot.com/2009/05/papal-bull.html)

For Zion's Sake: The Loyalty Fallacy

The Loyalty Fallacy

In the recent Israeli elections, Avigdor Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu, won 15 seats in the Israeli Knesset. The party slogan of "no citizenship without loyalty" resounded with Israelis after they saw Israel's Arab citizens cheering on Hamas during the latest conflict in Gaza. Lieberman capitalized on the treasonous words and actions of "Israeli"-Arab MKs and on the general perception of Israel's Arab population as a fifth column. Speaking about Arab MKs, among them one who fled to Syria trying to escape charges of treason, Hamas and Fatah supporters and sympathizers, and several who have repeatedly met with Israel's enemies, while receiving salaries from the state, he said:"At the end of the Second World War, not only criminals were executed in the Nuremberg trials, but also those who collaborated with them. I hope that will be the fate of the collaborators in this house."

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For Zion's Sake: The Loyalty Fallacy

Yom HaAtzmaut - - Israel is 61 !

Yom HaAtzmaut -- Israel is 61!

On the 5th of Iyar, 5708 (1948), G-d's Name was sanctified. For the first time in two thousand year, the Jewish people had a state in their homeland. Two millenium after the Roman emperor Hadrian burnt our Temple, razed Jerusalem, sold the Jews into slavery and arrogantly declared 'Judea capta! (Judea is captured), the Third Jewish Commonwealth was established. After centuries of oppression and persecution, Crusades and pogroms, Inquisitions and Holocausts, the Jewish people had finally returned home to the land of their forefathers

When the Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion in 70 CE and destroyed the Temple, they carried out the majority of the Jews into exile. They built a huge victory arch in Rome showing the Temple utensils being taken as spoil. The Romans minted coins depicting a conquered a mourning Jewess, along with the words 'Judea capta'. In their minds, the Jewish people had been crushed. The Roman Catholic Church, which became the official religion of Rome, taught as doctrine that the Jews had been replaced and rejected by G-d, never to return to Israel. The Church, along with the scholars of Islam, mocked the Jews and taunted them over their abasement, claiming that their continued exile was proof of their replacement in G-d's eyes. Incredibly, while the Roman empire today is nothing but dust, Jews are once again living in the Jerusalem, the city of King David, in Judea and Samaria, where the Patriarchs lived and in the Galilee, where Bar Kochba and his brave Zionist rebels fought for liberty.

"A song of ascents. When the Lord returned the captivity of Zion, we were like dreamers. Then our mouths were with laughter and our tongues with songs of praise; then they will say among the nations, "The Lord has done great things with these."" (Tehillim 126) Truly, we were like dreamers. Is there any clearer proof of G-d's sovereignty and majesty, of His guiding hand in history, than in the survival of the Jewish people in graveyards of the exile and in our return to the Land of Israel? Has there ever been such a thing in the entire annals of mankind, for a nation to have survived the sword and the stake, the racks of the Inquisition and the Crusading lance, the Cross and the Crescent, the killing fields and the gas chambers, to be returned home? Only by the might and mercy of G-d, through the brave pioneers and committed Zionist leaders, were we able to revive our ancient language, Hebrew, to re-settle the desolate cities, drain the swamps and make the deserts bloom. "For the Lord shall console Zion, He shall console all its ruins, and He shall make its desert like a paradise and its wasteland like the garden of the Lord; joy and happiness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and a voice of song." (Yishayahu 51:3) The land, empty and desolate, bereft of her children, which called out longingly for them for over two thousand years, now blossoms and is settled. For too long did Zion cry out for her sons and daughters in captivity, trampled on by a foreign oppressor.

From the four corners of the Earth, the Jews have begun to return home. "Fear not for I am with you; from the east I will bring your seed, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, "Give," and to the south, "Do not refrain"; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth."" (Yishayahu 43:5-6) Out of the mellahs of Morocco and Tunisia and the shtetls of Russia and Poland, Jews came home. The same Jews who declared year after year their fervent hope and desire of 'Next Year in Jerusalem!' were privileged to see their dream become a reality. From the farthest and most remote reaches, the Land of Israel beckoned Jews home. Jews from Yemen and Ethiopia walked thousands of miles, trekked through dangerous deserts and hazardous terrain, braved intense dangers because they senses the impeding Redemption. When the Iron Curtain fell, the cry of 'Let my people go!' saw fruition as millions of Russian Jews fled the prison that was the Soviet Union and came to Israel to live lives of dignity and freedom. The Ingathering of the Exiles has begun as Jews from Iran and Turkey, Greece and Lithuania, Ukraine and Hungary, India and Afghanistan now live, mix and mingle, in peace together in the State of Israel.

In fire and blood Judea fell and in fire and blood Judea arose. In 1948, and again in six spectacular days in 1967, the myth of the passive Jew whose life was cheap and blood was the gentile's for the taking, was forever crushed. The nation that for so long had been associated with sheep to the slaughter, with massacres and weakness, had arisen like a lion and fought for its life. In 1948, one million crack Arab soldiers, dedicated to driving the Jews into the sea and destroying the fledgling state, were attacked the 600 000 inhabitants of the Jewish yishuv. Just as in the days of David and Goliath, the defenders drove the enemy out. The defenders were outnumbered, farmers and citymen, Holocaust survivors given a rifle as they got off the boat. Some come with horses and some come with chariots but we invoke the name of HaShem our G-d! As the ovens and furnaces of Europe were still giving off their horrible stench, as the smoke was still emerging from the chimneys of Auschwitz, the Jewish state had arise with strength and power. The dry bones that had been murdered and annihilated in Europe had been reborn in the Land of Israel. ""Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Behold they say, 'Our bones have become dried up, our hope is lost, we are clean cut off to ourselves.' Therefore, prophesy and say to them, So says the Lord God: Lo! I open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves as My people, and bring you home to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and lead you up out of your graves as My people. And I will put My spirit into you, and you shall live, and I will set you on your land, and you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and have performed it," says the Lord." (Yechezkel 37:11-14

61 years after the awesome day in Tel-Aviv, we can sit back and feel pride over our many accomplishments. The Jewish language, Hebrew was revived, a feat never before accomplished. Cities and settlements were created. A vibrant and modern democratic state was built. Israel has one of the best and most powerful armies in the world. Close to half of the world's Jewish population now lives in the Jewish state. Israel is a world leader in science and technology and contributed a disproportionate amount to high-tech, medicine and science worldwide. Despite all of Israel's many problems, it has accomplished more in its mere 61 years of existence than most other countries around the world. The State of Israel is far from the fulfillment of the Prophets and there is a long journey to the Ultimate Redemption. Yet, in the words of Herzl: "If you will it, it is no dream." Just as it seemed impossible for there to be a sovereign Jewish state, as it seemed impossible for Jerusalem to be reunited as the capital of the Jewish people, so too will we reach all of our goals. A nation that waited two thousand years to return home is not afraid of a long and difficult struggle.

"Behold days are coming, says the Lord, that the plowman shall meet the reaper and the treader of the grapes the one who carries the seed, and the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will return the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall rebuild desolate cities and inhabit [them], and they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their produce. And I will plant them on their land, and they shall no longer be uprooted from upon their land, that I have given them, said the Lord your God." (Amos 9:13-15) May we see the complete fulfillment of the Jewish Dream, of the Prophets of Israel, of a world where "out of Zion will go forth Torah, and the word of HaShem from Jerusalem", very soon. May we merit the day when "nations will not lift up swords against each other, neither shall they learn war anymore". May the Complete and Final Redemption come speedily in our days, in mercy and love, amen!

Posted by Bar Kochba at 4:32 PM

This text was originally posted by Bar Kochba in the blog For Zion's Sake . To him my thankfulness.

NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE

No Peace Without Justice

Speaking at a convention for American Jewish leaders, Tzippi Livni said that "we need to give up half of the Land of Israel". She claims that in the interest of peace, Israel must surrender Judea and Samaria to the Arabs. For the sake of a peace, it is necessary to create a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel.

The Left is fond of saying that there is no peace without justice. There is no greater truth to that statement that in this case. An unjust peace is no peace at all. Peace is valuable yet it cannot come at an unreasonable price. Uprooting Jews from their land is too high a price to pay for peace.

To make Judea and Samaria jundenrein is the greatest perversion of history. These lands form the homeland of the Jewish people, where our ancestors, Patriarchs, prophets and kings dwelled. To uproot hundreds of thousands of Jews from their rightful homes and destroy flourishing communities is a betrayal of history and of the generations of Jews who yearned for the dream of Zion. Although we were forcibly removed from our land, we never vacated it in our hearts and souls. We continued to look longingly to the day when "our eyes will behold Your return to Zion in mercy", despite the oppression and degradation of exile. The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people by every conceivable historical, religious and political right. The Jewish people are the only nation to have roots in that land. Abraham is buried in Hebron, Jacob lived in Beit El and Joseph tended his sheep in Shechem (Nablus). When a certain prophet had his first revelation in Arabia, the Jewish people already had thousands of years of roots in the Land of Israel.

The Land of Israel is the inheritance of every single Jew around the world, and only the Jews. Every nation has its own land and no one would demand that it carve itself up to appease those who covet it. It would be unreasonable to expect the United States to offer Texas or Massachusetts to al-Qaeda in the hopes of peace. The United Kingdoms would never surrender London and France would never give away Paris. Similarly, Israel can never give away parts of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was, is and always will be a uniquely Jewish city. Catholicism is centered in Rome, Islam in Mecca and Judaism in Jerusalem. Jerusalem forms the basis of our national psyche. 3 times a day, looking eastward, a Jew pleads for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, as well as after he has had a meal and says Grace. We have ended our Passover seders and Yom Kippur fasts for 2000 years with the fervent prayer of "Next Year in Jerusalem!" At every Jewish wedding, the groom breaks a cup to remember the destruction of Jerusalem and pledges "if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning."

The early Zionist pioneers had a slogan: "With fire Judea fell, and with fire Judea will arise." The dream of Zion could only be realized through the sweat and toil of the pioneers and settlers. The Jewish state only exists by virtue of the over 20 000 Jews who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their people. Thousands of good Jews fell defending and liberating Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Only 40 years ago, tears streamed down the cheeks of even the most alienated and assimilated Jews as we were reunited with our Holy Temple Mount, with the Western Wall and with the Old City of Jerusalem. A nation that held faith for two millenia does not forget so quickly the pain that we felt when we were denied access to our most holy sites. We have not forgotten how the Jordanians forbade us access to the Western Wall, desecrated synagogues and study halls and used ancient Jewish cemeteries as latrines. Only a lunatic would advocate a return to this terrible and dark time.

The basis of peace is self-respect. A Jew with a modicum of Jewish pride would never part with his homeland for anything in the world. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan, Galilee, Negev and coastal plain all are an integral part of the Jewish homeland. A condition for peace cannot be the amputation of half of the Land of Israel and denial of the right of the Jewish to settle freely in their country. What is being challenged is the basic Jewish right to their own land as the world tries to herd the Jews of Israel into the Greater Tel-Aviv ghetto. What we fail to understand is that our right to Tel-Aviv, to Herzliah, to Be'er Shevah, is our right to Jerusalem, to Hebron, to Shechem, to every inch of the Land of Israel.

The Arabs have more than enough land for themselves. They occupy 99.5% of the Middle-East, and no one is challenging their claim to it. Yet Jews must stand up and assert our right to less than a percent of the land in the Middle-East. This is not a conflict over land as much as ideology. The Islamic supremacist ideology which demands that Jews be second-class citizens opposes Zionism, the most basic desire for a Jew to control his own destiny in his own sovereign state. If Tzippi or the Left were able to carry out their nefarious plans, G-d forbid, to expel the Jews of Judea and Samaria, it would mean the virtual end of the Zionist enterprise, of the building and settling, of the Ingathering of the Exiles, of the return of the Jewish people to its home and the hope for the Ultimate Redemption, may it be speedily in our days. I could think of no greater tragedy than for the Jews to come home after such a long exile and re-establish themselves only to be uprooted by corrupt leaders at the behest of anti-semitic governments.

This is a struggle of an indigenous people against the forces of a cruel occupation. Islamic imperialism cannot succeed in driving the Jews from our soil. The Jewish nation has survived far more powerful empires and powers. A nation with such deep roots cannot surrender before a non-entity, a pseudo-nation bent on its destruction. Peace will come one day in the Middle-East, but only when Arabs and Jews respect each other and each other's boundaries and borders. There are 22 Arabs countries and one Jewish country. That Jewish country exists and survives only by resting on the shoulders of our grandparents, good Jews who, in the ghettos and shtetls of Eastern Europe, in the mellahs of Morocco, exiled in Arab countries or under Christian rule, never forget that one day they would return to their home. To betray them would be a travesty, the height of injustice and cruelty. Every people is entitled to its own country, not least of which are the Jewish people, who have felt the pain and burn of being guests in a foreign land. There can be no negotiations, no compromise, no surrender on this most elementary point, our national aspirations and dreams. Such injustice cannot be tolerated. I hope for peace, but not for the fake "peace" promised by the Left, bathed in the blood of Jews. Peace will only come when the Jewish people are firmly planted in their land, as a Light unto the Nations. May that day come speedily in our days, amen.

taken from: For Zion's Sake