When people or nations are in deep trouble faced with sickness or other mortal threats to their existence they first and foremost must analyze carefully and objectively the unvarnished truth about their condition. To define the malady is to begin the cure.
I was astonished when I heard Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s declaration that if the PA – the former PLO – would not come to terms as outlined in the (ill-conceived) road map plan for basically re-partitioning Israel he would unilaterally cede land to the Palestinian Arabs. His intent is to deny Palestinian terrorists access to the parts of Israel inhabited by Jews but he does not propose to remove the terrorists to effect such a separation. Instead he intends to remove the Jews and uproot their settlements.
If the old British Mandate authorities or the UN had come up with such a solution I would understand but to hear this from the man who came to symbolize Israel’s defense of its homeland was a bitter disappointment.
Whose land will be surrendered to the terrorists? Obviously Jewish land as defined in the Bible – land that Israel recovered during the Arabs’ third war of aggression against the Jewish state. Thus if this idea of Sharon’s should become reality the Egyptian-born Arafat and his amalgam of terrorists would be handed a victory for their reign of terror which has intensified since Oslo.
How did we come to this impasse?
There is no point in rehashing the sad history of Israel?s colossal concessions including arming the Palestinian police with rifles and ammunition later used to kill Jews. But there are three things that occurred on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War that bear mentioning particularly for the sake of those who have forgotten or are too young to remember:
1. At the request of the Egyptian leader Nasser the UN withdrew its troops from the area.
2. The civilized world virtually abandoned Israel.
3. Jews in Israel and abroad united like never before in their support and defense of the Jewish state. The result was a great miraculous military victory for Israel and a stunning defeat for the Arab states. Israel recovered the Temple Mount the Old City of Jerusalem and parts of Samaria and Judea which after Israel’s war of Independence were occupied by Jordan.
The spirit that animated Joshua (and later Jefptah) moved the post-Holocaust pioneers to reclaim the neglected and mostly uninhabited areas recovered in the 1967 war. They formed settlements built cities hospitals schools and rekindled Jewish life in the homeland that had been vouchsafed to their ancestors. They made great sacrifices for their commitment to the rebuilding process and had to Arab terrorists while doing so.
It is inconceivable that all the efforts and sacrifices made by Israel’s soldiers and pioneers may be squandered for the sake of winning a favorable political image in the eyes of the UN the EU and the State Department.
Will a Jewish government really give away something tangible and precious – precious not only to Jews but to the millions of Christians who regard Israel as G-d’s patrimony to the Jews – for a worthless promissory note? And a promissory note from whom? From those who have violated every agreement they have signed.
I am neither unique nor alone in attributing the series of tragic events in Israel to internal divisions that border on fratricide. The hatred of non-observant Jews for their observant brothers exceeds anything experienced in recent Jewish history. I make no claim that the Orthodox camp – to which I belong – is blameless in fueling this strong feeling of animosity directed at it; each side has complaints against the other. But is it too much to expect reasonable people to achieve a level of dialogue that would lead to an accommodation of both sides?
So too the chaos polarization and wrangling between the various Israeli political groups must end. A House divided against itself will not stand. Other countries can afford the luxury of constant bickering. Not Israel however.
The first prerequisite to settling controversy is to strive for truth and peace and as it concerns the Jews to establish good internal relations. It behooves us to care about one another and at the very least to concede that Torah Judaism has preserved Jewish identity for two millennia of exile. This is a fundamental truth.
The second prerequisite is to acknowledge the lesson to be learned from the slaughter of Jews in the ongoing Arab reign of terror: We have real and implacable enemies who will not be content with anything less then the destruction of Israel.
It was after all Arafat himself who stated in a speech before Arab diplomats in Stockholm on January 30 1996: We will make the life unbearable for the Jews…we will concentrate our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps…Within five years we will have six to seven million Arabs living on the West Bank and in Jerusalem.
Jews should harbor no illusion or doubt about the path to true peace: it lies just beyond the victory of the civilized world over barbarous terrorism and the triumph of sober realism over the folly of wishful thinking.
We just recently celebrated our victory over the Seleucid Greek empire and its Hellenist Jewish collaborators lighting the Chanukah candles and proclaiming the loyalty of the Jewish people to their Supreme Commander. In that spirit may the One who guides men and nations enlighten all good people to reject and defeat terrorism and to erase the stain of this unmitigated evil from the face of the earth.
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