The Torah and the two-state solution

Most of us know about the ‘two-state solution’. It’s a plan to create two states where there now exists only one state, Israel. It’s called a ‘solution’ because, advocates say, Arabs have a problem with Israel. Israel won’t allow the Arabs who call themselves ‘Palestinians’ to have what Israel has, their own state.

The two-state plan is to be the ‘solution’ for this problem. It will give to the ‘Palestinians’ exactly what Israel has, an independent state to call their own.

So far as I’m concerned, this plan has a problem. It requires Jews to do something we aren’t authorized to do. It requires us to give away that which is not ours to give.

This point of view is not new. It’s not a modern phenomenon. It’s not a reactionary response to the demands of the ‘Palestinian Cause’. It’s not a rejection of US, EU or UN thinking. It’s a Torah requirement.

The Torah is the founding document of the Jewish people. It’s more than 3,300 years old. It teaches us how to live. It states very clearly that the land of Israel (whose borders are detailed in the Torah) does not belong to the Jews. In the Torah reading we just completed this past Shabbat in Israel, B’har, we read that HaShem, the G-d of Israel, states clearly, “the land is Mine” (Vayikra, 25: 23).

For some, this idea that the land of Israel belongs to G-d is more than a concept. It’s a principle: the land belongs to G-d (The Chumash, ArtScroll translation,  introductory comment for Vayikra 25:23-34).

Our Torah is clear: we are not the legal owners of this land. We have no right to gift it away because, simply put, it isn’t ours.

Lots of people, including too many Jews, reject such talk. I don’t. I prefer to listen to HaShem. He’s a lot older than Arab ‘Palestinians’ (the ‘Palestinian people’ were invented by Yasser Arafat app 51-54 years ago).

HaShem’s also a lot more trustworthy. He made promises to the Jewish people. Those promises come true. Just read the predictions of the Torah. More than 17 of them have come true over the last 2,300 years. Most of those promises have come true since 1948.

In case you’re counting, that’s a better track record than Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat, Barack Obama, John Kerry, the UN and the EU.

Oh, and yes, you shouldn’t forget. HaShem is a lot friendlier to Israel than any of these other ‘leaders’.

Why should I choose them over Him?