The kidnapping: where Humanitarians war against Israel

Today, June 17, 2014 is day five for three kidnapped Jewish Yeshiva students. The students are civilians, ages 16 -19.

We unite to pray for their return. We unite to pray for their safety.

Fifteen days ago, Mahmoud Abbas—Israel’s so-called ‘peace partner’-- created a marriage from Hell. He swore in a new government. He and Hamas united.

The new government was presented to the world as a ‘reconcilement’ (“Hamas-Fatah unity deal announced”, Arab News, April 24, 2014). But when Hamas reconciled with Fatah, it pulled Fatah into a snake-pit. Hamas rejects Israel. With Hamas, there will be no peace with the Jew (“Don't Be Fooled by the Hamas-Fatah Union”, USNews, June 3, 2014). Hamas is a viper, not an olive branch.

Hamas is at war with Israel. Its purpose is to destroy Israel. It does not want peace. It wants holy war (Jihad).

If you question this assertion, then you haven’t read the Hamas Charter. Do a google-search for ‘Hamas Charter’. It’s all there.

Hamas is listed by the US and the EU as a terror organization. Now, it joins Fatah. The two embrace. Terrorist Hamas intertwines with Fatah. What does that tell you?

For months, Hamas officials have been calling for more kidnappings of Jews. Now, united with Abbas, Hamas has its kidnapping.  No one has declared whose plan the kidnapping was. But we do know this:  the kidnappers did not come from Gaza. They came from Abbas’ PA.

It looks like the unity government is working.

Israel’s Defence Force (IDF) has begun a massive sweep through Judea-Samaria (they had been kidnapped in Judea). As a result of this sweep, the IDF has arrested more than 200 Arabs, including a relatively large number of Fatah and Hamas officials.

PA officials have begun to accuse Israel of violating International Humanitarian Law. They say the IDF inflicts ‘collective punishment’ against them. ‘Collective punishment’ is a Humanitarian violation.

Do you know about Humanitarians? They protect us, right? They stop barbarity, right?

Well, maybe not. In the last 27 months, Syrian Arabs have killed more than 160,000 Syrian Arabs. Syrian Arabs have caused as many as nine million-plus Syrian Arabs to flee their homes—to become refugees bottled up in putrid, dangerous ‘Refugee Camps’. Syrian Arabs are destroying Syria. They are pounding Syria into the Stone Age.

For all this horror, Humanitarians have barely raised their voices. The problem for the Syrians, as one correspondent has already said, is that none of them had been killed by Jews.

So they suffer. No one will speak for them.

Jews are different. Jews energize Humanitarians. So far as Humanitarians are concerned, Syria can go to Hell. We know that’s true because we can see what’s happening in Syria: it’s been turned into a living Hell.

Going after Jewish Israel is more profitable. Right now, for example, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has, after condemning the kidnapping, warned Israel about committing Humanitarian offenses. The kidnappers have committed a horrible Humanitarian offense. Israel hasn’t. But HRW criticizes both in the same sentence.

That’s repulsive.

HRW warns Israel: respect the rules of war. But they offer no evidence that Israel hasn’t. It accuses Israel of possibly carrying out mass, arbitrary arrests (“HRW Condemns Kidnapping, but Also Israel's Arrests”, Arutz Sheva, June 17, 2014). It warns that Israel might be guilty of arbitrary detention (ibid). It warns that Israel’s blockades and choke-points in the area surrounding Hevron might violate ‘international law’.

Exactly how has Israel violated Humanitarian code or international law? Is there evidence that the IDF arrests were ‘arbitrary’? By what definition can the arrests be characterized as ‘mass arrests’?  By what definitions do IDF travel restrictions create a Humanitarian offense?

HRW doesn’t say.  

Hamas is at war with Israel. Hamas is now joined to Abbas. The rules of war allow arrest. The rules of war allow for the suspension of Habeas Corpus (‘charge now or release’). The rules of war allow for restricting movements of a population in disputed areas. The rules of war allow a sovereign state to defend itself with force.

Humanitarians are determined to deny Jewish Israel the right to use that force. Notice that HRW doesn’t make accusations here. But by warning Israel, they suggest that Arabs must remain absolutely free. They must remain unfettered and uninhibited--to plot, scheme and incite murder (and kidnappings) against Jews. To inhibit that freedom is wrong. It’s wrong because it requires force—and force is a Humanitarian violation, except under the most limiting of circumstances.

Humanitarians jam Israel—and Israel alone--into an impossible box.  Apparently, they want to see Israel damned if it doesn’t protect itself--and damned if it does protect itself.

Forget the horrors of Syria. Forget Hamas’ Jew-hate. Forget the kidnapping. Humanitarians want to fight the Jews.

Soon, we will see how Humanitarians and Arabs use this kidnapping to war against Israel.

The Jewish kidnapping: don’t blame Abbas

On May 12,2014, Arab sources reported that Hamas and Fatah (PLO) had agreed to form a new unity government for the Palestinian Authority (PA) (“Palestinians: Hamas-Fatah unity government to be announced by end of month”, Jerusalem Post, May 12, 2014). Almost immediately, two things happened. First, Israel said, this is horrible. This new unity government will not lead to peace. It will lead to terror.

No one listened.

The second thing that happened was that the world congratulated the Arabs.  Abbas was brilliant. He told the nations exactly what they wanted to hear. He spoke of ‘peace’ (Jerusalem Post, ibid). He announced that his unity government would not actually be ‘unified’:  none of the proposed Ministerial positions in the new government would go to Hamas.  He declared, “Hamas would have nothing to do with the unity government’s program or policies” (Jerusalem Post, ibid).

Everyone applauded. Israel didn’t believe it. The US actually sighed in relief.

Without Abbas’ statement, the US would be committed to end aid to the PA. US law prohibited Hamas from having ‘undue’ presence or influence in PA affairs (“Palestinians form new unity government that includes Hamas”, The Washington Post, June 2, 2014).

Abbas was masterful. He used all the right words. He even announced that his new unity government would be non-violent (Washington Post, ibid). The world loved it.

The EU supported the unification—even though Hamas is on the EU’s list of terror organizations (“Netanyahu Condemns Europe on Stance Favoring Fatah-Hamas Unity”, Arutz Sheva, June 2, 2014). The US refused to condemn the new government.

Only Israel condemned it. Everyone else was pleased.

Three weeks later, as the swear-in date for the new government approached, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his concerns. He said forcefully that this unity government would not strengthen peace. It would strengthen terrorism (“Fatah-Hamas unity government will strengthen terror, says Netanyahu”, The Guardian, June 1, 2014).

Two months from that initial May 12^th unification announcement—and just eleven days after the new government’s swearing-in-- three Jewish boys were kidnapped from Israel. Terror against Israel had returned only days after the ink had dried on the new ‘non-violent’ unity Arab government.

Abbas had lied. His unity government didn’t promote peace.

Israel’s Netanyahu blames Hamas. For months, Hamas had been calling for increased kidnappings of Jews (“Netanyahu says Hamas to blame in kidnappings”, The New York Times, June 16, 2014). Now, Jews had been kidnapped.

In Gaza, officials gave out celebratory candy.

In Israel, Netanyahu declared that the kidnapping “should surprise no one,” because “Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and to carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians — including children” (New York Times, ibid).

No one listened. They believed Abbas’ lies.

Netanyahu announced that Israel holds Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority responsible for attacks against Israelis from PA-controlled areas. He stated that the kidnapping demonstrates the folly of all who would applaud an alliance between Abbas and a terrorist organization (“Kidnapping of teens brings much commentary, few facts”, San Diego Jewish World, June 15, 2014).

No one listened. They heard only Abbas’ ‘non-violence’.

Netanyahu has it right. It doesn’t matter who listens. We, the Jewish people, have the obligation to declare what is truth, what is false. Look at the world: without our voice, everything is a lie.

Abbas embraces a terror organization. The kidnapping took place on his ‘watch’.  He is responsible.

No he isn’t, says Israel’s Opposition Leader Yitzchak Herzog (Labor). Don’t blame Abbas, he says. Work with him (“Opposition Chairman Herzog Says Don't Blame Abbas”, Arutz Sheva, June 16, 2014).

Herzog is wrong. Abbas is to blame. He must be held accountable for what his people have done. He may not have authorized the kidnapping. But he controls the PA. He is responsible for what happens there.

He is also head of Fatah. That makes him responsible because his Fatah has become an accessory to the kidnapping.

The official Fatah Facebook page has called on all PA residents to destroy store security videos and all documents regarding the kidnappers in order to hinder Israel’s search. That call to obstruct the capture of the kidnappers makes Fatah (and Abbas its leader) accessories to the crime.

An accessory is one who, while not actually carrying out a crime, conceals or otherwise helps the culprit(s) to avoid capture.  That’s exactly what the Fatah Facebook page did as the Israeli search began. It gave instructions to help the culprits avoid capture.

Netanyahu is right. Herzog is wrong. Abbas is responsible.

Abbas and his new friends, Hamas, are responsible for this crime. Israel should continue to hold every PA/Hamas official it has arrested. These officials should be jailed until the boys are returned—safe.

If the boys (G-d forbid) are not returned safe, these Arab leaders must pay a price for the hate they incite against Israel.

What would you do with them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewish boys kidnapped. Netanyahu will pay the price

On Thursday evening, June 12, 2014, three teens attending one of Israel’s Yeshivas (religious seminary) disappeared. Rumours say they had been ‘tremping’.

‘Tremping’ is a form of hitch-hiking. When you tremp, you usually stand at road-side and hold your hand out and angled downward towards the road beside you. When a car pulls over, you negotiate a free ride.

But in Israel, ‘tremping’ is more than just ‘hitching’ a free ride. In Israel, especially near many of the country’s smaller communities, ‘tremping’ is a form of socialization. Riders gather. They chat. They form friendships.  Cars stop. Sometimes, two or three cars line up to offer a ride.

It’s a courtesy thing.  It’s how Israelis interact with each other.

Nevertheless, Israel is at war. Tremping carries risk. We have all seen news reports of Arabs disguised as religious Jews offering rides—looking to kidnap someone. We have heard of Arabs forming teams to hunt someone—anyone--to kidnap.

We are at war. Our cities are at risk. Our children are at risk. Tremping is a risk.

Whether these boys were tremping or not, we all expect them to be safe. That’s our Prime Minister’s job. He is supposed to create and enforce policies to enhance safety, not reduce it. If we are not safe, he will pay a price for his negligence.

Kidnapping Jews is important. Everybody knows what happens when you kidnap a Jew: the Jews give in. Jews will release hundreds of convicted Jew-killers for a single kidnappee.  The last kidnapped soldier (who was not murdered) brought the release of more than 1,000 convicted killers.

Kidnapping is a weapon in the Arab war against the Jew.

For several months now, Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials have been calling for more kidnappings. We have all been reading about these calls. We know what the Arab is thinking. We know what’s coming.

Now, it’s happened. Three boys, age 16-19, have disappeared.

We pray for their safe return. We pray they will be found soon.

But while we wait, anger builds. Yes, that anger is directed at Arabs. Arabs have been attacking Jews lately with increasing boldness. There are more attacks in Jerusalem. There are more attacks against Israeli soldiers.

But we have also seen Youtube videos showing something else. Israeli soldiers have been emasculated.

We recently saw one video in which a soldier was attacked. Patiently, he fended off his attackers. But then one attacker  got behind him. He raised his rifle and aimed it at the other, while he turned to get both in front of him. The attackers fled.

The soldier was arrested. He was threatened with prison. He had committed the ultimate taboo: he had pointed his weapon at the enemy.

This is why Netanyahu will pay a price for these kidnappings. His leadership has harmed our ability to protect ourselves. Under his leadership, the enemy now sees that we cannot even point a gun at him.

Netanyahu will pay for that.

In another recent video, two armed soldiers arrest a violent Arab protester. Immediately, they are surrounded by a mob of screaming Arabs. The soldiers will not raise their weapons. Frightened, they release the arrestee to the mob.

They are helpless. Their weapons are nothing more than props.

Netanyahu will pay a price for that.

Just last week, many in certain Israel cities noticed an unusual increase in Arabs riding buses they don’t normally ride, walking on streets they don’t normally walk. Something was in the air. What was it?

Now, three Jewish boys have disappeared.  Maybe they were tremping. Maybe they weren’t.

It doesn’t matter how it happened. They’re missing and Arabs in the PA celebrate. They hand out candies. Fatah (the ruling Party in the PA) has posted on its official Facebook page a call for PA residents to destroy all video and photo evidence of the kidnappers, in order to hinder the Israeli search.

Yes, the IDF will crack down hard. But it will be too little, too late.

We pray for the three boys. We fear for their safety.

Netanyahu will pay a price for this kidnapping.

Netanyahu will pay a price for this kidnapping because this is a small country. There is little decentralization. The Prime Minister has a controlling voice in the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). He has a controlling voice in the civil administration. He has a controlling voice in how assertive our security forces are in protecting us.

More and more, he is perceived to be withdrawing that protection. More and more, he appears more concerned over what gentiles say—and less concerned about Jewish safety. More and more, he seems to respond to Arab attacks with indifference—until it is too late.  Then he slams the barn door after the horses have escaped.

However this ends, Netanyahu will pay a price for his neglect.

Jews are not supposed to rely on miracles

 This week’s Torah Portion is called, Sh’lach (Vayikra, 13:1-15:41). It contains the story of Jewish spies in the Wilderness who betrayed G-d by reporting that the land of Israel could not be conquered. G-d had told the Jews that the land was theirs—and would be good. But the spies reported that the nations there were too strong, the cities too fortified to go there.

Our Talmud suggests that the sin of the spies was that they doubted G-d. Their negative report suggested that G-d wasn’t strong enough to help the Jewish people (Arachin, 15a).

Commenting on this tragic episode, the Ramban (1194-1270) takes a slightly different approach. He suggests that the original role of the spies was related to G-d’s requirement that we must act to receive G-d’s blessings. He suggests that we are not allowed to sit back and wait for G-d to give us what we want. We must act. That’s why the spies were sent out in the first place.

But in order to be successful, our actions must be based upon two foundations. We have to believe in G-d. We also have to believe that we can overcome the challenges we face.  We have to believe in ourselves. The sin of the spies was that they didn’t believe in G-d or themselves. They said, ‘can’t be done!’

From this episode, we learn how to live well. We learn that we win when we concentrate on our work—and on seeking G-d’s help.  We win when we believe in G-d and ourselves.

The Ramban tells us that Scripture “does not rely on miracles in any matter (emphasis mine”) (see Ramban on the Torah, The Art Scroll Series, Second Impression,  Bamidbar, p 247). We must act. To a large extent, we set our future. Perhaps that’s why our Talmud says that, on the path we choose, that is the direction G-d will lead us (I can’t recall the source).

From this Ramban commentary, we can see that the focus of our lives is not to rely upon miracles. The focus is to identify the actions we must take.

Many of the most religious among us do not agree with this. For example, they say that they won’t move to the modern state of Israel. They are waiting for G-d. He will bring them there.  

Yes, that’s an oversimplification. Bu t it’s true. These religious Jews reject modern Israel. They refuse to act to support Israel. They will not go to Israel.

They speak only of our future Redemption. They say we must not work towards that Redemption. They say we are obligated to wait. We must leave everything to G-d. He will take care of us. He will do everything for us.

But this ‘hands-off until G-d does it for us’ approach appears clearly to be based upon what the Ramban tells us not to do. In a sense, the focus for too many religious Jews is not on Redemption. It’s on the miracles that will bring that Redemption.

The Ramban is clear. When it comes to Redemption, we do not refuse to move. If the path we wish to travel is a not forbidden path, we must act.

Nothing will happen unless we act.

In fact, this concept is repeated in our Heritage. G-d told Moshe that the Sea of Reeds would split. But nothing happened. The sea didn’t split. It didn’t move until Nachshon ben Aminadav (or, the entire tribe of Benjamin) acted—and walked first into the water. There is a Talmudic statement (I can’t recall the source) that says that G-d doesn’t make rain come so farmers can plant. G-d brings the rain because farmers have acted—and planted first.

For the Ramban, our G-dly Source (Scriptures)is clear. We must not rely upon miracles. This is the way of the natural world. Waiting for a miracle is not an option. Refusing to act is not an option.

G-d does not bestow His blessings upon those who wait. He gives those blessings to those who act.

Too many Jews choose to wait. Worse, they choose to wait for a miracle.

The Ramban teaches otherwise. He suggests to us that, at the first Redemption, the golden prize—the land of milk and honey—did not go to the Jews who waited. It didn’t go to Jews to who said, ‘we can’t act’.  

Why do so many believe that the Final Redemption will be different?

 

Boston: the ‘Palestinian cause’ gets vicious

The war to destroy Israel has come to Boston, Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA)—part of Greater Boston’s transit system-- has become a ground-zero in the propaganda war against Israel. Several anti-Israel organizations have been sponsoring anti-Israel ads on the exterior of Transit busses.

Recently, a new ad has labelled Israel as an apartheid state that kills children. It says that , “Since September 2000, Israel’s military has killed one Palestinian child every four days, using US tax dollars.”

In case you didn’t do the math, that’s about 1,400 children. The ad calls for an end of US support for the ‘APARTHEID’ Israel.

As propaganda, this is a stunningly successful ad. It’s brief. It demonizes its enemy. It gets your attention.

Who wants to support state-sanctioned child-murder?

The ad declares Israel is apartheid.  Apartheid is state-mandated discrimination. It is very specific. It’s legal code. Its purpose is to disenfranchise. It is pervasive, institutionalized, dehumanizing and vicious.  A state policy to kill the disenfranchised is (literally) the ultimate form of dehumanization—turning a human into a corpse.  Accusing Israel of killing children as state policy (that is what apartheid is) may well be the ultimate form of demonizing Israel.  

The ad is startling. It pushes Israel-the-evil into your face. It shocks.

The ad is a lie. Nothing in Israel’s state policies meet apartheid requirements. In fact, Arabs in Israel have more freedom and rights than in any Arab country.

‘Apartheid’ is ugly. In plain English, Israel has no state policy to enforce ethnic cleansing or forced resettlement against the Arab (a mark of apartheid). Israel has no state policy to disenfranchise the Arab (a hallmark of apartheid).

Israel’s state policy is to grant its Arab citizens the right to vote. Israel’s law allows Arabs to live next to Jews. 

In plain English, Israel has no state policy to kill ‘Palestinian’ children.   Israel’s legal code makes that illegal. In plain English, it is pure fiction to suggest otherwise.

So did Israel’s IDF kill children? That’s a complex question. But then, that complexity is part of the lie against Israel.

According the website, Defence for Children International Palestine, 1,404 Arab children were killed by the IDF and ‘settler presence’ between 2000-2014 (the site doesn’t define ‘death by settler presence’). But when you look at their lists, you discover something curious: more than 91 per cent of those deaths occurred in Gaza, and the overwhelming majority of these occurred after 2005.

Gaza is important here because Gaza is at war against Israel. Israel enforces no state policies in Gaza because Israel’s legal code does not apply to Gaza. Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in 2005. Gaza is 100 per cent Jew-free.

The moral issues here are simple. Israel, as a sovereign state, has the moral right to defend itself. Gaza has the moral obligation to protect its civilians, especially its children. But while Israel does defend itself, Gaza does not protect its civilians—or its children. Instead, it uses them as human shields.

That’s immoral. It’s illegal. It’s a war crime.

The complication is, no one accuses Gaza of being a killer of children. They accuse Israel.

The truth is, nothing good happens to a child when her neighbour has just fired a rocket at Israel from outside her living room window. Children can die even when Israeli fire kills Gazans in the act of firing rockets.  

Here’s the moral question that those who hate Israel won’t discuss: how does Israel defend itself when its enemy fights while deliberately surrounding himself with children?  Put another way, if Arabs hide behind children to attack Israel, but Israel is permitted only to kill enemies who wear uniforms while fighting on an open plain, how does Israel defend itself?

Arab combatants in Gaza wear civilian clothing (a war crime). They use hospitals as ammunition dumps (a war crime). They use schools as a fighter-base (another war crime).

If children die when Israel defends itself, who should be responsible for those deaths? Do we blame the country (Israel) trying to defend its citizens against rockets, or do we blame the people (Gazan authorities) who purposely put their citizens in harm’s way?

Gazan authorities are responsible for their citizens’ safety. In fact, the UN requires this as a ‘Responsibility to Protect’. If Gazan authorities choose to use their citizens—including children---as human shields, they are culpable when those children die.

It is immoral for those Boston Transit ads to blame the IDF for those deaths. The moral obligation to protect those children is not theirs (or Israel’s). That obligation—and the consequences for the failure to protect--belong to the Arab.

The ‘Palestinian cause’ is not just. It kills its own children. It is immoral. It is evil.

Those Boston Transit ads are not about truth. They are about evil disguised as truth.

 

 

 

Jordan violates a Treaty. Here’s what Israel should do

On Tuesday, June 3, 2014—the day before a major Jewish holiday (Shavuot)--Israel police allowed some 400 Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. To make certain these Jews were safe, Israel police blocked Arabs from the Mount during the Jewish visits.

This was a proper safety measure. Jews who ascend the Temple Mount are routinely threatened by Arab authorities or attacked by Arab youth. Upon Judaism’s holiest site, Jews are not safe.

Hamas—Mahmoud Abbas’ new partner—is one reason Jews are not safe on the Temple Mount: Hamas has been paying for attacks against Jews (“Hamas pays hundreds of youths to harass Jews at Temple Mount”, Times of Israel, May 29, 2014). Hamas pays up to 5,000NIS/month for young Arabs to riot and throw stones.

In Jerusalem, young Jews typically earn 2,000-3,500NIS for part-time work. 5,000NIS/month for part-time work is unheard of.

Hamas pays well—and gets a result from its investment. Jordan (which ‘administers’ the Temple Mount) uses ‘youth attacks’ against Jews to call for Jews to be removed altogether from the Mount. They use these attacks to ‘prove’ that a Jewish presence on the Mount is ‘dangerous’. They call for laws to ban Jews so there can be peace on the Temple Mount.

Jordan works with Hamas. Both want to ban Jews completely—or, short of an outright ban, they want to deny Jews free access to (and freedom of worship at) the Mount.

When these 400 Jews ascended the Mount on June 3, Jordan condemned Israel for allowing a Jewish police contingent to accompany them. It called the police protection ‘Israeli aggression against holy sanctities’ (see “Jordan Condemns Israel for Allowing Jews on Temple Mount”, Arutz Sheva, June 4, 2014).

Jordan called Israel’s behaviour a flagrant violation of international law. It called upon ‘the international community and international organizations to take action and [to] pressure “the Israeli occupation authorities” to stop these offensive violations.

Israel should respond to these attacks by condemning Jordan. Israel should do this in order to remind the world that, by attempting to deny Jews freedom of worship on the Temple Mount, Jordan violates a formally signed international Peace Treaty.

The truth is, Jordan’s campaign against free access to Jews on the Temple is itself a flagrant violation of the 1994 “Treaty of Peace Between The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan And The State of Israel”. In this Treaty, both Israel and Jordan explicitly commit to provide free access and freedom of religion to all at Israel’s ‘Holy sites’. 

Do a google-search for ‘The 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty’. Look for the site titled, kinghussein.gov. That’s the official Jordanian site that posts the entire Treaty.

Read this Jordanian version of the Treaty. Read Article Nine. It’s short:

Article 9 – ‘Places of Historical and Religious Significance and Interfaith Relations’ :

1. Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance [in Israel].

2. In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.

3. The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

--

With these words, Jordan commits to allow Jews free access and freedom of worship at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. But Jordan doesn’t do that. It demands the opposite—that Jews be forbidden upon the Mount. Jordan even demands that Jews upon the Temple Mount must be arrested if they bow, move their lips or sing.

With Article Nine, Jordan committed itself to promote interfaith relations and tolerance. But Jordan rejects tolerance. It aggitates instead for a Jew-free Temple Mount (“Report: Jordan vetoes Israeli request to allow Jewish prayer on Temple Mount”, Jerusalem Post, November 12, 2013) and “Jordanian MPs Demand End to Peace With Israel Over Temple Mount”, The Jewish Press, March 18, 2104).

Jordan’s verbal and diplomatic assault against Israel over Jewish visits to the Mount before a major Jewish holiday does not show a willingness to promote ‘freedom of religious worship’. It demonstrates intolerance and discrimination.

Jordan’s call for international action against Israel proves that Jordan has no interest in abiding by its Peace Treaty with Israel. Its behaviour should be repulsive to all who seek peace.

Israel should make its own call upon the international community--to condemn Jordan’s betrayal of its Peace Treaty responsibilities. Israel should be clear: if Jordan cannot be trusted to live by its Peace Treaty with Israel, Israel could never trust Abbas and Hamas—whose goals against Israel are far more violent than Jordan’s.

Israel has had numerous opportunities to speak out against Jordan’s Treaty violations. It refuses to do so.

Why?

 

Israel‘s elite are ill.

Israel’s elite suffer a spiritual sickness. They accuse us of sins we don’t commit. They reject G-d.

They call us apartheid. They transform miracles into crimes.

How can Israel fulfil its Destiny with such leadership?

Perhaps that’s their point. Perhaps our elite have a plan: to make us appear so horrid that we convince ourselves we are unworthy of G-d’s Redemption.

Then they can offer us their redemption plan: a non-Jewish ‘democracy’ of Muslims and Jews—where, incidentally, Jews will reject G-d and Muslims will build mosques.

Our elite work to convince us we are unworthy. Take, for example, a single 48-hour news cycle, June 4-6, 2014.  

In one instance, an essay on Ynet (“June 5, 1967 is still with us”, June 6, 2014) describes the 1967 Six-Day War as one that brought Israel to subjugate hundreds of thousands of ‘Palestinian’ citizens. That’s what that War was about, according to the essayist. For this writer, that War didn’t save Israel. It didn’t re-unite Jerusalem.  It brought us crimes and oppressions. It brought us isolation and woe that simply won’t go away. It turned us into brutes.

But the facts tell a different story. In 1967, Israel faced extinction. Egypt President’s Gamal Abdul Nasser threatened to wipe Israel off the map. In the days leading up to the War, Nasser began to ‘exalt in the impending destruction of Israel’ (“Nasser and the Six Day War: 5 June 1967: A Premeditated Strategy or An Inexorable Drift to War?”, Moshe Gat, Israel Affairs, Vol.11, No.4, October 2005, pp.608–635).  The world sat and watched in wonderment as the armies of Egypt and Syria gathered to attack.

For many observers, there were only two questions in the days before that war: would Jordan participate in the cannibalization of Israel; and, second, how long would it take the Arabs to destroy the Jews?

There is a story making the rounds about that War. There are several versions to this story. But all have the same punch line.

The story is about West Point. West Point, the story says, teaches its cadet-students the 1967 Arab-Israel War.

Using details provided by instructors, students at West Point ‘refight’ the war. Their goal is to explore how different variables could create different outcomes.

But the students always discover something strange. Changing variables doesn’t change the outcome. In literally every scenario instructors create for their students, Israel loses.

On paper, Israel cannot win that War. The facts on the ground are simply too overwhelming.

The instructors cannot explain how Israel won. They shrug. They say, Israel won because of some ‘intangible’ advantage.

Some Jews say that that ‘intangible’ was G-d. But today, the Ynet essay above discounts that. It hints at the miraculous, then changes the subject.

Instead of miracles, the Ynet essayist sees the seeds of unworthiness. He suggests that the miraculous triumph of the people of G-d defending G-d’s land has had no lasting spiritual or material benefits. What has lasted, he claims, is the shame the War brought. It’s a shame, he says,  that won’t go away.  

Our survival made us unworthy.

In Haaretz, Israel’s premier anti-Israel Jewish newspaper, we read about Israel’s supposed ‘apartheid’ policies, this time at Ben Gurion airport (“Israeli apartheid exposed at the airport,” June 5, 2014). For Haaretz, Israel is forever unworthy—and this essayist will prove it!

For Haaertz, Jews have no G-dly connection to the land of Israel. Instead, Israel was created by European white folk who don’t belong here; these Jewish ‘whites’ usurp Arab land and exploit the ‘native’ population.

This op-ed builds on these myths by adding ‘apartheid-at-the-airport’ to the list of Israel’s sins.  Its language is so egregious that one essayist has already called it both ‘crude’ and racist, because of its characterizations of a black Israeli police officer (“True Colours? Haaretz Publishes Crudely Racist Op-Ed”’, Arutz Sheva, June 5, 2014).

In the Middle East, Israel is the only country that is not apartheid. Arabs in Israel have more opportunity and freedom—and a higher quality health care—than Arabs have anywhere else in the Middle East. That’s why, on June 4, 2014, we read that a Hamas leader chose to send his mother-in-law to Israel for medical treatment—and not to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else in the Muslim world (“Hamas Leader's Mother-in-Law in Israel for Medical Treatment”, Arutz Sheva, June 4, 2014).

 Israel’s elite are sick. Their souls burn with fever while the rest of us yearn for Redemption.

Our leaders are the weakest among us. They are terrified of Redemption. Redemption will end their power.

They fight to keep that power. That’s why they take it upon themselves to prove how unworthy we are. They want us to abandon HaShem just as they have abandoned Him.

Do you believe we are unworthy?