Much as I have tried, it has been hard to get away from the carnage that happened at a Har Nof Shul in Jerusalem last week . The image of bloodied bodies draped in Taleisim… the thought of being hacked to death with hatchets and knives attacked from behind while in prayer… the fact that it was all so close to home in the sense that I have extended family there. I know that place. In fact I attended a Bar Mitzvah of that extended family right in that Shul just a couple of years ago.
The horror of this event is beyond description. By all accounts the four Jews that were killed were gentle people that would not harm a fly. And then there was the Druze police officer who gave his life in the line of duty protecting the Jewish people.
There is no word for those who did this other than savages. I don’t care what their motive was. These people are no different than any other mass murderers.
The question is, what do we do about this problem? I am at a complete loss for any answers. Not that there aren’t any floating around. There are. And they are all terrible. Some worse than others. But all bad. There are no good options for the people of Israel that will give them the answer to what surely must be their most fervent prayer: Living in peace without fear of being attacked, murdered, maimed or kidnapped. All in the most violent of ways imaginable to man.
There is not a sane member of Klal Yisroel that doesn’t crave that. The only question is, how is it achieved? I don’t see any reasonable answer.
A 2 state solution? You cannot make peace with Palestinians as long as there are people among them who will use any advantage handed to them to further damage us in the above mentioned ways. Giving the Palestinians a state right next to Israel will just turn the West Bank into another Gaza. Not because the average Palestinian necessarily wishes it. But because of the ultimate control that will be taken by the religious fanatics of Hamas and other fundamentalist Muslims.
The Satmar option of dismantling the State of Israel and handing it over to Palestinian control is an even worse prescription for death and destruction. Imagine what a dismantled Israel that became the unified State of Palestine under the rule of Fundamentalist Islam would do to us if that were to happen. I have little doubt that there would be unprecedented carnage against the Jewish people – the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Holocaust . Lest there be any doubt about radical Islam being capable of that – I refer you to ISIS.
The status quo isn’t really working out that well either… as the events in Har Nof and elsewhere in the last couple of weeks amply demonstrate.
But there is one option that is about as abhorrent as it can get. An option that hearkens back to the era of Rabbi Meir Kahane. I can understand the frustration. I can even understand the logic. But treating every Arab like he was the reincarnation of Charles Manson is not only immoral it wouldn’t even work. And yet this is apparently what Rabbi Pruzansky seems to feel should be done.
The fact is that not every Arab is a Nazi. (Rabbi Pruzansky seems to like using Holocaust imagery – so I’m going with it.) Not every Arab is interested in pursuing an unattainable goal of throwing the Jews into the sea. Much as some of them would prefer it. They realize the Jewish people are in the holy land to stay. I would be willing to bet that although most Palestinians would like it if we left they realize that this is not going to happen. In most cases, therefore, they would prefer to just get on with their lives without the indignities they must suffer because of Israel’s legitimate security needs.