Originally posted to author’s website, Emes Ve-Emunah}
Most people who read this blog know I am a fan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I have time and again supported his views, actions and statements. Most recently,, I supported his decision to accept an invitation from House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of congress on the issue of Iran and the spurt in worldwide terrorism.
Interestingly, while the American people don’t agree with what Boehner did and think it politicized support for Israel, they also do not agree with President Obama’s refusal to meet with him. I agree with my fellow Americans about that. Agree with Boehner or not, once here, President Obama should meet with the Prime Minister of America’s closest ally. Like him or not, he is the leader of the only true democracy in the Middle East. Not doing so is petty. The symbolism of it is not.
As for politicizing support for Israel, no one is doing more damage to that relationship than the boycotters of his speech to congress. There are about ten or so members of congress that have announced that they will not attend. They say that Netanyahu will not tell them anything they haven’t heard from him before.
But to presume to know what he is going to say as an excuse for not attending is exactly politicizing it. Furthermore, if you boycott the leader of the country you support, you are in effect boycotting the country itself. It would be like the members of the Likud boycotting Obama if he accepted an invitation from Tzipi Livni to address the Kenesset. Truly a stupid thing to do.
But then again I never really thought too much about the intelligence of Senator Patrick Leahy and Vice President Joe Biden – the 2 most prominent boycotters. They are not the brightest bulbs in the room. Stupid things come out of their mouths all the time.
But this post is not about that. It is about a statement made by the Prime Minister with which I totally disagree. In response to the latest terrorist attack against Jews in Denmark, Netanyahu made the same pitch to Jews there that he did to the Jews of France after they were attacked. He told the Jews of Europe to get out! It is no longer safe for Jews in Europe. And they should make Aliyah (immigrate) en masse to Israel.
Do not misunderstand. I am not God forbid opposed to making Aliyah. The holy land is the place where we Jews belong. It is the place where more Mitzvos are available to us. It is God’s gift to the Jewish people. There are many reasons to make Aliyah. But running away from Europe is not one of them.
Not that I am a fan of Europe. As Menachem Begin once put it, Antisemitsm is in the mother’s milk of every European. Rashi’s commentary about Esav Soneh L’Yaakov surely applies to Europe. Today just as it did yesterday. That’s why there was a Holocaust. And that’s why today it’s so easy for Muslim fanatics living in Europe to rake up all those old feelings – submerged via guilt after the Holocaust.
But the Holocaust did indeed change things. Antisemtism is not only no longer government policy, it is no longer tolerated. Unlike it was before and during the Holocaust. Then Euroean Antisemitsm was official or at best tolerated. France, for example, had no problems rounding up its Jews and handing them over to the Nazis for shipment to Auschwitz.
There were Jews in the immediate years prior to the Holocaust that saw what was coming and urged their Jewish brethren to get out of Europe… most notably Zev Jabotinsky. He was not a religious Jew. But he saw what was coming and told the Jewish people to get out! Religious leaders were opposed to that and told the Jewish people to stay put. And they did to the tune of six million Jews who ended up dead.