So, I just got out of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, in Yerushalayim. After a visit there, it takes a while to readjust to “normal life.” There is so much there to see and so much information to process that it’s simply overwhelming. It is so overwhelming in terms of emotion, intensity of feelings, and an attempt to grapple what is truly beyond my comprehension.
It hits me that same intense anti-Semitic hatred that I saw in the museum is being replayed day after day after day, especially in Yerushalayim. It was even visible right from within the museum’s grounds. Yes, the same intensity of hatred that is documented in the museum exists now on the light rail train, buses, streets, highways, bus stops, pizza shops, etc. that are all over Israel.
So nothing really has changed! Well, 2 things have changed. The first, unfortunately, is not the absolute depth of psychotic Jew hatred. This is as alive and well today as it ever was. The difference between then and now is how it manifests itself. In the museum you can see old movies of Hitler (may his name be erased forever) as he mesmerized his crowds into an almost trance like messianic frenzy state of euphoria. You don’t see people today screaming out “Heil Hitler” and attempting to exterminate us. Zyklon B gas or mobile SS death squads have been relegated to a museum status. You do see Imam preachers who also mesmerize and “brainwash” faithful Muslims by quoting chapter and verse of the Koran about how Jews are monkeys, apes, and pigs, as well as, how at the end of days the “faithful Islamists” will be told by the “Jew trees” where we are hiding in order to come and exterminate us (G-d forbid). How sickening it is that Muslim youths are indoctrinated by their parents, the “PA schools,” the PA media, their culture, and of course their “religion” where it is a “mitzvah to kill Jews.” Their whole upbringing from day one is about Jihad, mass murder, etc. and all in the name of “Allah Akhbar.” Oh how happy Goebels, the Nazi propaganda minister, would be. So frankly, the substance of hatred hasn’t changed but the form that it comes in has. And, I haven’t even mentionioned the Iranians rush to build nuclear weapons which they make very clear will be used, G-d forbid, to “exterminate Israel and every last Jew on earth.” This, along with their hundreds of thousands of rockets they give to Hezbollah, Hamas, etc., will help bring back the 12th Imam, the global caliphate of Islam, and Sharia Law on earth. Parenthetically, what’s quite interesting is that from the leaders of the almost 200 nations in the so-called United Nations, not one stands up and says this is madness and evil. Doesn’t this sound like the 1930s all over again?
Anyway, the second and perhaps the most striking difference between “then and now” is manifested right in front of my eyes in the Holocaust museum. I see large groups of IDF soldiers, both men and women, who are very well armed and trained. And, it strikes home that this time we are really able to defend ourselves. This is not in anyway meant to belittle the Jewish partisan’s and other’s efforts to battle the Nazis, often with their bare hands or little else at their disposal. They were beyond heroes in their time. However, the Israeli Defense forces, the border police, and all the other defense and intelligence agencies are some of the best trained and even (ironically) admired in the world. Yet, despite it all, their hands are tied. They almost have to call the state’s lawyer before they can open fire in life threatening situations. We try to be so ethical and treat evil with kindness that we end up treating kindness with evil. We’re afraid to kill terrorists but instead we use the word “neutralize.” Certainly anyone who kills a terrorist who is in the midst of an attack, is a hero! But, in reality, they could easily end up in jail themselves. Have we not learned anything from history and our current situation? In medicine, you can only treat a problem or disease adequately if you first make a clear diagnosis.
The full responsibility for the level of hatred and it’s manifestation of murder and genocide is on the heads of the former Nazis and their many willing and even enthusiastic collaborators, as well as, the current “radical Muslims,” the leftists, the twisted media networks, and all their other supporters around the world. However, we as a people bear the responsibility and the shame for the second part if we continue to refuse to “wake up and smell the coffee” and do whatever has to be done. Then, unfortunately, I say with a very heavy heart, that we are accessories to the crime.
When I left the museum, I realized that I was crying not just for the unfathomable events that I saw in the museum, but for the attempted genocide that is happening right here and now (and it’s not just in Israel). I am saddened by the current day fear of walking around Israel and having to look behind your back for fear that some Jihadi lunatic can stab you in the heart. Also for the fear of waiting at a bus stop watching each car and if one car speeds up, you can panic that a “scripturally inspired” terrorist might run you over with 4000 pounds of metal. Also, the fear of having to drive on numerous roads, like a Paranoid Schizophrenic, scanning every area suspiciously to see if there are individuals or more particularly groups of young Arabs congregating. The fear of course comes in the forms of rocks, boulders, lead pipes, and firebombs if not gunshots. And there is more. How about the fear that when your children are late and you cannot reach them that something, G-d forbid, has happened. I mean they take the Light Rail and buses every day. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that my son knew 2 out of the 3 teenage boys, from his yeshiva, who were murdered in cold blood over a year ago just for being Jewish. And the press calls Mohammed’s Monsters “freedom fighters?”
I pray for the day that we won’t have to live this way and the slogan “Never Again” will come true. I know that day will come when I’m able to, with great joy, take my loaded Glock 19 that accompanies me 24/7, and has laser guided sites and hollow point bullets, and throw it down the sewer because it won’t be necessary to carry around anymore.
Please daven hard that this day comes VERY soon!