The pogroms in Chevron took place eighty five years ago, in 1929; the Holocaust began seventy-five years ago in 1939; the joint attack of Israel’s neighbors against the Jewish State of Israel happened sixty-six years ago… yet, world history of anti-Semitism did not stop there, but continues until today. Yes, the primitive reality of Jews being indiscriminately butchered just because they are Jewish continues literally today, when blameless Jews wrapped in prayer shawls and tefillin were viciously murdered while praying in a Jerusalem synagogue.
In the last month alone there have been terrorist attacks against Jews in multiple locations around the world (Holland, France and Belgium, for example), but most of them were carried out by Muslim Arabs in the State that was founded to supposedly offer a safe haven for the Jewish People. Men, women and babies have been killed by barbaric terrorists who attack innocent victims in the name of their religion. It would be bad enough if these were individuals who stepped out of line from a peace-loving nation, however, these murderers are educated to vicious blood-lust from infancy. When such a terrorist succeeds in killing a Jew, God forbid, the murder is celebrated in Arab towns by distribution of candies to the children, and many flock to pay their “respects” to any terrorists who happen to have been killed, lauding them as “shahid” martyrs. Even Palestinian president (our peace-loving partner…), Mahmud Abbas sent a letter of condolence when Yehudah Glick’s would-be assassin was killed in a gun-battle against soldiers after refusing to surrender to Israeli arrest.
Obviously, Palestinian propaganda would have us all believe that these are innocent freedom fighters who are uprising against the “illegal” occupation of the West Bank, which is the pretext that apparently justifies any Arab violence in Israel (even the War of Independence, which broke out while the abovementioned territory was still under Jordanian rule?). For them, this validates the smuggling into Greater Israel of hundreds of knuckledusters, knives, clubs and electric-shockers with the evident intention of killing or injuring Jews, not to mention the other weapons and potential suicide bombers that are intercepted at military checkpoints. The fact that the IDF fights back aggressively against youngsters who are demonstrating “peacefully” (if you ignore the Molotov Cocktails, firecrackers and rocks that they hail at the soldiers) in Arab towns and in Jerusalem is clearly the reason why they were demonstrating in the first place. Well, you can always turn any truth around to try and justify your cause…
Are the Palestinians to blame? Can we hold Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the escalating violence, as Israeli politicians are claiming as fact? On the face of things, it seems clear that this is so, although Mr. Abbas seems to be able to see things from two facets, as one M.K. said, “’You can’t on the one hand go round saying you condemn violence and on the other hand send letters encouraging it.”
When we examine the issue from a deeper historical perspective, and analyze it from the viewpoint of the Torah, the source of all our problems comes to light. Here is a quote from the Declaration of Independence:
“THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel”
So far, so good, sounds pretty kosher, right? But, let’s read what comes next,
“it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture… WE APPEAL — in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months — to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”