Bar Lev identifies the most dangerous enemy

The determination to fight two evils at the same time was made famous by Ben Gurion at the start of the second world war.

In those dark days the Jewish community of Palestine found itself between a rock and a hard place. On one side the British had long turned their back on their promise to the Jews and to  the world to facilitate a Jewish state in Palestine. This was their mandate and they turned it totally around. Instead of what they were charged to do they did everything to thwart the Zionist endeavor aiding the Arabs in their assault on the Jewish community.

As the Nazis began their campaign of genocide in Europe the British closed the last hope for Jewish salvation – the borders of Palestine. Jews were sent back to their deaths. The Jewish community adamantly resisted these nefarious anti-Jewish policies. Young Jewish patriots went to the gallows for their efforts to expel the treacherous  British.

Despite a deep hatred for British treachery and its abetting Jew-hating Arabs to rampage, the community paused and assessed the situation.

It is at that moment that Ben Gurion, the acting leader of Jewish Palestine, proposed his famous formula.

“We will fight the “White Paper”(the name of the British policy to blockade  Palestine to Jews) as if there was no Hitler and we will fight Hitler as if there was no white paper.”

The Jews faced two dangerous enemies. It was a very dark hour.

Ultimately tens of thousands of Jews joined the British army to fight Hitler but the sense of frustration was real and understandable.

I recalled this sad and frustrating moment in our history when I heard the words of Israel’s Minister of public security, Mr. Omri Bar Lev today ” he will continue to fight Palestinian terrorism as if there was no violence by extremist settlers, and the violence of extremist settlers as if there was no Palestinian terror”.

In case you are scratching your heads wondering what this man was thinking, I remind you that just this past Chanukah the same Israel minister condemned Mr. Herzog, Israel’s president for lighting a menorah in the famous ancient structure that houses the tombs of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in the holy city of Hebron (settled by “settlers”!). Bar Lev’s hatred for the “settlers”  is so great that he has totally disconnected from all Jewish roots and identity.

It should not come as a surprise that his father Chaim Bar-Lev held the same job in 1980 when six Jews (only settlers) were gunned down by Arab terrorists. Bar-Lev the elder reacted to the massacre of the Jews (settlers) explaining  “If they weren’t there they would not have been killed”.

 Need I add?

This was his father and this is him.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  The tree is rotten to its core. It can not stand for long without roots.

The question is how is it that we are led by such monsters?

My book, “Jews, Isaelis and Arabs” was written in response to this absurd and dangerous  situation.