Denial, destruction, and defamation: The need for a wake-up call!
May this evil/tyrannical government be removed from the earth.
(From the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy, author’s translation)
Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens took to the streets of Israel again to protest the current Israeli government of denial, destruction, and defamation. The people of Israel are furious with this government for understandable reasons, and I am with them.
First of all, I want to express my shock and dismay at the denial of starvation of Palestinians in Gaza by the Prime Minister of Israel and many of his colleagues in this government. Their denial of the starvation is nothing more than political spin, which very few people in Israel and the world are buying any more. By now, there are many reputable reports in the Israeli media and the foreign media about the purposeful starvation, which has been going on for a long time but has worsened severely during the last month. There is no doubt any more that there is serious starvation and much malnutrition suffered by the mostly homeless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It is very well documented, especially by serious journalists like Nir Hasson in Haaretz.
Secondly, the destruction and wanton killing of innocent civilians in Gaza every day has got to stop. Enough is enough already! Much of Gaza has been flattened. Whole cities, like Rafah and Khan Yunis, hardly exist anymore. The amount of destruction and the frequency of daily massacres are intolerable. They have led many people in Israel—including many security heads and previous heads of the IDF—to now refer to this war as an unjust and immoral war, which must end.
The planned destruction of Gaza City—and the expulsion of its almost one million residents—is inconceivable and unconscionable. It should not happen. It must be stopped. Someone has to wake up the president of the USA and tell him to put a stop to it right away. Otherwise, he and the American government will be complicit in this upcoming disaster. Supposedly, he has the power to convince Bibi to stop it.
Thirdly, there is too much defamation by the so-called “leaders” of this government. Anyone who criticizes their outrageous statements, lies, spins, and denials is quickly defamed as an “anti-Semite” or a “collaborator with Hamas” or a “traitor,” when most people in Israel and abroad know that the opposite is the truth. The biggest collaborator with Hamas is the Prime Minister and his previous governments and his current one. It is they who allowed the Qataris to give millions of dollars in cash to Hamas over many years, to create and support an alternative to the Palestinian Authority; and it is they who support the continuation of this war, as do the Hamas “leaders,” who also have an interest in keeping it going. And, as everyone in Israel knows and feels it every day and every night, it is Smotrich and Ben Gvir and their colleagues who promote and inflame anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism in the world by their outlandish, embarrassing and blasphemous statements all the time. (I won’t quote them here because they are too embarrassing but you have undoubtedly read them or heard them.)
They defame Israel and Judaism all the time, so much so that Jews and pro-Israel people around the world cringe at their outrageousness and are shocked and embarrassed that the Prime Minister of Israel (and the Chief Rabbis of Israel ) do not denounce them and disassociate themselves completely from them. On the contrary, it was Bibi who brought them into this extremist government and normalized their racism and warmongering. By now, he is no different from them. In fact, he has become them!
This government of denial, destruction and defamation is causing great damage not only to the Palestinian people, but to the Jewish people everywhere. It needs to be removed from this earth. The people are rising up against it. It can’t last much longer, because if it does, the damage that it has done may be irreversible. We desperately need elections in Israel as soon as possible, to bring back a leadership of sanity and responsibility.
The first step is for this war to end now, for a deal to be reached to bring home the hostages and to arrange for a new leadership in Gaza, which will reconstruct Gaza with help from Arab nations and from the international community. As was clearly in evidence yesterday again, in the massive demonstrations in Israel to end the war, the citizens of Israel want this to happen now, without further delay. Supposedly the President of the USA wants this too, but he has yet to do what is necessary to make it happen!
We are now in the Hebrew month of Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when traditional Jews begin to blow the shofar and are meant to engage in repentance and soul-searching. The great medieval Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, has taught us that the blowing of the shofar is meant to be a wake-up call for Jews to repent from the evil ways of the past year and to return to doing good in this world.
The current government of Israel needs to hear and heed the call of the shofar! They need to wake up and change their ways. Now, before it is too late.
Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep! And slumberers, arise from your slumber! Search your ways and return in teshuvah and remember your Creator! Those who forget the Truth amidst the futility of the moment and are infatuated all their years with vanity and nothingness that will not help and will not save, examine your souls and improve your ways and your motivations! Let each of you abandon his wicked ways, and his thoughts which are no good. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Repentance 3:4)
