It is OUR fault

This week, we begin in all synagogues to read the Torah from the start: “Beraishit Bara Elohim et Hashamayim ve et Haaretz.” “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki 1040 – 1105), the classic commentator of the Torah, asks a question. “Why did a book of rules, the Torah, our constitution between God and the Jewish people, begin with the story of who created the world?”

And Rashi continues. “The Torah, i.e., God, knew there would be many times in the future that nations of the world would say to the Jewish people, “You are robbers for taking this land.” Therefore, the Bible, God’s word, wants us to know from the start that God created the entire universe, and He decided to give this tiny strip of land to his chosen people, the Jewish people.”

Can you imagine this? The Bible is designed and structured to address a most significant question: to whom does this land belong? It belongs to the Creator of the universe, who gave it to the Jewish people.

At this time, there is no question we must be laser-focused and remain united on the war and eradicating an inhumane group of terrorists. Israel should be strong and not cave into external pressures from many countries in the present tense that are butchering innocent civilians. No one of those pressures, in the past, and in the present, is bringing back any of the 1300 Israelis slaughtered by these Hamas animals or any of the other innocent people, many who were not even Jewish who were murdered as a result of caving into these concessions with those terrorists.  

The Israeli army will do what it needs to do with the help of God as it continuously has operated most morally and effectively. Everyone else with a drop of humanity in them will do whatever they can to assist in this effort, not just for the sake of the people in Israel but for the sake of eliminating evil from the face of this earth.

Every Mitzvah (spiritual good deed) anyone does strengthens the general standing of our people before God Almighty, the source of all blessings and protection.

In this unfortunate saga, we have seen clearly, “If God does not watch the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” Psalms 127

Our covenant with God includes the strengthening of our spiritual duties and the taking up of arms. Both are necessary for the success of our existence. 

When an enemy lobs 5000 bullets at your family and kills them most brutally, takes your family as hostages, and then hides behind ordinary citizens, the ONLY ones to blame for the death of these innocent civilians are the terrorists that used them as shields. Not one iota of the blame can be directed to the unfortunate victims defending themselves and making every effort; these murderers don’t kill more of their family and others. 

Any reasonable person to defend his family from being further brutally killed and raped has no choice but to kill the murderers wherever they are found.

When these inhumane animals take 200 or so members of my family as hostages and shelter them in a house with other people, and I turn off the electricity and water supply to squeeze out the freedom of my family who are inside this home as hostages I am exercising my moral responsibility toward my family and humanity, and the entire blame for this course of events is on the hostage takers who chose to take my family and place them in this situation.

This leads me to a sore subject.

Rabbi M.M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, spoke many times on the critical imperative not to give back any of OUR land to our enemies. The Rebbe, Rabbi Schneerson, would repeat repeatedly, wrote in many letters, spoke at public gatherings, and told Israeli politicians about the danger of exposing our boundaries to people dedicated to our death.

In 2005, 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were unilaterally dismantled, and Israeli settlers and army evacuated from inside the Gaza Strip. Israel handed over the Gaza Strip to the Arabs!

At that time, the place was an oasis of beauty and agricultural marvel.

The Arabs had a chance to prove to the world that they could govern and be respectful neighbors. They chose a very different path. The Arabs in Gaza voted in the Hamas, and since then, tens of thousands of rockets have been fired at innocent people in surrounding villages and townships. Since then, the Arabs who support and give cover to Hamas as their representatives after terrorists attack Israel and kill innocent Israelis, many of whom are not even Jewish, hand out candies in the streets to celebrate the murder of women and children. (sick) As they did this time. 

I don’t hear the Arabs in Gaza, the West Bank of Israel, or the Arab world condemning the atrocities of October 7th. On the contrary, they justify the murder, rape, and butchering of innocent People. These same people are up in arms because Israel is doing what is morally proper to defend its people and benefit the world, and that is to eradicate this human cancer from the face of the earth. 

Israeli Arabs who live in Israel respect the Jewish people’s right to live in Israel and have this small country as one, for the Jewish people have it better in Israel than the overwhelming majority of Arabs in other Arab countries. They have more freedom and better opportunities than most Arabs in 23 Arab countries.

I believe Rabbi Schneerson was right. The mere fact that we allow the Arabs to believe they have a right and a claim to our small State has fueled and encouraged them to continue fighting for something which in reality and historically, is not theirs and impossible to grant them for our own safety.

This weakness on the part of Israel not to proclaim as the Torah does, “this land was granted to the Jewish people by the Creator of the world, God Himself, “and we are ready to live in peace with anyone with that understanding, is the biggest reason for this continuing dragged out ongoing tension and loss of life Israel is faced with. There are 23 huge Arab countries for those who aren’t happy with this arrangement, which many Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank originate from.

I don’t see other countries whose indigenous population was unquestionably there before their land’s current conquerors granting these tribes or people their own country within these existing countries. So where do they come off telling Israel to give a part of its historically undisputed land to anyone? 

Let us use this tragedy as a trigger to push us once and for all to a decision that will eliminate the false illusion that fuels these factions within Israel and everywhere in the world.  

Israel is the land of the Jewish people. That’s what the Bible says and what the historical reality is. We must not show any weakness when saying and proclaiming this fact. It is what God declares right at the beginning of the Bible. If we are on God’s side, we will always be on the winning side. It is what is historically the undisputed case. We are ready and have demonstrated we can live in peace and respect for other religions and cultures.

Israel is a teeny strip of land, while the Arabs have 23 countries. There is no reason for the Jewish people to give up any of their land to any other people. No one has a claim to our land besides the Jewish people. 

May God watch His people and protect our soldiers in the coming difficult days. May God give us the strength to say and do what is Godly and therefore blessed by Him. May God bring peace to the entire world in these very uncertain times.