Stop apologizing for Israel!

Could this be for real? Can this truly be happening in this civilized age?

Jews around the globe have never felt so isolated and victimized since WWII.

Innocent schoolchildren as young as five, on a bus in Sydney were threatened to be killed this week. The Chief Rabbi of Glasgow is actively encouraging Jews of Scotland to leave. He is staying only because of his responsibility as Rabbi. Trains in Belgium have been painted as the flag of Palestine in solidarity with Gaza. The London Times amazingly refused to run a paid ad by Eli Wiesel condemning the Hamas use of Human Shields. Newsweek magazine ran a front cover story about the Exodus of Jews from Europe, comparable to the Great Exodus from Egypt with Moses.

Admittedly, some Jews are condemning Israel for her actions in the recent war.Tragically, those who hate us do so with such animosity that they have openly declared their intentions this week to kill, G-d forbid, not just Israelis, and not just Jews around the world but to ‘also kill left-wing anti-war Jews’ .

It’s hard to ignore the eerily prophetic words of a brilliant 11th century sage who predicted what we are seeing unfold today before our very eyes.

In his very first commentary on the opening word of the Torah, Rashi asks why it is necessary for the Torah, a book of Divine Law, to begin with the stories of Adam and Eve, why not rather with the very first mitzvah commanded? His explanation:

For the nations of the world will one day say to Israel, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of Israel],” they will reply, “The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it (this we learn from the story of the Creation) and gave it to whomever He deemed proper When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us. 

Rashi lived during the time of the first crusade. (A fascinating episode tells the tale of his encounter with King Richard and Rashi predicting his failure to conquer Israel from the Arabs.) At that time, Jews were so persecuted that a vision of a sovereign Jewish Nation in their homeland was dismissed as nothing more than fantasy.

Yet Rashi wrote these daring words: that a time will come in the future when Israel will be ruled by Jews yet all the nations of the world will accuse us of stealing the land from the Arabs. Is this not coming true in our time?

If the first part of Rashi’s prophesy of theproblem was fulfilled to the tee, then maybe, hisproposal for peace holds the key to our struggles as well.

Instead of apologizing for Israel and valiantly trying to justify her right to exist and defend herself from intolerable threats to her existence, let us assert our right to the land by virtue of G-d have chosen to give it to the Jews. The title deed is in the world’s most popular book- the Bible.

If the first part of the prophesy came true predicting the problem, perhaps the solution in the second part- standing our ground based upon G-d’s gifting the land to us– is true as well!

Let us not be meek and stand up for what is rightfully ours. These pictures show the soldiers doing it. We can do the same.