We Choose Life

It has been many weeks since my last posting a blog here because much has happened within my family, thankfully, all for the best.  Busy is too poor a word to describe the recent past, but it has all been a wonderful experience and taken up much of my time, however joyously.

However, I find it still quite unfortunate that most of the news emanating around the globe, especially on college campuses and on the streets of many European cities (and far too many American ones lately) is rife with stories of mounting Jew hatred anti-Israel demonstrations and the re-emergence of violent physical attacks on Jews.  Europe, it appears, is returning to the “bad old days” of the 1930s when assaults on Jews were commonplace and the outcry against the virulent bigotry and prejudice of the period were few and far between.

No, I am not going to be one of those philosophers who delight in explanations for anti-Semitism using all the “politically correct” catch phrases and delve into the frequently employed usage of “root causes.” Roots are for trees and plants, not people. Whenever I hear that terminology I am reminded of something the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, z”l, said-“When Moses saw the Egyptian beating the Hebrew slave, he didn’t start a commission to study the root causes of ant-Semitism;. he slew the Egyptian.”

Our history is less a story of our march through time and civilizations, it is more of a pathological treatise on persecution, exile and murder. The world has yet to slake its thirst for Jewish blood. The simple fact, nay, the only fact,is that the world wants us dead. End of story.

All the political obfuscating recently about peace with the “Palestinians” and the inevitable and supremely hypocritical condemnations vomited oy the Americans, the EU, the UN and all the other anti-Semitic cabals about building apartments in Jerusalem, or blaming the Israel Defense Forces for “slaughtering” children in Gaza are truly meaningless and we, as Israelis and Jews, should treat their calumnies with the contempt that they so rightfully deserve.

Realistically, the only solution that the world sees for Israel is another Final Solution, another “Endlosung” albeit phrased in less Germanic philology.

The saddest part of all this is that there are still some of us, both in Israel and in the Exile (for, whether you like it or not, if you don’t live here, you are in Exile so suck it up) who fail to understand that for all its seeming altruism and platitudes,the world is creating another smokescreen behind which it wants to burn us alive. Yes, we have some friends, true, but we always fight alone……and that is also our strength.

In our tradition, in times of great joy and happiness, like a wedding, we remember the destruction of our Temple and every day, in prayers recited all over the globe, we turn towards Jerusalem, our capital, the city of David, the center of our existence.We cannot ever betray that.

We have a sacred trust given to us by G-d to survive and to flourish despite our enemies’ desire for our destruction. We have a historical duty to rebuild our homeland, ALL of it, as it is our place on this planet. The land belongs to no one else regardless of current political machinations and sophistry. We must defend it against all who seek to exterminate us with all the armed might of our nation. I’d rather be alive that you condemn me than dead that you should love me.

The world wants us dead so we have no choice but to live as best we can and never let our guard down.  We are all  the watchmen of our people.

“Al chomota’ich ir David, hifkadeti shomrim, kol hayom v’ kol halailah.”

“Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have commanded guards all the day and all the night.”