He told the truth, and he died for the truth. He told the truth about the implacable Arab-Islamic hatred of the Jews and of Israel. He told the truth about Israel’s government, that this government is the greatest enemy of the Jewish people. He told the truth about the many Reform and Conservative and Moderdox rabbis who feared the truth and prevented him from appearing and speaking the truth at their temples and synagogues.
It was because he told the truth about the Arabs, who now applaud Saddam Hussein and scream “Itbach al-Yahud” – “Slaughter the Jews” – that he was called a “facist.” It was because he told the truth about the many rabbis who betrayed Torah Judaism for the baubles of popularity that he was called a “Khomeini.”
He told the truth, and he died for the truth. He told the truth about the countless Arabs, including Arab citizens of Israel, who keep not one of the Seven Noahide Laws of Universal Morality. He told the truth about Moslems who blaspheme against the G-d of Israel, who worship blood and glory in bloodshed, who murder and rape and mutilate each other, as well as Jews.
He told the truth about a government that lacks the courage to protect its own people from the stones and firebombs and knives of Arabs. He told the truth about a government steeped in falsehood, a government that speaks peace, peace with a people that knows only war. He told the truth about a government that enacted a law making it illegal to tell the truth about that people. For this reason only was he barred from the Knesset – yea, with the help of a High Court of Injustice that allowed PLO spokesmen to remain in that miscreant assembly.
He told the truth, and was vilified by liars. He spoke with courage, and was attacked by cowards. He was barred from universities that welcomed PLO propagandists. He defended Jews and justice, and was treated as a pariah. His voice in the Knesset was a voice in the wilderness, but his words reached beyond its walls and enlightened the minds of honest Jews.
He worked tirelessly for Klal Yisrael . He helped countless Jews in Israel and abroad. He spoke words of Torah and brought Jewish souls back to Judaism. His gifted articles – alas, we shall have them no more – illuminated events obscured by official darkness. He articulated the hopes and sentiments of normal people. He lifted their hearts, he rallied them to a cause, and he died for that cause.
He suffers no more. But we who mourn our loss, we who feel the emptiness created by his passing, we who were strengthened by his words, let us keep his faith and carry on the struggle for which he died – the struggle for Truth.
Editor’s note: Paul Eidelberg (Ph.D. University of Chicago), is a professor of political science at Bar Ilan University and the author of many books.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Holocaust Yet to Come - Moshe Feiglin
This article is not about the Holocaust that happened. It is about the Holocaust that is liable to come knocking on our door. If you are weak of heart, stop reading now. But if you are staying with me, please take a deep breath, forget about secondary political issues and internalize what I am writing. The trains to Auschwitz did not have separate cars for Right and Left, Haredi and secular.
It is popular to pontificate on the lesson of the Holocaust. Every person takes the Holocaust to the place that is comfortable for him. I would like to discuss a very basic lesson that I have never seen disproved: The Western world will not try too hard to close down the gas chambers. Not only that. It will even indirectly stoke them.
True, after the Holocaust, in a rare moment of good will, the world voted to partition the Land of Israel and to recognize the fledgling Jewish state. But this recognition had no practical implications. Seven Arab armies invaded the tiny area allocated to Israel. The world did not lift a finger. The Egyptian army got to within thirty kilometers of Tel Aviv, murdering and destroying every person and settlement in its path. They cut through the Negev and reached Beit Lechem. The Jordanians were just twenty minutes away from Israel's coast. The Syrians captured Mishmar Hayarden – and destroyed it, of course.
Three years after the Holocaust, the Western world waited once again for the Arabs to finish off the dirty work. It did nothing to help Israel. But then, with G-d's loving grace, the situation turned around. The nascent IDF stopped the Arab armies. On the southern front, Yigal Alon commanded over some brilliant maneuvers that more or less eliminated the Egyptian army. The IDF forces got all the way to El Arish inside Egypt.
When that happened, Britain threatened that if the IDF would not retreat, it would invade Israel. America pressured, Ben Gurion gave in and the new norm was set: When the Jews are in danger, the world waits patiently. When they start to win, the world stops them.
The Western world – upon all its beauty and advantages – will always act as a static anvil for the murderous hammer descending upon the Jews from above – be it the Nazi hammer, the Arab hammer or any other murderous, anti Jewish hammer.
The time when we will have to decide if we are willing to entrust our fate to the very same West that will always be happy to be rid of the "Israel Problem" is rapidly approaching. We see ourselves as an inseparable part of the Western world. It is difficult for us to accept that the West, our cultural patron, will simply close its eyes with relief when six million Jews in Israel will once again be facing wholesale slaughter.
But that is precisely the direction that events are taking. The only difference between 1948 and today is that then we were a rabbit that thought it was a lion and today we are a lion that thinks it is a rabbit. In 1948, our physical weakness invited invasion. Today, our mental weakness invites invasion.
What invasion am I talking about? If we were not living in denial, the media would be abuzz about Samantha Power, head of the National Security Council, who advocates taking the funds that the US now invests in the IDF and investing them instead in the 'Palestinian' army. In no uncertain terms, she discusses a possible US invasion of Israel – to keep the peace, of course. When that goal is accomplished, Power advocates leaving us here to enjoy the loving kindness of the righteous souls in Ramallah.
As surrealistic as all of this sounds now, it is most important to remember that only terror organizations and Arab states used to deny Israel's right to exist. Now this concept is coffee table talk throughout Europe. The denial of the right to exist always precedes physical annihilation. That is another important lesson of the Holocaust.
Tony Blair, the European Union's envoy to the Mid-East, recently said that Europe would accept the Hamas as a negotiating partner, refusing to make that contingent on Hamas recognition of Israel's right to exist. When officials of the stature of Power and Blair make these statements, they are charting the course for Western policy.
After the UN will recognize a Palestinian state at the 1967 borders, the Arabs will demand an Israeli retreat. To make sure we know they mean business, they will punctuate their demands with missiles on Israel's cities. Israel will be forced to respond and the international coalition will rev up its motors to come save the peace.
All signs point to the fact that Israel is currently building the foundations for a Palestinian state and is planning an instant, southern-Lebanon-style retreat from Judea and Samaria. Something like, 'Get on the buses now and we'll explain later.'
But the Arabs don't really want a state. All that they want is to end Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Their demands will intensify after Israel's retreat from Judea and Samaria as per the Gush Katif aftermath model. They will demand the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, right of return for their 'refugees', compensation payments, an international peace keeping force and what not. In the meantime, they will continue to bombard us with missiles. Israel's military response will serve the West with its excuse to intervene. At this point, an exhausted Israel will have to decide: Either open the Ashdod port to the US Navy forces or fight against the entire world.
All of Israel's 'enlightened' elites will unequivocally support opening Israel's gates to the
'Peacekeeping' forces. From the President all the way down to the writers in the major newspapers, they will have no other solution. "And what is better?" they will ask. "Living in the shadow of the West, or fighting a war being forced upon us by Jewish fundamentalists?" The patriotic declarations being sounded today in the Likud will turn into 'pragmatic' rhetoric. The West is the very air that we breathe and the lesson of the Holocaust will be ignored.
The last thing that the policy-makers are capable of thinking is that we are a nation in our own merit, a nation that relies on its own ethical code. They will never come to terms with the fact that we are not Western or Eastern; we are simply Jews who, as opposed to 1948 – are not weak at all. We are a formidable economic and military power and are capable of extracting a terrible price from any country in the world that will threaten our sovereignty.
We will never even think that the entire problem does not exist in reality, but only in our minds. In other words, our psychological dependency on the West actually invites this scenario. No Western country would challenge our sovereignty if it had the slightest fear of an Israeli response. We are a lion that thinks it is a rabbit. But knowing this country, I do not expect that we will respond to threats on our sovereignty in the manner that any normal nation would respond. Instead, Israel will open its gates to the 'Peacekeeping' forces. The IDF will be disbanded and the rest of the story has already been experienced by the Jewish People throughout its long and painful history.
As a believing Jew, I pray that our Father in heaven will perform a miracle and that one year from now, you will be able to take this article and laugh at me. I am a great believer in the Nation of Israel and anticipate that unexpected energies will emerge in the nick of time to prevent this scenario.
As Independence Day approaches, we must say loudly and clearly: There is life after America. The struggle is not for the settlements. The danger is much more existential and all-inclusive. It is not military danger. It is not economic danger. The danger is our total collapse in a process that is all-too reminiscent of the fall of Czechoslovakia. The moment that a state entrusts its existence to other states that have other interests, its existence becomes transient.
It is urgent to cut the psychological ropes binding us to the West. We are not Americans. We are Israelis and we have an independent and strong faith and culture from which we draw our own existential legitimacy – not from the West.
There is life after America. Put it on stickers. Blog it. Write it on your social media. Broadcast it at rallies and wherever you can. We do not need American aid. All that we need is to return to our tried and true Jewish identity.
It is popular to pontificate on the lesson of the Holocaust. Every person takes the Holocaust to the place that is comfortable for him. I would like to discuss a very basic lesson that I have never seen disproved: The Western world will not try too hard to close down the gas chambers. Not only that. It will even indirectly stoke them.
True, after the Holocaust, in a rare moment of good will, the world voted to partition the Land of Israel and to recognize the fledgling Jewish state. But this recognition had no practical implications. Seven Arab armies invaded the tiny area allocated to Israel. The world did not lift a finger. The Egyptian army got to within thirty kilometers of Tel Aviv, murdering and destroying every person and settlement in its path. They cut through the Negev and reached Beit Lechem. The Jordanians were just twenty minutes away from Israel's coast. The Syrians captured Mishmar Hayarden – and destroyed it, of course.
Three years after the Holocaust, the Western world waited once again for the Arabs to finish off the dirty work. It did nothing to help Israel. But then, with G-d's loving grace, the situation turned around. The nascent IDF stopped the Arab armies. On the southern front, Yigal Alon commanded over some brilliant maneuvers that more or less eliminated the Egyptian army. The IDF forces got all the way to El Arish inside Egypt.
When that happened, Britain threatened that if the IDF would not retreat, it would invade Israel. America pressured, Ben Gurion gave in and the new norm was set: When the Jews are in danger, the world waits patiently. When they start to win, the world stops them.
The Western world – upon all its beauty and advantages – will always act as a static anvil for the murderous hammer descending upon the Jews from above – be it the Nazi hammer, the Arab hammer or any other murderous, anti Jewish hammer.
The time when we will have to decide if we are willing to entrust our fate to the very same West that will always be happy to be rid of the "Israel Problem" is rapidly approaching. We see ourselves as an inseparable part of the Western world. It is difficult for us to accept that the West, our cultural patron, will simply close its eyes with relief when six million Jews in Israel will once again be facing wholesale slaughter.
But that is precisely the direction that events are taking. The only difference between 1948 and today is that then we were a rabbit that thought it was a lion and today we are a lion that thinks it is a rabbit. In 1948, our physical weakness invited invasion. Today, our mental weakness invites invasion.
What invasion am I talking about? If we were not living in denial, the media would be abuzz about Samantha Power, head of the National Security Council, who advocates taking the funds that the US now invests in the IDF and investing them instead in the 'Palestinian' army. In no uncertain terms, she discusses a possible US invasion of Israel – to keep the peace, of course. When that goal is accomplished, Power advocates leaving us here to enjoy the loving kindness of the righteous souls in Ramallah.
As surrealistic as all of this sounds now, it is most important to remember that only terror organizations and Arab states used to deny Israel's right to exist. Now this concept is coffee table talk throughout Europe. The denial of the right to exist always precedes physical annihilation. That is another important lesson of the Holocaust.
Tony Blair, the European Union's envoy to the Mid-East, recently said that Europe would accept the Hamas as a negotiating partner, refusing to make that contingent on Hamas recognition of Israel's right to exist. When officials of the stature of Power and Blair make these statements, they are charting the course for Western policy.
After the UN will recognize a Palestinian state at the 1967 borders, the Arabs will demand an Israeli retreat. To make sure we know they mean business, they will punctuate their demands with missiles on Israel's cities. Israel will be forced to respond and the international coalition will rev up its motors to come save the peace.
All signs point to the fact that Israel is currently building the foundations for a Palestinian state and is planning an instant, southern-Lebanon-style retreat from Judea and Samaria. Something like, 'Get on the buses now and we'll explain later.'
But the Arabs don't really want a state. All that they want is to end Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Their demands will intensify after Israel's retreat from Judea and Samaria as per the Gush Katif aftermath model. They will demand the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, right of return for their 'refugees', compensation payments, an international peace keeping force and what not. In the meantime, they will continue to bombard us with missiles. Israel's military response will serve the West with its excuse to intervene. At this point, an exhausted Israel will have to decide: Either open the Ashdod port to the US Navy forces or fight against the entire world.
All of Israel's 'enlightened' elites will unequivocally support opening Israel's gates to the
'Peacekeeping' forces. From the President all the way down to the writers in the major newspapers, they will have no other solution. "And what is better?" they will ask. "Living in the shadow of the West, or fighting a war being forced upon us by Jewish fundamentalists?" The patriotic declarations being sounded today in the Likud will turn into 'pragmatic' rhetoric. The West is the very air that we breathe and the lesson of the Holocaust will be ignored.
The last thing that the policy-makers are capable of thinking is that we are a nation in our own merit, a nation that relies on its own ethical code. They will never come to terms with the fact that we are not Western or Eastern; we are simply Jews who, as opposed to 1948 – are not weak at all. We are a formidable economic and military power and are capable of extracting a terrible price from any country in the world that will threaten our sovereignty.
We will never even think that the entire problem does not exist in reality, but only in our minds. In other words, our psychological dependency on the West actually invites this scenario. No Western country would challenge our sovereignty if it had the slightest fear of an Israeli response. We are a lion that thinks it is a rabbit. But knowing this country, I do not expect that we will respond to threats on our sovereignty in the manner that any normal nation would respond. Instead, Israel will open its gates to the 'Peacekeeping' forces. The IDF will be disbanded and the rest of the story has already been experienced by the Jewish People throughout its long and painful history.
As a believing Jew, I pray that our Father in heaven will perform a miracle and that one year from now, you will be able to take this article and laugh at me. I am a great believer in the Nation of Israel and anticipate that unexpected energies will emerge in the nick of time to prevent this scenario.
As Independence Day approaches, we must say loudly and clearly: There is life after America. The struggle is not for the settlements. The danger is much more existential and all-inclusive. It is not military danger. It is not economic danger. The danger is our total collapse in a process that is all-too reminiscent of the fall of Czechoslovakia. The moment that a state entrusts its existence to other states that have other interests, its existence becomes transient.
It is urgent to cut the psychological ropes binding us to the West. We are not Americans. We are Israelis and we have an independent and strong faith and culture from which we draw our own existential legitimacy – not from the West.
There is life after America. Put it on stickers. Blog it. Write it on your social media. Broadcast it at rallies and wherever you can. We do not need American aid. All that we need is to return to our tried and true Jewish identity.
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