It's Time We Tell The Truth About Israel
The State of Israel is not nice to the Palestinians. There is no way around this incredibly obvious reality.
If the State of Israel was nice to the Palestinians, there would be no bombs dropped on Gaza. No children dead children. No reason for Hamas to fire rockets at Israeli schools, shuls and towns.
If Israel was nice to the Palestinians there would be no unrest. No war. No violence. No looting in the street. No Sifrei Torah desecrated. If Israel was nice to the Palestinians there would be no BDS movement. And certainly no international condemnation.
Of course, if Israel was nice to the Palestinians, it is quite likely that there would also be no State of Israel. This too, is an incredibly obvious reality. At least to us, the Jewish people, who have had a front row seat to the centuries of destruction of our people, and the deafening silence of the world.
We know well, that were it not for the State of Israel and the IDF, dozens more massacres and pogroms would almost certainly have transpired since the Holocaust. We also understand that even the most depraved horrors of the Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum. Auschwitz was simply the tail end of a millennia of murderous European anti-semitism.
It is not for naught that we are wary of the promises of protection from friends and foes alike. How could we fully trust them? We are far older than they are. Our memories still carry the scars that their ancestors left on our psyches. We might not all have numbers on our arms. But we certainly have them engraved in our hearts and minds.
How could they understand? They were not there. We were. And in so many ways, we still are.
The world protests: We are different now! We no longer revel in the death of Jews. We are sophisticated, moral and woke! Just please, be like us – be nice. We cannot support you when you’re so mean to the Palestinians.
Perhaps they are right. Perhaps we should move on. Perhaps we should forgive and forget and trust? Perhaps this time will be different? Perhaps, in the pursuit of being nice, we should forget the ancient tragedies and travesties of justice wrought against our people? There are certainly many American Jews that think so. Their optimism is as inspiring as it is terrifying.
For the sake of discussion, let’s play it out, and say they are right. Let’s say that we can entrust our national security to the USA, the Palestinians and the United Nations. Let’s say that now we can be nice, and that practically, we can give up large portions of the State of Israel to establish a State of Palestine. Let’s give up Yerushalayim, and displace hundreds of thousands of Jews from the West Bank. Let’s assume that this will somehow bring eternal peace.
Even if that was all true, such peace and niceness comes with a cost greater than war: We give up the truth, and we lose our national purpose.
Because, at the core of the Israel/Palestine debate is a most profound and important question: To whom does the land belong: Jews or Muslims?
Rashi tells us in his very first comment on the Torah: > ומה טעם פתח בבראשית, משום: כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים (תהלים קי״א:ו׳). שאם יאמרו אומות העולם: לסטים אתם שכבשתם ארצות שבעה גוים, והם אומרים להם: כל הארץ של הקב״ה היא, הוא בראה והוא נתנה לאשר ישר בעיניו, ברצונו נתנה להם וברצונו נטלה מהם ונתנה לנו. > What is the reason, that The Torah begins with the account of the Creation? … If the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are thieves, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to Hashem; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us”.
The approach of the Torah is singular: The Land belongs to the Jewish people. There are no “two-sides” to that reality. That is the truth. No amount of rockets, cease-fires, or politicking can change the simple fact that Eretz Yisrael belongs to Am Yisrael. The truth is that we, the Jewish people, are still planning on building a Beis HaMikdash on Har HaBayis. This is not a politically motivated orientation. It’s the focus of a significant percentage of our Tefillos.
Standing up for this Truth is not always nice. Sometimes it’s painful, upsetting and unsavory. We do not enjoy the suffering it brings. But no less essential. After all, surgery is butchery if not in the service of a greater healing. That fact is invisible if you cannot understand the higher purpose.
We should make no mistake: The question of “supporting Israel’s right to defend itself” has little to do with self defense. It has nothing to do with “proportional response”. It has everything to do the legitimacy of the State of Israel’s existence, and our ownership of the Land of Israel.
To be clear: I believe that most of the people calling on Israel to be nice are not trying to be anti-Semitic. I think that they simply believe we can all live safely if we give up on a truth that they do not accept. If we stop our stubborn commitment to the Truth of the Torah, then we will have their full support.
Of course, whether they know it or not, they are simply repeating the well-worn age-old anti-semitism that plagued us throughout history. The Greeks, Romans and Crusaders all demanded the same: Give up on your truth, and we’ll leave you alone.
The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim explains that when Adam and Chava ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it fundamentally changed all of human perspective. The world could no longer be perceived in the absolute terms of Truth and Falsehood. Instead, it would now be seen as Good and Bad. In the world outside of Eden, what is good for Israel is bad for the Palestinians. What is bad for Israel is good for the Palestinians. Good and Evil are subjective, interchangeable and fungible – it all depends on your vantage point.
But what is the truth? The truth is the Hashem gave us the land. The moment that we disconnect ourselves from that truth, then the world has every right to demand that we hand over the keys to Eretz Yisrael. After all, if it is not ours, then fighting to hold onto it is theft, or at a minimum, selfishness. Fighting to hold onto that which is not yours is an abuse of power.
There is a deep Avoda here for each and every one of us. Firstly, we need to strengthen our connection to Eretz Yisrael by internalizing it as the place that Hashem gave to us. This an be accomplished simply by paying closer attention to our Tefillos: “Bring us back to the land”, “Rebuild Yerushalayim”, “Restore the Service in the Beis HaMikdash”.
Even more broadly, importantly and personally: we need to consider how much we are living our own private lives based on what is True, rather than what is Nice. Every time we ignore the Truth in favor of ego, convenience and niceties, we betray our truth, The Truth. Every time we justify our betrayal, we are perverting and distorting the meaning of our lives. We are still eating from the poisoned, confused fruit of Good and Evil.
Of course, the opposite is true as well: Every time we stand up for Truth internally, every time we fight our own Yetzer Hara, we are adding power and credibility to the Tree of Life. Every mitzvah strengthens the Truth, and along with it, our claim to Land of our Past, Presence and Future.
Reb Baruch of Mezibuz noted that this essential Avoda is repeated a dozen times in our Parsha. It’s the gift of the princes of the Jewish people: כף אחת עשרה זהב – “one golden ladle of ten shekels…”
He explains homilestically: כף אחת – All it takes is one kefifa, one turn. One rejection of falsehood. That, in an of itself, is worth all the gold in the world.
If we’re all dedicated to the Truth internally in our own small ways, then perhaps our small turns will converge together to the Great Truth of our people.