Following the recent dangerous, threatening antisemitic rallies at Cooper Union, NYU, Cornell and Columbia it is critical to urge our senators to vote YES on the bipartisan resolution brought yesterday before the Senate to condemn antisemitism on campus and protect Jewish students. Please complete and share the ADL form. They will send emails to Senators Schumer and Gillibrand on your behalf urging them to vote YES. https://adl.salsalabs.org/campus-congress/index.html
While the collective psyche of the Jews around the world is shaken, nothing strengthens the resolve of a people more than unity. Never have I been more proud to be Jewish than I am today. There will always be those who make the bad choices, but it feels to me as though we have never been more united as a people than right now. And it is about to get better.
One of the biggest eternal problems Israel has had to deal with is the schism between the Haredi, ultra-Orthodox community and the secular community. The division was on a collision course and was becoming increasingly untenable. Although all the problems between the multiple segments of the community will not be fixed overnight, there is some very good news coming out of Israel, albeit as a result of the horrors of October 7th.
Haredi journalist Yanki Farber reports that as early as this coming Sunday or Monday, thousands of Haredim will be joining the Israeli Defense Forces. The plan is to have them train for a day or 2, learn how to use some basic weapons, and then work mainly as medics and truck drivers. They will be 26 or older, mostly married with a family.
I know for some the inclination will be to reflect on how they did not serve in the IDF till now, and that there will be many who still don’t, but I suggest a different perspective. As I have said often over the past 2 1/2 weeks, now is not a time to litigate the past or predict the future. Now is a time to focus on the present. Presently we are more united as a people than we have ever been in my lifetime, and I dare say it is hard to find times when we were more united than today. Let’s remain united in strength and dedication and not be victims of the psychological warfare of Hamas and our other enemies and succumb to fear and division.
As a people we are strong and as a people we survive. Am Yisrael Chai!
I had the displeasure of seeing parts of your interview on CNN during which you focused on the events that have taken place since October 7th, while downplaying the atrocities of October 7th. This interview, conducted by Christiane Amanpour, who is clearly and consistently biased against Israel, felt more like a propaganda video than it did an interview of a woman of royalty.
In the interview you said the following:
“When October 7th happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened … but what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.”
First of all, the whole world did not stand by Israel. Those with a modicum of moral clarity did, as did some of its closest allies, however before Israel even had a chance to respond to the barbarism committed against their citizens there were protests in the streets against Israel. As expected, there was no strong condemnation by the United Nations. And as soon as Israel started it’s bombing of Hamas targets there was an uprising in universities, many of them feasting off of funding from the Arab world. There were “Days of Rage”, called on by Hamas which conveniently led to protests in the streets. But your words are telling, because you say “what we’re seeing” as opposed to what is actually happening, because you see what best suits your prejudices and interests.
You then said:
“This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire. So the silence is deafening – and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit.”
Really? First time in human history? Not one country joined in fighting against the Nazis before being attacked themselves. 6 million Jews were killed in what was truly a genocide and you have the audacity to speak of deafening silence? And complicit in what? Self defense? The government of a sovereign nation giving its people the right to live in peace?
You then went on to say:
“Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death? I mean, there is a glaring double standard here. “It is just shocking to the Arab world.”
I can see how it would be shocking to the Arab world. At least the element within the Arab world that does not value human life. The 1400 people murdered on October 7th were not warned to get out of the way and were not human shields for terrorists. They were innocent men, women and children, many of whom were helping Gazan residents on a regular basis. And to say “kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint”, should already be seen as wrong by you under the circumstances under which it took place, but since it is not, allow me to make things a little more clear for you. Babies were beheaded. Living and dead women were raped. A pregnant woman had her stomach cut open and her baby shot next to her. People were burned alive. And all of these atrocities done on purpose by a gleeful bunch of terrorists. So to even attempt to draw a moral equivalency between that and the attacks on Gaza is rather disgraceful on your part.
What has to be remembered in light of your comments, is Black September, 1970, when an estimated 25,000 Palestinians were killed by your country, Jordan, after the PLO tried to overthrow the ruling monarchy. Let me repeat that, so that people reading this know the real double standard here. Jordan killed 25,000 Palestinians. Not because 1400 Jordanians were brutally murdered. Not because Jordanian women were raped. Not because Jordanians were under constant attack from missiles. And not because more that 200 Jordanians were kidnapped. Your country killed 25,000 people because the PLO tried to overthrow your monarchy. The only reason the number wasn’t more was because at that point you had successfully removed the PLO from your country and your leadership, which was the main concern of your ruling government, not your people. Israel’s war is being waged to protect the safety of its people.
You concluded by saying the following:
“I just want to remind the world that Palestinian mothers love their children just as much as any other mother in the world.”
If this is true, and I hope that it is, they will ultimately thank Israel for giving their children a future. With Hamas in charge, the future for Palestinian children is a future where at best they are pawns in a mission to destroy Israel, and at worst they are terrorists carrying out that mission. If you truly cared you would admit that to the world, but then again, if one really looks at the history we learn that Jordan never had any use for the Palestinians. That is the truth, but unfortunately, you and so many like you do not care about the truth, you care about what best suits your interests, and it is clear that Palestinians living in the freedom Israel would gladly help them achieve, is not one of your interests.
For those mindless, cowardly hypocrites protesting in favor of sadistic terrorists, it is time you learned what it means to be Jewish. Despite the propaganda you so willingly accept, it is not about making money or controlling the media, and certainly not about occupation or genocide. It is about something far more basic than that. It is all about survival, stupid.
For Jews it goes way back to the time when we were slaves in Egypt. We learn about it and remember it every year on Passover. In fact, we are taught to approach it as though it happened directly to us in every generation. Seems the Rabbis somehow knew it would be a good idea to teach the Jewish people from the start how to suffer. We were oppressed and enslaved in Egypt, and as a result of our resistance we fled to the desert, and somehow managed to resist without raping any little girls or chopping of babies heads.
Then there were the 2 temples in Jerusalem, part of the land believed to be given to the Children of Israel by God as opposed to taken by an occupying force. The temples were both destroyed by the Romans, and in a way that targeted innocent civilians, as opposed to avoiding them as much as possible. Too bad the BBC wasn’t around back then to report on the mistreatment of the Romans.
Let’s not forget the blood libels, when the claim was made that Jews killed Christian children in order to use their blood for Jewish rituals, including the making of Matzah for the Passover feast. These blood libels led to pogroms and yes, you guessed it, a lot more dead Jews. For those of you who might not understand the concept, it’s a lot like bombing a parking lot of a hospital in your territory, killing a few dozen, and then telling everyone that the Jews killed hundreds in indiscriminate bombing. Like that would ever happen, right?
Then, at the end of what was seen as a Golden Age for Jews in Spain, there was the Inquisition, in which Jews were tortured, killed and ultimately completely expelled for that heinous recurring crime of, you guessed it once again, being Jewish.
I’ll just kind of skip over the pogroms in Russia in which it was considered righteous and necessary to brutalize and murder Jews en masse, (boy does that sound familiar), and jump to that really big thing called the Holocaust. You know, the thing many out there say never happened and it was just made up by the Jews to garnish sympathy? Kind of like claiming that more than 1400 people were murdered in a half a day, and realizing less than a week later that it must have been made up. After all, look around. Everyone clearly loves the Jews. There’s no way that could have happened. That thing called the Holocaust, that did actually happen, just as the killing of the 1400 plus, led to the decimation of European Jewry and the murder of 6 millions Jews. A genocide perpetrated by a government that came to power in the wake of a failed state and a society in decay, which of course had to be the Jews fault. After all, if a murderous dictator tells you that the Jews control the banks and the media it must be true.
Out of the ashes of the Holocaust the modern State of Israel declared its independence in 1948. But the Jews had the gall to think they had the right to live in peace. Even worse, they felt they could do so in the land given to them by God. But what the Jewish people did that was most appalling was that they had the audacity to fight back and win against the countries attacking them on every border. After all, they had committed the greatest crime of all. They had survived.
Left with no alternative, since we just wouldn’t go away, our Arab neighbors tried again in 1956, but rather than being killed, the Jewish nation once again fought back and won. When another attempt failed in 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Sinai from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. A move which of course would ultimately make us the oppressors and occupiers, since we started the war after all. Oh wait! No we didn’t. We once again showed how evil we were by not letting every Jew in Israel get thrown into the Mediterranean Sea. In 1973 they tried once again, but this time they decided to fight fair and attack us on the holiest day in our calendar, Yom Kippur. This finally took away the Jewish nations unfair advantage of being prepared to defend itself. But guess what? That didn’t work either. Starting to see a trend here?
When Yasser Arafat founded his multi billion dollar enterprise known as terrorism, the groundwork was laid for a steady diet of attacks against innocent men, women and children. Lucky for him he had the United Nations in his corner from the get go, so that not only could he begin to once again normalize the killing of Jewish women and children, he had a worldwide organization telling everyone that he was doing it in the name of justice and peace, and that the Jewish people were the violators of human rights.
Despite every effort to make peace with the unwanted Jordanians in the West Bank, and the Arab gypsies in Gaza, the 2 groups the world now refers to as Palestinians, every effort at peace has had one unforgiveable obstacle put in the way by us Jews. We refuse to die. But I get it, if we don’t make peace with people that don’t believe we have a right to exist, obviously it is our fault.
So to all those those mindless, cowardly hypocrites protesting in favor of sadistic terrorists who believe they are on the right side of history because of what was done to us in the past, know this. There has never been a more powerful Jewish army than there is today, militarily, intellectually, and spiritually, and now we have a battle cry that encompasses centuries of persecution and murder, most notably and most recently, the Holocaust and the mass murder of 6 million Jews. That battle cry is Never Again, and believe me when I tell you, we mean it. Because, after all, it’s all about survival, stupid.
There are some things people know their entire life. Those things that define you as a person. It might be the language you speak or the country you were born in. It might be financial status of your family or the influence your family has on society. For many there is the one thing that may define you over all other things, answering that one question not only to others but more importantly to yourself. What are you? To me that one thing that defines me over everything else is that I am proudly and unapologetically Jewish. So for Jews and the Jewish religion to be the focus of my existence makes sense. What is not as easy to explain or understand is why the rest of the world seems to have an almost equal focus, dare I say obsession.
There were 17 million Jews in the world in 1939, estimated to be the highest the number ever reached. At that time there were about 2 billion people worldwide. Today there are an estimated 16 million of a worldwide population of over 8 billion. We are, by every account a very small percentage and certainly on paper at least, a very unthreatening number. And yet, the obsession the rest of the world has towards my people is one of life’s greatest mysteries. Whether we are better or worse, contributors or not, powerful or not, there is no question that compared to the rest of the world, the amount of attention that comes our way is disproportionate almost to the point of being bizarre. So the question I am putting out there, is why?
Secular Jews in Israel and the Diaspora might find it hard to accept, but the root of all the attention and focus is religious, and regardless of whether you embrace it or disassociate from it, you are seen by the rest of the world as a Jew, be it for good or for bad. In 1933 and beyond, Hitler managed to convince Germany that a people comprising 0.85% of the world’s population was the reason for all their problems. In 2023, Islamic terrorist groups and their sponsor nation Iran, have convinced millions of their fellow Muslims that a people that comprises .2% of the world’s population and a mere .88% of their number, are the biggest danger the world faces today. The numbers alone are enough to speak to the bizarre nature of this obsession and to the inevitable inaccuracy of their concern. Could it be that we are that bad of a people? Or dare I say it, could it be that we are that special?
I may be bordering on claiming Jewish exceptionalism, but if I am going to experience or learn about hate towards me and my people my entire life, for reasons that are not even close to proportionate, there is no reason for me to hold back. But because of the part of my Jewish teachings that focus on modesty, gratitude, but mostly the power of the Almighty, I will temper any desire I may have to speak to how exceptional we are as a people. Besides, of all you out there whose hate toward us defies logic and rationality, whether you like it or not, you are making that case without my help.
It is true that Jews have excelled in medicine, the arts, in business, and throughout many other elements of society. But what the rational and ethical people know, is that it generally does not stand in the way of others reaching the same heights. Yes there are Jews who are bad people, but that is one of the realities of humanity, that every group has its good and bad. But so much of what we are is a result of our value system. A value system that includes love of family, hard work, study, and worship. Could it be that the basis of all of this is the Torah, the Jewish teachings that are comprised of the Old Testament and all Rabbinical interpretations. When you look at it honestly, even for those who have chosen to live a secular life, it often appears as though their values are what was taught to them directly or indirectly through these teachings. The value for human life is so paramount that we are taught that saving a life supersedes all other laws.
That being said, good people come from all walks of life. All religions, races, nationalities produce high quality people. I have known too many and heard of too many great people from other faiths to think we Jews are the only ones who reach great heights. Thinking that way would be ludicrous. But we are still faced with that gnawing question. Why the obsession towards the Jewish people? The importance of Judaism within Christianity is obvious, and the evolution of Christian society has reached new heights in its embrace of the Jewish people, creating a growing friendship and alliance. And yet, although I am grateful for that alliance, it still fascinates me that a religion of 2.4 billion people is as fascinated by us as Christians are as a whole.
Ultimately I think the fascination and obsessive hatred do not come from the same origin. The fascination I believe comes from the Biblical teachings that the Jews are the Chosen People. I believe that due to Christian enlightenment, in past years far more than today, instead of leading towards a path of hatred, Christianity has embraced its Jewish roots and seen the importance Judaism holds in their beliefs for an ideal future.
So now to those who hate us. I believe that hatred is based on 2 things. The first being a more obvious and less original concept. Pure and blatant jealousy. Maybe it is because we are God’s Chosen People. Maybe it is because we excel in so many areas of society and often live lives filled with joy and meaning. Or maybe it is based in something even more profound. In the movie Tombstone, the movie about Wyatt Earp, the Doc Holliday character played by Val Kilmer had the following interaction with the Wyatt Earp character played by Kurt Russell when discussing a developing confrontation with an adversary.
Wyatt Earp: What does he need? Doc Holliday: Revenge. Wyatt Earp: For what? Doc Holliday: Bein’ born.
The amount of hate in the world today for the Jewish people is excessive. Hate is either a result of actions that cause hate, or indoctrination that breeds it. The amount of hate today is very clearly more of a result of indoctrination. But indoctrination requires fertile ground, and what ground is more fertile than that of misery. If you are happy you do not want to hate. You search for reasons not to hate. You seek the truth. But if one lives a life of misery and one with no meaning or direction, one sees no future, and one wants revenge for being born, that leads one to attempt to fill all those voids with the one emotion they can harness and hold on to. And the evil people with the money, power and ambition, exploit that for their selfish and devious means. I wish I could ask all those who hate me for being Jewish the following question? For what, if not to make this world better, are you put on this earth? I guarantee you, despite what you are being taught, it is not to hate and kill Jews. Sadly the chances of you ever seeing this is next to none, but if you ever do I also want you to ask yourself a question. Has the hate you’ve been taught done anything to make your life better? Has it made you happier? I know the answer, and if you were given the freedom to think for yourself you would as well.
Make no mistake. This is a war not only against the Jewish people, it is a war against everything the western world, and particularly the United States, stands for. And unlike the efforts being made on our side to make it a cleaner, more humane war, the other side always has, and will always continue to fight dirty. While I have never been a soldier in combat, I do know that war is not a game. When it comes to war, the saying, it’s not if you win or lose that matters it’s how you play the game, does not apply. The objective of war, what bring you to that place when it becomes a necessity, should be the fact that winning is not only crucial, it is often a matter of survival. This means that having those concerns and alarms that would constitute paranoia in peacetime, in times of war are not only useful, they may be the difference between life and death. One such concern is that of the Fifth Column.
A Fifth Column is defined in Meriam-Webster dictionary as “a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders.” In 1940, as full scale war broke out in Europe, President Franklin Roosevelt said the following in an address to the nation regarding the fifth column.
The methods of these “spies and saboteurs” was “to create confusion of counsel, public indecision, political paralysis and, eventually, a state of panic…. The unity of the State can be sapped so that its strength is destroyed.”
Identifying a dissenter or antagonist is much easier. Rashida Tlaib who spews hatred and vitriol towards Israel and the Jewish people, not only remains a member of Congress, she still receives classified briefings on Israel. While the danger someone such as Tlaib or an Ilhan Omar represents to ideology and the fabric of society is obvious, those that appear friendly, but work on behalf of the enemy are an even bigger enemy. To name anyone without proof would be reckless and irresponsible. To be tainted by prejudice towards even the most likely group of potential agitators may very well blind you from seeing the enemy in front of you. And while I have my suspicions, without facts to back them up, they are merely words. Words that will help no one and do nothing to make us safer.
So then what can we do to combat this potentially very dangerous element within the enemy’s army? It starts by changing your perspective. Putting woke ideology and progressive policy over the safety of your family and country is not only a mistake, its unethical. However, profiling when it comes to a danger as devious as the fifth column may cause you to look past the real danger. The bottom line is that unless you approach everything with an open mind, you are liable to miss what may be right in front of you. And even then the chances of missing it are far better than we would like them to be.
Ultimately, it is my contention that the best approach we can take as individuals is to listen to Maya Angelou’s famous quote that reads, “when people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
We do not have the luxury to see things as we want them to be, we must see them as they are, and to ignore the likelihood of an enemy within, leads us down a very dangerous path. We are at war, and the enemy will do anything to be victorious. We must never forget this, lest we make their goal easier. This is not a game. It does matter whether we win or lose, because losing is not an option. It is a war we must win.
Over the years I have written numerous open letters to high profile individuals in defense of Israel and the Jewish people. Today I am writing one that is also in defense of the United States of America and the entire free world.
I will be direct. Not only are you continuously behaving in a cynical and heinous manner, and not only should you be expelled from Congress, as far as I am concerned, you should be on the no fly list and the terrorist watch list. It is not that complicated. You continuously take the side of murderers and terrorists, you fake crocodile tears, and you rally the ignorant in support of a cause that promotes a second Holocaust of the Jewish people. Because I believe in the 1st amendment, I do not believe that anything we know of that you have done requires incarceration, but your words do need to have consequences. You are willingly and enthusiastically promoting hate. Please note that I chose my words carefully when saying “anything we know of”, because anyone who embraces lies to promote evil as you do, and has your level of vitriol, should be investigated and be under constant surveillance. If you were privy to any intelligence that could have assisted in the October 7th terrorist attacks, we need to know. If you have access to any information that could lead to terrorist attacks on American soil, we need to know. Simply put, moving forward, you should no longer be seen as a member of Congress, you should be seen as a potential enemy combatant of the United States and the entire free world. Furthermore, as it says the following in the 1st Amendment, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and as a member of Congress you took an oath to uphold to constitution, as a Jew who feels that your behavior is prohibiting the free exercise of religion of my fellow Jews, I believe that calling for your expulsion is justified.
I believe you know what you are doing and that you always have. I also believe that you are motivated by 2 factors. Personal gain being the primary one and hatred for Jews being the second. If you truly were concerned for the well-being of the people of Gaza you would want Hamas gone. But that doesn’t suit your own personal, sick intentions. I am sure you know the truth. You live in an environment where it is all around you and if not right in front of your face, incredibly easy to find. Decent and honest people pursue the truth, you ignore it willingly and this is the most disgusting part, you do so gleefully.
You showed your true colors in the most magnified sense over these past few days by focusing on the debunked accusation of Israel’s responsibility for the deaths of the people in the hospital in Gaza, over focusing on the tragedy of the deaths. You ignored evidence indicating that the explosion was not caused by an Israeli airstrike because the truth does not suit your own personal and despicable motives.
I call on every person who reads this letter to share it everywhere. More importantly Ms. Tlaib, I urge them to flood it into your social media outlets. Post it on your X (twitter) feed and to put it as a comment on every post you have on X till it gets to a point where your account is unimaginable. Since you have shown the world that you are evil, I am confident that disturbing you on social media would bring you more grief than watching the videos of Israelis being tortured on October 7th. And to take these particular actions because I, and people like me, do not call on any violence to be committed against you, because we are decent people that value the rule of law.
While I am not so naive as to believe that you care about the difference between right and wrong, I will not be silenced. People need to know who you are and all legal means need to be taken to take away your voice. Your words make this world more evil and more dangerous, and will and have already put innocent people in danger. You put fuel on the fire and help Hamas in its war against Israel, the United States, and the entire free world. Ms. Tlaib, simply put, despite your crocodile tears and dramatic performances, you have blood on your hands. It is my contention in putting Jewish people and American citizens everywhere in danger, you should be expelled from Congress. I hope that there is enough moral clarity among our leaders to see this through, and I urge everyone out there to communicate this on a grand scale.
We are at war. And whether or not the misguided cowards in the Jewish community who marched on the US Capitol calling for a cease fire while elderly people, young women and babies are amongst the hostages being held in Gaza want to believe it or not, this is a war whose goal is to eradicate every Jew from the face of the earth. Not having learned the lessons of the Holocaust, it is clear that there are too many Jews among us who feel they are safe by kowtowing to the enemy or by hiding their identity. They are dreadfully wrong, and as much as I despise their lack of character or ethical standards, I also hope they never find out to what extent. These people have already capitulated on one front, and that is in the war being waged on our hearts and minds. It is a war we can not afford to lose, and I will tell you why, and how to make sure that we don’t.
While the death of every member of Hamas is what we all want, the Israeli Defense Forces are going to win by administering justice, and fighting for the safety and security of the people of Israel. Wanting vengeance for what was done is understandable, but to fight the battle with a singular focus on ridding the planet of this evil and providing for the safety of future generations, is how the fight is one on all fronts. To allow those who are evil to control how you feel, even if it leads to their destruction, is giving them a victory they do not deserve and will not help us as individuals or as a people. This is the fight within our minds. However, we might say that the more challenging fight we are facing, is the war in our hearts.
I have friends, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, that are struggling with the pain and anguish they are feeling from the events of October 7th. These are strong-willed, determined people I speak of, leaders in their communities, leaders in their families, leaders in their groups of friends. These are people I am proud to call friends. I see horror and suffering in their words, and even despair. And their feeling are as justified, moral, and even righteous as any feelings a human being could experience. But I had the benefit of being raised by 2 amazing people, my parents, Holocaust survivors from Holland, who while the horrors of what they went through never left their hearts and minds, they instinctively knew the one way to win the fight daily on a more personal level. By living life and striving for happiness. By feeling joy and love, and not being overrun by anguish and despair. When my mother of Blessed Memory laughed, it was pure joy. I will share with you a story that illustrates just a small part of the woman that was my mother. Someone once had this mechanical parrot that repeated every word said to it, and what I once witnessed take place between my mother and this toy is one of the most memorable and purely fun things I have ever seen in my life. My mother said something and the parrot repeated it. My mother thought this was funny and started to laugh. The parrot mimicked the sound of my mother laughing, which caused my mother to laugh even harder. And on this went for what I would guess was a solid 2 minutes. This was a woman who, when she closed her eyes and went to sleep, suffered through nightmares. But when she woke up and was conscious of her life and the world around her, instinctively spit in the face of the Nazis by enjoying her life through love and laughter.
I know that the wounds are still fresh, and that it is very likely going to get worse before it gets better. I also know that the friends I have who are feeling these difficult emotions are strong and can be fine even without words of support from me or anyone else. But I wish to offer these words to all of you struggling with how to cope today and moving forwards. You can not change what happened, and you may very well not be able to impact what does happen, but you do have control over the war this evil is waging on your heart, mind and soul. Find those things that make your life have meaning, try to do any of the things that make you happy, or engage with those that you love. Force the pain and sadness out as often as you can, and in doing so you win one very important battle in this very important war.
There is that old saying that reads, “charity starts at home”. While giving to others is always commendable, the saying speaks to the reality that helping someone else at the expense of your own needs is not living by a higher ethical standard. Ultimately, in order to help others, you must see to your own needs, in order to stay strong, maintain clarity, and retain the tools needed to do so.
Morality is not much different. If anything the need for morality to start at home is even greater, for there is no greater moral requirement than protecting your innocent and helpless. There has been no moment in my lifetime where this issue has played out more clearly and more publicly, and it is happening with Israel and the Jewish people at center stage.
I am not a war monger. I find war at its core to be unethical. I have never been a soldier and I live in a peaceful environment, so even if I didn’t feel that way, I would feel like a coward if I were to push for war for the sake of retribution or vengeance. It’s easy for someone who does not put their physical safety on the line to push for others to fight a battle. Sitting and watching is nothing compared to risking injury or death, or inflicting the same on others. When Israeli troops go into Gaza in search of Hamas terrorists and in the hope of finding the hostages, no matter how bad it gets, us who are far away from the action will not bleed, physically suffer or die. I get that. With all that being said, at the end of the day where every Jew is impacted, whether they admit it to themselves or not, is that this is a fight for the survival of all us.
So then back to the matter of morality. It took a week, give or take a day or two, for much of the world to move its focus from the atrocities committed by Hamas on innocent Jewish families, women, children and babies, to the plight of the people in Gaza. Much of that shift has been generated by those who never saw it as wrong for Jews to be raped, tortured, murdered and kidnapped in the first place. But to those who recognized the evil perpetrated on the Jewish people, who may be authentically worried about the well-being of all people, while I have no quarrel with you, to be brutally honest, your concerns are not mine, for morality starts at home. The government of Israel, the heroic men and women of the IDF, the religious leadership, the residents of Israel and all Jewish people on the face of the earth have one moral priority over all others. Our survival.
So as the images come out of Gaza are seen as sad and tragic, and not feeling that way will be called immoral by many, my current lack of focus on that issue is indeed a product of my personal moral compass. However, it is not for the reason that those who hate Israel will likely attack me. My moral compass is strong. I know that what is possibly the sickest irony in this whole situation, despite the rallies of the ignorant and evil and the outcry of the corrupt United Nations, is that the only hope for the people in Gaza lies in the hands of Israel. For these people to be free and to live a normal life as part of the world community, Hamas must be destroyed. For that to happen, some very brutal actions very likely need to be taken against more than just Hamas. Military action against Hezbollah and even Iran, no matter how devastating these actions may be, if they are what Israel needs to do to survive, they are moral.
In the weeks and months ahead, people will die. Many of them will have done nothing to deserve their fate. But to allow Israel to be demoralized, depleted and God forbid destroyed out of concern for the safety of others, is the most immoral thing we as Jews could ever do. Morality starts at home, and Israel is our home.
In better times when writing a letter to a large segment of the population I would find myself debating to whom I would address my message. Today it is easy. If you share my sentiment you are my friend, if you do not, you are not my friend and never will be.
After the worst attack on the State of Israel since its establishment on October 7th, many of us in the Diaspora find ourselves looking for ways to help. There are the lone soldiers who have returned to Israel, showing their courage and commitment to the people of Israel and all the Jewish people. We thank you and all the brave soldiers of the IDF with all our heart. There are the fundraisers working themselves to the bone. Those that have the available funds need to do what they can to help, and I know that many have already done so. They too deserve our gratitude. Then there are those people who do not have the abilities or resources to do these things already mentioned but ask what they can do to help. This is what I wish to share with you.
From my communication and other’s communications with friends and family in Israel, outpouring of any love and support you offer helps many who need to know that they do not stand alone. Many have thanked me for my efforts – although limited and not close to as difficult as the efforts of others- but as long as even one scared or depressed of my brother’s and sister’s in Israel would feel some comfort from what I do, I will continue. I urge those of you who feel helpless, to reach out. Find someone you know in Israel and reach out to them. Show them you are thinking of them, praying for them, and are here for them. You will not only help them, but you will feel better as well.
Finally, in Israel the day comes before the month, so 7/10, which in Hebrew is Sheva Esser, represents October 7th, which sadly will be remembered as a day that changed all of our lives. I have not seen it referred to as such till now, but as we must continue to speak of that horrible day, I hope that referring it to Sheva Esser makes the communication more clear and concise. We need to speak, to educate, and combat evil in any way we can.
Am Yisrael Chai.
May God look after our heroic soldiers and all the people of Israel.
Holland's Heroes 