(This article is the continuation of the article found at this link).

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה ומאה מכם רבבה ירדפו ונפלו אויביכם לפניכם לחרב

THE WORST FOUR WEEKS IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL

Israel’s War of Independence was the most critical battle for the survival of the Jewish State. It began on the evening of May 15th, 1948, when the British army withdrew from their region. Throughout the first few weeks of the war, the United Arab armies were defeating the newborn State of Israel, despite a heroic resistance. But Israel was not able to stop the advance of five strong armies with planes, ammunition, and counting with the implicit support of the rest of the world. Before beginning their attack, the Arabs, confident in their impending victory had said that “what Hitler did was nothing compared to what they would do with the Jews living in Israel.” It was a horrible dejavu of the Shoa, to see that the world remained silent. But HaShem was with us. And the unimaginable occurred. Israel not only survived the invasion of five Arab armies but against all odds, won the war in a way no one could have anticipated.

THE MIRACULOUS CEASE-FIRE

According to Dr. Hagai Ben Artzi- professor of history at Bar Ilan University (and brother-in-law of former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu) the greatest miracle of this war was that the Arab armies accepted a ceasefire. The proposal came from the Swedish  Folke Bernadotte, who had been designated as a mediator between the Arabs and Israelis by the United Nations. The ceasefire proposed to stop all military activity for four weeks and stated that the armies would remain in control of the positions they had conquered. Israel, which conquered nothing and was cornered everywhere, immediately accepted the proposal. The unexplainable, however, is that the Arab armies also accepted the proposal. I quote Ben Artzi from his (Hebrew) book- Megillat Hatequma VeHaAtzmaut: “…but why did the Arabs accept the ceasefire …? …they had almost reached all of their military objectives: Jerusalem was surrounded and besieged; Tel Aviv, a very short distance [from falling]; southern Israel [the Negeb] disconnected from the rest of the country, and the Galil, the North, was already conquered. A little more effort on the part of the Arabs and they were already in the heart of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Petah Tikva, Netania, Hadera, and Afula. … ” Ben Artzi does not hide his conviction that this ceasefire was indeed a miracle of Biblical proportions. The enemies of Israel retreated as if possessed by an imaginary panic.

A BIBLICAL FEAR

Among other examples of this sort of Providential intervention, Ben Artzi mentions what happened on May 30th, 1948. Israel went to war without a single military plane. While the Arabs had over 75 active warplanes. The only country which dared to break the embargo and sold weapons to Israel was Czechoslovakia. By the end of May, four unarmed German “Messerschmidt” military planes arrived in Israel inside a transport plane. The planes were quickly assembled and on May 30th, and without even a test run, were sent on their first operation: trying to stop the Egyptian forces that were only 30 Kilometers away from Tel Aviv. These new Israeli planes took the Egyptians by surprise but did not cause severe damage, because the weapons did not function very well. Nevertheless, the Egyptian commander sent an urgent message to his headquarters saying that they could go no further because they were heavily bombarded “by a force far superior to them”. This “military assessment” was based more on imagination than reality. Ben Artzi also cites the reports of an Egyptian officer who fought in that battle and was taken prisoner by the Israelis in the 1956 war. When asked why the Egyptians did not continue their advancement towards Tel Aviv in ’48, when they had the whole area open to them, he said, “In the two Israeli attacks … we saw something that shook us: even after being hit by direct fire and suffering large losses, the Israeli soldiers continued to advance as if they were “crazy” (mej’nunin). And we said to ourselves: it is impossible to defeat these madmen. Better [accept the ceasefire and] settle for what we have conquered. ”

ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM

Another providential event that occurred was that a young soldier, Moshe Eshed, discovered, “by coincidence” an alternative path to Jerusalem through the mountains, which was named “Derekh Burma.”  Through this path, the Israeli fighters were able to send food, medicine, weapons, and reinforcements to the city. There were about 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem at the time, especially concentrated in the Western area, the “Jewish Jerusalem.” They were completely isolated and trapped by the Jordanians, who had blocked all entrances to Jerusalem to avoid any supplies sent in.  If this mysterious path- which shockingly neither the Arabs nor the United Nations discovered for six months- had not been found, Jerusalem would’ve collapsed and the war would have had a very different ending. 

WHEN WHAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IS A GOOD THING

Despite all efforts, the Old City of Jerusalem (where the Kotel and the Temple mountain are) could not be conquered. By the end of the 1948 war, the Old City still remained in the power of the Jordanians. Until the Six Days War in 1967. Even in this failure, we can see the Divine Hand because if Israel had conquered Jerusalem in 1948, the United Nations would have demanded the internationalization of Jerusalem, a holy city “for the three Biblical religions”. International pressure would have been unsustainable and Israel, which was not strong at that time, would have surely relented. Jerusalem, with international status, would have been impossible to recover. And the long-term consequences for Israel would have been terrible. In the end, the Old City was not conquered by the Jews in 1948 and came under Jordan’s sovereignty. And as expected, no one imposed an “International status” on the city, and there were no complaints to the Jordanians for not allowing the Jews to visit the Western Wall.

Therefore, when in 1967 Israel conquered the Old City, the U.N. could no longer demand from Israel what they did not demand from Jordan for 19 years…

If I worked for Associated Press, I would have written this article today:

”A young Frenchman, Damien T., just 28 years old, was brutally attacked by five security officers, then violently subdued by French police, handcuffed and humiliated in front of hundreds of impressionable witnesses. The 28-year-old freedom fighter was taken in a special military vehicle, against his will, and transferred to a maximum security prison, where he was forced to undress and wear a humiliating prison uniform. All his basic human rights were taken away from him. It is still early to know the destructive impact that all this abuse of power will have in the near future on Damien’s mental health. And the damaging psychological wounds that this violent arrest will bring to his parents, siblings and young nephews. This is a crime against humanity, for which the French government should be unanimously and unambiguously condemned”.

If my journalistic article ended here, it would be perfectly similar to the way that almost all the media reports to the world when Israel responds militarily to criminal attacks launched from Gaza. When it comes to Israel, journalists victimize the criminal and completely ignore the original crime that triggered the use of force. And if the Hamas crime should NOT be mentioned, why then would it be relevant to mention that Damien T. slapped the French President, Emmanuel Macron? Or why no one questions France’s justice that “disproportionately” sentence Damien T to 4 months in jail!   A simple slap from Macron to Damien should be enough to solve this.   That would be truly proportional….

When Hamas attacks Israel with missiles and rockets, with the explicit aim of killing as many Jews as possible, the leaders of the European Union do not even mention Hamas but are quick to condemn Israel for the “disproportionate use of force.” … Following this ridiculous reasoning, the next time Hamas “slaps” Israel, the Jewish state should respond in a more canonical and European way: turning the other cheek…. like President Macron did.

Do we Jews need a war in order to be united? Are we only friendly with each other in times of a crisis? Are we inviting trouble to bring us back together?

אך טוב לישראל (Akh tob leIsrael)
TEHILIM 73

THE POSITIVE SIDE OF A CRISIS
Rabbi Moshe Azancot, z”l (the grandfather of my colleague and friend, Rabbi Ari Azancot of Beth Torah, NY) taught me a very original meaning (a derasha?) of these three words from Tehillim: “Akh” the first word of this pasuq, should be understood as an onomatopoeia, that is, a word whose meaning is in its sound. In Hebrew –like in Spanish (Aj!), or in English (“argh”)– the onomatopoeia “akh” has a negative connotation. It expresses suffering, frustration and anguish. Having this in mind, these three words are saying something a bit ironic and sad. “Akh”, that is, suffering: a crisis that sometimes happens to us Jews, is “tob leIsrael”, might be the one thing that brings a positive outcome for us collectively. When we are well and in peace, it is difficult for us to agree: we fight with each other, each one pulls to his or her side. Sadly, as these three words indicate, the only thing that will surely unite us is an “Akh” situation: the enemy attacking us or waging war.

WHO NEEDS A WAR?
Israel already had four parliamentary elections in recent times. Israeli society is very divided, so no party reaches an automatic majority of 61 votes needed to form a government. The only way to have a government is through alliances between the different political parties. There are basically two major groups in the Keneset: the right and the left, with many variables in between. The Israeli right, among other things, believes that we need to have a heavy hand on terror, and in negotiations with our unfriendly neighbors would make the minimum possible concessions. This conservative position is more pragmatic than ideological: there is no one to talk on the Palestinian side. No Palestinian leader who openly declares (in Arabic!) that Palestinians want “to live in peace alongside a neighboring Jewish State, which they would recognize.” Israeli conservative parties could have more than 70 votes, which represents the will of the majority of Israel,  if they were together! But, particularly in the last election, there was another factor that prevented this natural coalition: these parties were divided because of “personal resentments” (שנאת חינם) among political leaders, rather than ideological differences. And literally, “a few hours” before the bombings from Gaza began, three of these conservative parties were negotiating a coalition with political parties that are explicitly opposed to national Jewish observance or that do not recognize the right of the Jewish people to their land! Then the bombings of Gaza began, the riots, and the Arab “progroms” in Lod, Aco, Haifa, etc. And only then, a representative of the conservative parties decided to put aside his personal resentments (or aspirations) and avoid an artificial coalition that, in my opinion, would have been tragic for Israel.
Now, today,  at this moment, Israel’s political leaders from the right and the center finally came together. And a natural conservative coalition is within reach again.  As those three words of Tehillim suggest, “Akh,” the crisis that we are suffering  ended up bringing some “positive” opportunities for unity. But it is very sad to realize that: rockets, extensive material damage and the irreparable loss of precious human lives is what can bring us together. Are we involuntarily inviting wars and crisis to befall upon us, in order to assure our “unity” ?

THE LESSON FROM MATAN TORA
Shabuot celebrates the giving of the Tora. And our Sages explain that there was a prerequisite that needed to be fulfilled before we would be worthy of a Pact with Bore Olam.  VAYICHAN SHAM ISRAEL NEGED HAHAR “the people of Israel camped [united as one] in front of Mount [Sinai].” The rabbis mentioned that the Jewish people were organically together as “one individual, with one single heart.” At that moment WITHOUT CONFRONTING AN ENEMY we put aside our differences, and we felt part of the same nation. We stood together not because we were facing a common enemy, but because we were pursuing a common purpose: receiving the Tora and becoming the People of God.

This is the way to go!

I have no doubt that B”H Israel will be victorious in this war “in every front”. And I have no doubt that we will emerge from this crisis stronger than we were before this conflict.

But I pray to HaShem, and I beg to each of us, that we should “be and to remain united” not because of the deadly missiles of the enemy, but because of the life-giving words of our Tora.

YOU SHALL NOT BE RESENTFUL

When we left Egypt God did NOT allow us to become a bitter, violent and resentful people. We had every reason to hold grudges: we were enslaved by the Egyptians for over a century, but HaShem had a different plan for us. He included among His commandments an absolutely FORMATIVE Mitzva in terms of our relationships with other peoples, which became part of our DNA. Debarim 23: 8 says: “לא תתעב מצרי כי גר היית בארצו” , ” You shall not abhor [hate] the Egyptians, for they received you as foreigners in their land. “ This revolutionary verse says that holding resentment, even when justified, would destroy a person –or a people– inside.  When what defines you as a society is “grievances” your identity will be founded not on positives qualities but on hatred for a common enemy: today the Egyptians and tomorrow the next foe. A culture of grievance would have transformed us into a people with an insatiable resentment that would not let us enjoy peace and prosperity, but would drive us to seek violence and destroy whoever does better than us.   This amazing verse also teaches us to practice an  extreme gratitude towards anyone who once did something for us: we should never forget that the Egyptians opened their doors for us and welcomed into their land in Yosef’s time. This and other similar commandments have forged very special qualities in our Jewish DNA: A “positive” selective memory. We should not live with resentment –which destroys mainly the person who lives with it– and never stop appreciating and being grateful to anyone that ever did anything good to you.  But not all the peoples of the earth hold these same values ​​… not even those civilizations that supposedly have the Bible as a reference for their religion.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

Israel is facing a new conflict with the Palestinians. I am not referring now to the terrible confrontation with Gaza (see the article below) . This new crisis is a little different from the previous ones. And it can become more serious. It has new protagonists: the Arab citizens of Israel. They are not “refugees” but Muslim legal Israeli citizens living in Yafo, Ramla, Acco, etc. Tens of thousands of these citizens have carried out violent demonstrations and attacked the Israeli civilian population, and there have been already several casualties. What happened in Lod, a city that should be the perfect model of Arab and Israeli coexistence, is inconceivable. Three synagogues (so far) have been burned down in the city by the Islamist Arab mob. THREE SYNAGOGUES! This is not happening in anti-Semitic Europe but in the ONLY JEWISH STATE of the world.  The “Times of Israel” described what happened as “The Kristallnacht of Lod.” And Lod was not an exception: similar things have happened in many other cities with Arab and Jewish population. This is how an Israeli journalist from Makor Rishon newspaper explains: “… the surprise of the surprises [in this war] has been that tens of thousands of terrorists have emerged overnight among the Israeli Arab population, ordinary citizens crying out for the destruction of the state and they are carrying out hundreds of pogroms throughout the country every day, terrorists-civilians who are going out every night looking for prey: Jewish blood … »

THE CULTURE OF RESENTMENT

These Israeli Arab citizens vote in Israeli elections, hold Israeli passports and are represented in the Keneset, the Israeli parliament. The irony is that in Israel they LIVE MUCH BETTER than they would live in any Arab Middle Eastern country like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Jordan AND THEY KNOW THIS VERY WELL. They enjoy a very high quality of life, have absolute religious freedom, access to the best universities in Israel and they benefit from Israel’s booming economy and its modern medical system. Why then this violence? Why do Arab extremists shout: “Death to Israel”, “Death to the Jews”? I believe with Guy Bechor, that the culture of resentment, the fact that it is the Jews and not the Arabs who have created one of the best countries on the planet, does not allow them mentally to enjoy the privilege of living there and being grateful for it. It is as if for their culture it is more important “that the Jews do not enjoy peace and prosperity” than that they enjoy these privileges.

THE CULTURE OF GRATEFULNESS

In this sense, something similar happens with the Arab extremists in Europe: they want to “destroy” the very country that offers them peace, prosperity and opportunities for growth. In France, for example, Islamic extremists have murdered hundreds of their benefactors, with bombs or firearms, or beheading French citizens with knives or throwing them off the balcony, as happened with Sara Halimi z ”l. These criminals are refugees who escaped from their Arab countries where they were starving or persecuted or tortured by corrupt regimes or by other Islamists more extreme than them. And instead of being eternally grateful to France, the country that gave them refuge, welcomed them and “gave them everything without asking anything in return,” they dedicate themselves to destroying the country and their religion: In medieval best fashion, these Islamic extremists set churches on fire whenever they could. See, for example, this article and this article,  which dares to mention that in recent years dozens of churches in France have been desecrated, and in many cases burned, by French Islamists.

CONCLUSION

I’m not sure what the final result of this new conflict will be. Israel will have to prepare itself for a new type of fight much more complicated than the war against Iran, Hezbollah or the terrorists in Gaza. It is a new conflict in which the enemy does not need rockets or missiles but simple “knives” (see video below) or cars to carry out their deadly attacks  … Israeli Arabs are “neighbors” who live in Haifa, Yerushalayim, Tel-Aviv: they drive taxis, work in hotels, restaurants and hospitals. How many of them have become or will extremists? If they begin to rise up, murder and commit acts of violence, we might expect a civil war, because Israeli Jews are not going to sit idly by: they will defend themselves, especially if the Israeli police is still paralyzed.

We might be witnessing a clash of civilizations in the heart of Israel between those who want to live in peace and those who want to die in the process of killing their neighbors.

May HASHEM protect us from our enemies and grant us the strength and intelligence to neutralize them!

Killing a Jew for 5 Sheqels

UPDATE 2021

אין לנו על מי להשען אלא אבינו שבשמים

In the war of 1948, Israel miraculously defeated the five Arab countries that attacked her, after Israel declared its independence on Iyar 5, May 14 of that same year.

As we have already mentioned, none of the world powers at that time, the United States, France and England, came out to defend Israel. On the contrary, these countries established an arms embargo that placed Israel on the brink of extermination. Israel’s triumph in 1948 was, in my own words, a miracle of biblical proportions.

THE PARALYSIS OF THE ENEMY

After the first ceasefire, when the war started again, the Arab forces were paralyzed. Despite having Israel surrounded on all sides, the enemy did not advance. As if something was stopping them. Israel, on the other hand, began its counteroffensive, regaining territory and conquering land beyond the original borders. The prophecies that the Tora had announced in the Parasha we read this last Shabbat were fulfilled. The Creator promises His people (Leviticus 26: 7-8) that He will be with them when they go to war: “You will chase your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. “

“YOU SHALL NOT BE UNGRATEFUL”

We Jews must be infinitely grateful to HaShem for His Providential intervention. As King David wrote in his Psalms, when he was saved from a certain death “I will sing Your praises and I will not remain silent; HaShem, my God, I will thank you forever. “  A Jew —who is permanently training himself to see Divine Intervention in his personal life— who does not see or does not declare his or her gratitude  to God for the birth and survival of Medinat Israel, in my opinion, is not only spiritually blind but is also accountable for the great sin of ingratitude. And there is no worse ingratitude than ingratitude to God.

ENGLAND, OF ARABIA

Of the three countries mentioned, the one that harmed Israel the most was Great Britain. England remained passive while thinking that Israel was going to lose the war. But intervened when realizing that Israel might win.

A couple of examples.

√ Jordan had the direct support of the English. The English trained their troops and supervised all their operations, especially in the fight for Jerusalem, which costed many Jewish lives. When Israel began to counterattack and bombed Jordan’s capital Amman, in reaction to the ongoing bombings of Tel Aviv, England threatened to destroy Tel-Aviv’s airports with its Royal Air Force. Israel had to withdraw.

√ In early January 1949, Israel, against all odds, was winning the war. Israel bombed Cairo and Damascus, and the Jewish army continued to advance towards the Suez Canal. The United Nations rushed to demand a ceasefire and declare an armistice. Israel, against its own interests, accepted the armistice. At that time Israel had already conquered Gaza, Rafiah, and much of the Sinai peninsula. And according to international law territories conquered in the war belong to the country that wins the war. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED WITH ALL THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD THROUGHOUT HISTORY.

ISRAEL IS DIFFERENT

Now: In an action that went against all historical precedents and military conquests, including the conquests of the English colonies themselves, Great Britain denied Israel this right. And threatened to intervene militarily against Israel if the Jewish State did not return the conquered territory, the Sinai peninsula, Gaza, Rafiah, to Egypt (A history of Israel. Howard Sachar, page 346). David Ben Gurion was strongly opposed to this unprecedented concession. Ben Gurion considered it unfair and inconceivable that the Arabs would not pay a price for the war that they themselves had launched!  And no one would have required the Arabs to give up their military conquests, if they had defeated Israel.

Ben Gurion said that Israel will return the Arabs the conquered territories when the Arabs return to Israel the 6,000 Jews who died in the war that they started”

HOW DO YOU SAY “PRESSURE” IN ENGLAND?

But the international pressure was so great that Israel, completely isolated, had to give in.

To this day Israel continues to pay the price for this concession.

Why?

Firstly, because the outrageous international impunity enjoyed by any country or organization.  that attacks Israel,  encourages them to attack Israel again.

Second, because Israel inadvertently set a very dangerous precedent: Israel is willing to accept conditions that are not required of any other country in the world! Like, “return” conquered territory, or repatriate enemies (Palestinian refugees) who voluntarily fled a war that their own allies started!

Instead of “bringing more peace” Israel’s permanent concessions only encouraged the Arab countries, with the approval of the great powers, to demand more and more from Israel.

Until today, in the United Nations, Israel is not considered as just one more state. Israel is the only country in the world that can be threatened with extermination without fear of global condemnation.  Israel is the only country that is permanently condemned, and accused of the very crimes that its accusers perpetrate with impunity, with the complicit silence of the United Nations.

As Bil’am prophetically said (Bemidbar 23: 9):  Israel  “is a nation isolated [by other nations] and that other peoples do not consider [Israel as one of them ].  We cannot forget that the nations of the world abandoned us when we needed them most: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. 

This is the first class, from 1840 until 1915. We dicussed how Zionism in embebed in our Tora; how the reform movement in 1840 tried to formulated a Mosaic religion withiut a state. 1860-1880 antisemitism pushing Jews to Erets Israel. The numer of Jews in Israel by 1905. The first colonies. 1905-1914 Israel under Ottoman Empire. First World War

MAIN POINTS OF DISCUSSION

We are a Nation. Not a religion! What is the difference? 

The Reform Movement: Religion without a State.

Secular Zionism: State without Religion.

TORA: Both are completely integrated. Ribbi Yehuda Bibas.

TESHUBA: Debarim 30. “Collective Return of the People of Israel to God’s Land. Return to Israel is returning to God.  

THE JEWISH POPULATION IN ISRAEL FROM 1880  

Before 1880: less than 25,000 Jews lived in the land of Israel. 

Between 1880 and 1914: tens of thousands of Jews came from Europe escaping persecutions.  

Rabbi Isaac HaCohen Kook (1865-1935): the power of anti-Semitism.  

Sir Moshe Montefiore (1784 -1885) and the Baron of Rothschild (1845 – 1934): Building colonies and creating jobs. 

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922): The miraculous revival of the Hebrew language 

1904 a huge wave of Jewish immigration to US. Over 2 million Jews immigrated to the United States,1.5 million of them to New York in 20 years. No support for a Jewish State.  Not internal, not external. 

FIRST WORLD WAR

What happened on  July 28, 1914? 

1916: Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith  and Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

The difference between Catholic and Protestant attitudes to Jews 

Arthur Balfour (1848-1930)

Hayim Weizmann (1874-1952)

On April 23, 1920, San Remo, The League of Nations