Adar Bet 2, 5768, 3/9/2008
Damage control - wall-style
I'd thought to write this morning about how Shabbat was quiet and relaxing. A Jerusalem men's choir visited Hebron and Kiryat Arba. They sang us through Sabbath morning prayers at Ma'arat HaMachpela, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Something of a cleansing of the soul.
But...
What can you do? Shabbat leaves us for another week and realities of life hit you back, like a punch in the nose.
This morning Israeli radio news featured the Thursday night massacre at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem. Bibi was interviewed, as was one of the deans of the Yeshiva, Rabbi Yehoshua Magnes.
But then.... Danny Yatom, member of the Labor party. What did he suggest? His cowardly solution is to build a wall, divided East Jerusalem from West Jerusalem, thereby 'protecting' the rest of the country from the animals on the other side.
However, as we all know, walls usually define boundaries, and in the case, such a wall would act as a G-d forbid, future border between Israel and a new terror state, abandoning parts of Jerusalem to the enemy.
This is, of course, Labor policy, dividing Jerusalem. Ghettoizing Israel. Living behind walls.
When asked about such things in Hebron, like, 'why don't you build walls to protect yourselves?" I answer like this:
"We left Eastern Europe to get OUT OF THE GHETTO. We didn't come to Israel to live in a ghetto. We say, in the national anthem HaTikva 'to be a free people in our land.' You cannot be a free people in your land living behind walls. If there's a problem, wall in the animals, (or better yet, get rid of them), but don't punish us for their crimes!"
But I do have a new idea, concerning walls. I think the time has come to construct new walls...AROUND THE KNESSET.
We can let them out once in a while for a breath of fresh air, but only within the boundaries of the walls. Telephone calls, monitored, once a day, for five minutes. They can even have visitors, twice a week, for a half hour at a time. But that's it.Let them experience what they are offering everyone else. This is called damage control - wall-style.
What do you think?
But...
What can you do? Shabbat leaves us for another week and realities of life hit you back, like a punch in the nose.
This morning Israeli radio news featured the Thursday night massacre at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem. Bibi was interviewed, as was one of the deans of the Yeshiva, Rabbi Yehoshua Magnes.
But then.... Danny Yatom, member of the Labor party. What did he suggest? His cowardly solution is to build a wall, divided East Jerusalem from West Jerusalem, thereby 'protecting' the rest of the country from the animals on the other side.
However, as we all know, walls usually define boundaries, and in the case, such a wall would act as a G-d forbid, future border between Israel and a new terror state, abandoning parts of Jerusalem to the enemy.
This is, of course, Labor policy, dividing Jerusalem. Ghettoizing Israel. Living behind walls.
When asked about such things in Hebron, like, 'why don't you build walls to protect yourselves?" I answer like this:
"We left Eastern Europe to get OUT OF THE GHETTO. We didn't come to Israel to live in a ghetto. We say, in the national anthem HaTikva 'to be a free people in our land.' You cannot be a free people in your land living behind walls. If there's a problem, wall in the animals, (or better yet, get rid of them), but don't punish us for their crimes!"
But I do have a new idea, concerning walls. I think the time has come to construct new walls...AROUND THE KNESSET.
We can let them out once in a while for a breath of fresh air, but only within the boundaries of the walls. Telephone calls, monitored, once a day, for five minutes. They can even have visitors, twice a week, for a half hour at a time. But that's it.Let them experience what they are offering everyone else. This is called damage control - wall-style.
What do you think?
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