Earthquakes

THE JEWISH PEOPLE ARE BEING STRICKEN BY EARTHQUAKES.

It may seem to some that this is a fallacious

statement. After all, only the coast city of Eilat has

been badly hit, and there the damage has been mostly

material. One man died of a heart attack following the

first quake on Wednesday morning. The fact there their

wasn't greater loss of life is itself is a miracle.

However, in my humble opinion the earthquakes that

we have experienced this week did not actually commence

now. They began along time ago. Unfortunately, it seems

that we have been totally oblivious to the ground moving

under us.

You'll excuse me if I sound like I'm lecturing, but

what can you do? The truth is so apparent, and it has to

be said, loud and clear.

Let's go back a few years. In 1945 the Jewish

People left the gas chambers and crematoriums erected to

exterminate us. The remnants of Israel had almost no

where to go. Back to Europe was unthinkable. How could

people return to the same lands that had vomited them

into Hitler's death trap? And the only real home was off-

limits. The British, the landlords of Eretz Yisrael

declared the Holy Land our of bounds to Jews. But Jews

are a stubborn breed - they never give up, despite the

odds. Some chose North America or Western Europe, but

others forced themselves into Israel, the age-old home of

the Jewish People.

People who live through earth-shattering events

sometimes miss the historical perspective of what they

are actually doing. But looking back, we see the nations

of the world, the same peoples that participated in

attempts to wipe us off the face of the earth for 2,000

years, voting to allow us to return to Israel. The

ability of a people, two thousand years exiled from their

homeland, on the brink of physical annihilation, to not

only persevere and return to Israel, but also to wage a

war, not of independence, but of existence, is almost

beyond human belief. But we did it. The earth shook.

In 1956 we fought against Egyptian forces in the

Sinai and were victorious. In 1967, when it seemed that

the end had come, in six days were overcame enemy forces

on three fronts, simultaneously, liberated our eternal

capital and the heart of Israel, Judea and Samaria. In

six days! In 1973, being caught by a surprise attack

that could potentially have destroyed the Jewish State,

we blasted back and defeated the enemy, in a more

miraculous victory than that of 1967. In the Lebanon War

we felled over 100 enemy airplanes, losing only one, and

that was because of technical problems, not in a dog-

fight. Statistically this was an impossible feat. Yet

we did it. And the earth shook.

This morning I toured Hebron with some visitors from

New York. One of the women, as she heard the stories of

Hebron and saw with her own eyes the Jewish Community in

Hebron kept saying, "but I don't understand - WHY?" When

I speak of how Moshe Dayan gave the keys to Ma'arat

HaMachpela back to the Muslim Religious Trust, the Waqf,

when he lowered the Israeli flag on Temple Mount, when

Jews were forbidden to perform a Brit Mila in the Ma'ara

because of Muslim religious practices forbidding them to

drink alcohol, when today parts of the ancient Jewish

cemetery are slated to be given to Arafat, when we are

not allowed to visit the tomb of King David's chief of

staff, Avner ben Ner, when we have no access to the tomb

of Otniel ben Knaz, the first Judge, when the tomb of

Yishay, David's father is cut off from Jewish visitor's

because of Arab lies, claiming the site is a mosque, when

Jews cannot visit Ohel Yitzhak, the Isaac Hall inside

Ma'arat HaMachpela, when Jews aren't allowed to continue

development of the first Jewish city in Israel for no

logical reason, for no reason that makes any sense - WHY?

People ask me - WHY- and I have no answer. And the earth

shakes.

The Prime Minister of Israel, the leader and

representative of the entire Jewish People is shot down

in cold blood - by a fellow Jew. The entire country

mourns. But who remembers, when speaking of murder, of

Jew killing Jew, that this very Prime Minister was

probably the first Jew in 2,000 years who ordered, - yes

ordered - Jews to open fire on fellow Jews. That too was

murder -but the name Altelena is forgotten.

The present Prime Minister, quoted on Israeli radio,

spoke coldly and clinically of how Arabs will massacre

Jews in Judea and Samaria, thereby forcing them to

evacuate their homes . (The reporter who heard these

words from the mouth of Shimon Peres is not willing to

publicize his name for fear of being ostracized but he

stands behind the story.) And the earth shakes.

Last week the Israeli Supreme Court decided that

conversion to Judaism, even if not performed according to

Jewish Law, is valid. The same week the Israeli

government decided to bar Jews from entering Israel under

the Law of Return because of their political and

religious ideology. This week, on the day that the same

Shimon Peres who has forsaken Jewish blood stood before

Knesset Yisrael, to present his new government, the

people on whose shoulders the responsibility for the

Jewish People and the Land of Israel is deposited - on

that day - the Earth Quaked.

It's about time people opened their eyes and used

their minds, and started to act like Jews - real Jews.

Because I have a feeling that if that doesn't happen

soon, not only will the earth quake. The earth will quake

and quake and quake and open its mouth and start to

swallow people up. It happened once, to Korach. I hope

it doesn't happen again.