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.
