March
14, 2005
Shalom.
These
days, with everything that's going on, it's not too difficult to get
discouraged. Actually, it's fairly easy. But, just like anything else, in the
end, it's not always the way it looks, rather it's the way you look at it.
For
instance, I heard a story last week that can illustrate the point. Two children
were playing, a toddler and his older brother. The baby picked up a small coin,
put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Well, almost swallowed it. The coin got
stuck in his throat and he started choking. His brother ran to get help and the
boys' father, virtually putting his hand down the baby's throat, managed to
extract the coin. All's well that ends well.
The
next day the older brother approached his father and said to him, "Dad,
from now on I'm willing to forgo my chocolate milk and cookie in the
morning." The father, somewhat surprised, asked him why. "Well, after
what happened yesterday…"
What
does the coin getting stuck in your brother's throat have to do with your
breakfast?" asked the father. "Well, I know we really can't afford
it, so I'm willing to live without it." Seeing his father's still
questioning look, he added, "look, you worked so hard to get that coin out
of his throat, well, we must really need the money."
Of
course, we can all laugh at the child's approach to life, but that's the way he
saw it, from his vantage point. But vantage points can be distorted, even by us
adults. Someone looking from afar might also be laughing at us, at our
reactions to what is taking place around us.
For
instance, I guess this week's big news is the Sasson report, written by one Talia
Sasson, an attorney, working for the prosecutor's office.
If
you'd like to know who Talia Sasson is, well, there are many many examples, but
the one I remember best goes back a few years. The attorney general was
Eliyakim Rubenstein, then still fairly new. A meeting was arranged between
Hebron community leaders and him, to try and bring down the tension level
between us and the prosecutor's office. One of the people at the meeting was
Ms. Sasson. She had, sitting in front of her, a huge computer printout, about
the size of the NY phone directory. At one point during the meeting, she spoke
and said something like the following: "I went through the records and
printed out, (picking up the printout), the crimes committed by Hebron's Jewish
residents." As she started to open it up, to read out some of it's
contents, I held my breath. What surprises did she have up her sleeve? What
embarrassment were we about to face? "Listen here: insulting a police
officer, insulting a police officer…" She began going through a list of
'criminal offenses.' "Preventing a police officer from carrying out his
duty, insulting a police officer…etc. etc. etc." Those were the 'serious
crimes' our residents were accused of. Not thievery, not drugs, not sexual
assault, or the like. But her face was so grave, her voice so serious. In her
opinion, we really were criminals.
As
I said, this in only one of many examples, but we need not look any further.
After all, if Ariel Sharon approached her, initiating her latest project, well,
he knew exactly what he was looking for, and the results he would obtain, well
before the report was written and conclusions reached.
Sharon
requested from Ms. Sasson to investigate 'illegal communities' throughout Judea
and Samaria – no, not illegal Arab settlements, rather 'illegal Jewish
communities.' Ms. Sasson came up with something in the vicinity of one hundred and
fifty such places. Wow! Yesha folk are
not just lawbreakers - we are hardened criminals!
Immediately
the illustrious Justice Minister, the Likud's own Tzippy Livny, jumped on the
bandwagon, declaring the necessity to wipe these illegal monstrosities from the
map, and now heads up a ministerial committee to investigate how and when to
begin pushing the delete key.
It
was truly heartwarming to hear that Education minister Limur Livnat's defense:
'Of over 100 such places, only 24 were constructed post 1991,' i.e., there must
be a differentiation between those twenty four and all others. Whee, did I sigh a breath of relief.
Yet
the bandwagon rolls on, with other Likud ministers, like Mufaz, Olmert and
Shitrit, agreeing the Labor party demands to rid the earth of these
abominations, which have brought such disgrace to the State of Israel. Such
horror, Jews building on Eretz Yisrael. How terrible!
OK,
I guess by now you've got the point. But just to be sure, what we are seeing
today, be it in Gush Katif, or the northern Shomron, or throughout Judea and
Samaria, is a declared war, against Eretz Yisrael. I mentioned this a few
articles ago, and have seen it written by others also, but it must not be
forgotten. These people, the Sassons, the Livnats, the Livnys, the Mufaz's the
Sharons, and all the others, these people are reproductions of the ten spies
who rejected Eretz Yisrael, some 3,500 years ago. But they might be considered
worse than the spies, because these people have experienced what Eretz Yisrael
is, over decades, they have tasted the 'sweetness of the land' and they know,
all too well, the alternative. This week a new Holocaust museum is opening at
Yad v'Shem in Jerusalem, again, bringing to light the horrors of our national
life without Eretz Yisrael. Education Minister Livnat was quoted as saying that
the inevitable lesson of the Holocaust can only be Zionism and the
establishment of the State of Israel. Yet I get the impression that her Zionism
exists only as a paper map, and perhaps some color pictures. But Jews, Living
the Land, G-d forbid. How else can one explain her vote in the cabinet to expel
Jews from their homes in Katif and the Shomron? How else can one explain her
readiness to declare twenty four Jewish communities 'illegal
settlements?!"
So,
returning to our story of the little boy and his chocolate milk – why should
anyone from the outside be laughing at us.
Simply
because everything that is occurring today is a necessary stage in our return.
Not only our return to our land, but our return to ourselves, to our
self-understanding of who we are and what we are. The present current events
are an indispensable clarification of our identity, and who, in reality, stands
on which side of the line. All of those people we identified with, who we
thought, quite mistakenly, were 'on our side,' well, now we know, for sure.
It's like sifting the flour, separating the little insects crawling around,
mixed together with the pure stuff. That's exactly what we are doing today.
Not
easy, I agree. It even hurts. But sometimes medical procedures, used to save
lives, cause pain and leave scars. But in the end, they bring extended life. So
it is today. And I have no doubt that
when the air clears and final results are in, whenever that spies like Talia
Sasson will be long forgotten, and the land will be packed full of Jewish
communities, with the expression 'illegal settlements' deleted the Hebrew
lexicon.
In
the end run we must remember, not "In Sharon We Trust," - not
"In Bibi We Trust," - not even
"In the National Religious Party We Trust" – rather, "In G-d,
and only IN G-D We Trust!"
With
blessings from Hebron.
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