Shalom Pollack

07/10/2022

Which are the cities in the world where the most anti semitic acts occur today?
Don't look in traditionally anti semetic Europe or in the USA where these attacks have been increasingly common place .
It is in the "mixed cities '' of Israel where Arab minorities live alongside a Jewish majority; where they live a life that Arabs throughout the Middle East envy. It is where these Israeli Arabs live, in Lod, Ramla, Jaffa, Acco and Jerusalem where anti semetic attacks are highest.

The vast majority of the daily assaults are not reported. Will the police respond to "petty" hate crimes against Jews? Shoving a Jewish child off his bike, knocking a kippa off his head, spitting and cursing at Jews as they walk by, targeted vandalism? Who has time for that? The authorities are wont to explain that that is the reality of life in a mixed city. Don't expect different
(watch what will happen when a Jew does the same to a Moslem - police alert! TV cameras rushed to the scene of the crime!)

The Israel police and justice system's hands are tied or willingly abdicate their mission . They fail to protect Jews from their Arab neighbors. This is the reality
Jews, especially in the "mixed cities " live in constant uncertainty and fear of their Arab neighbors.
The same goes for the increasing loss of personal security in other parts of the country where Arabs are a large presence like the Galilee and Negev; and the police?
When and where will Arabs fall en masse upon Jewish neighbors as in the pogroms of May 2021?
Can it happen again? Will it?
Of course, says the consensus .
This time the victims will not be frustrated by the illusion of the police coming to their rescue. They will not plead and cry on the phone for hours and days as they watch their cars and homes go up in flames.
What will they do?
What does one do to protect one's family and property?
Forget about national pride.

I don't know if is any comfort but the Torah warned us of exactly what we are experiencing today:
Deuteronomy 28:43 - "The foreigner who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher and you will sink lower and lower"

But we were warned.

Numbers:33:55 - But if you will not drive them out, those who you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes. They will trouble the land in which you live."

Rabbi Akiva was able to laugh as he witnessed foxes running amongst the ruins of the destroyed Temple because he reasoned that just as the negative prophecies have come true so will the positive ones. There is hope he said.

And so the same Torah that foresaw our current troubles, tells us:
Deuteronomy 15:6
"You will rule many nations but none will rule over you."

There is hope
It all depends on us.

Thank you rabbi Akiva.

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"Jews, Israelis and Arabs" , my book that sheds light on our situation

06/10/2022

I just viewed a discussion of a group of secular Israeli intellectuals whose common denominator appeared to be their fear of the rise of the “new elites" of Israel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eSBQR-Evfc
(this is the link to the discussion, in Hebrew)

It was very interesting to see how the successors of the “old guard", the "blue blood", Ashkenazi founders of the state, feel their grip on power and "royal" prerogative slipping away in favor of "religious messianic extremists." The latter have hijacked true Zionism and "Israelism" for a fanatic intolerant interpretation of Judaism, as they put it.

In 1996 when Shimon Peres, the guru of the Left, lost a tight election to Netanyahu he was asked, "who lost" Peres answered, "the Israelis." And who won"? the Jews", he answered.

The book around which the discussion was based is called, “The third revolution". Its prime subject is the influence of the pre-military study schools (mechina kdam tzvait) on religious youth in Israel.
In short, it claims that its students who famously go on to make huge contributions to the IDF are brainwashed by their rabbis to reject democracy, in favor of religious commitment and thus pose a danger to the country as it was meant to be.

The room was full of secular thinkers (one was an unrepentant, top architect of the bloody Oslo accords) who seemed to compete with one another as to who can paint the "religious" threat to "their" Israel in more apocalyptic terms. The author of the book was asked if civil war was inevitable. He answered gloomily, "It's either that or "we" won't be here any longer."

Listening to the questions and answers during the discussion, one heard a general attack on the Jewish religion, accusing it of having moved from the "universal messages of the prophets'' to a parochial, particularistic, chauvinistic creed. The Israeli 'universalists" are not the first to make these accusations against practicing Jews. The early Christian church preceded them, using similar language.

When I hear such rhetoric, I wish to ask what makes a Jew different from a non-Jew who embraces the same “lofty universalistic messages" of our biblical prophets. Do the "universalistic” Jews celebrate and embrace the Jewish practices of the "universal" prophets such as Sabbath observance and dietary laws...?

Did the prophets say one can choose and pick from their teachings and still claim their mantle?

The room full of anti-religious Israelis senses the religious take over everywhere. They are afraid.
I would be curious to know how successful they are in passing their own values on to their children and grandchildren. What inspires their children as "Israelis"?
I wonder how many know why they should live in a Jewish state.
How many choose western democracies unburdened by Jewish fanatics?

Amongst other "messianic" values they poke fun of is the "extreme love of the land'' by their opponents. It sounds rather pagan to them. When PM Rabin said that the Bible is a book of real estate and he as PM will decide what to do with that real estate (when he gave huge chunks of it to Arafat) it sounded right to them. No God or book will tell them what to do with land or anything else.

When religious commanders tell their troops that military threats to Israel are not like other such threats in other places but are aimed at the honor of His People and His Land.
A Jewish soldier has the merit of defending not just his family and people but God’s people and God's land and should not show mercy to the enemy because he will show none to you or your family. (Rambam halacha)
This is exactly how the bible instructs Jewish commanders to imbue Jewish soldiers.
It made the intellectuals in the room cringe.
Since when did Jews fight for Jewish honor?
Aren't Jews supposed to turn the other cheek?

I believe that the Israeli intellectuals are in greater fear of the "new elites” than they are of the old Arab enemy that wants to physically destroy all the Jews of the Jewish state.
Indeed, Israeli anti-Zionist Arabs are now pampered by them as indispensable political allies in the battle against the fanatic Jews. Ponder that a moment.

I believe they fear and hate a Jew (like me) more than an Arab who just yesterday murdered Jews as part of a holy war and today is willing to discuss “peace". Oslo two, three, and four are preferable to their nightmare of the "new elites" replacing them.

Is civil war of the Left (alongside their Arab allies) against the forces of Jewish darkness - a possibility?
I recall just such calls and hopes by prominent intellectual voices on the Left at the time of Oslo(1993) and of the mass expulsions of Jews in 2005. They relished the opportunity to literally destroy any fanatic Jewish opposition.

There is precedent.

During The 1948 war of independence, Ben Gurion ordered the sinking of the Irgun ship commanded by Menachem Begin and targeted the leader of the opposition, Begin.
Ben Gurion would not risk losing political power to "new elites"
It was Yitzchak Rabin who proudly related how he shot at them even as they swam to shore.

Begin had his best hour when he ordered his people not to shoot back. "There will be no civil war," he declared.
No religious leader today hints at civil war against the Left. The concept of love for fellow Jew is ingrained in Jews. Not Israelis.

Yes, the "new elites" are indeed about to lead the country. Why? Because they care and sacrifice and believe.
The old guard is fighting a desperate battle as they are being phased out.

Our rabbis foretold the difficulties of these times.
May they pass quickly.

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tour guide and author

"Jews, Israelis and Arabs"
explains Israel today
by Shalom Pollack

Available on Amazon and Book Depository

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