In August 1991, one Jew was killed for his Jewishness: he "looked Jewish", and happened to be walking around in Hasidic garb in Brooklyn, in a pretty nasty neighbourhood. He was stabbed and died on the spot. One person was arrested and acquitted of the murder. In November of 1990, one Jew was killed in Manhattan for his Jewishness, and, some say, for his political beliefs. One person was arrested in that case also, and acquitted. And for these two murders of Jews, 10 months apart, in the same city, judicial officials in that city came under intense attack from conservative and Jewish elements in the city, and across North America and the world. The police chief of that city was forced to explain repeatedly, and unconvincingly, how anti-semitism had nothing to do, either with the murders or with the handling of the respective investigations and court cases. The mayor lost a re-election bid over these cases (among other issues, these were predominant). This is what should happen when a Jew is murdered with impunity, and even this, most would say, is not enough.
Now we have twenty Jews killed in three months due to their Jewishness. And this is only a part of a much larger wave of violence. Indeed, 200 Jews have been killed in exactly six years, in this community alone, because of their Jewishness, and with them, five non-Jews who were mistaken for Jews were also killed. And yet, through all this anti-semitism, all this Jew-baiting, all this hatred, the governments of the community and the world do nothing but make banal political blandishments and offer meaningless slogans meant only to further exacerbate the tensions and the anger.
I am speaking here not of New York, and a few hothead gangs with some neo-Nazi skinhead leanings. I am speaking of Israel, and a neo-politically-correct movement known as Palestinian nationalism. I am speaking not of the hatred of the street, but of the hatred of the world. I am speaking not of urban political intransigence, but of global political ignorance and the stupidity of conventional wisdom. I am speaking, above all, of the person responsible for more Jewish death and injury, sorrow and pain, than any other person alive, and of the world, lead by the government of Israel, that has accorded him political recognition equal to that of President Clinton or Prime Minister Major or any other world leader.
Israel was founded as the ultimate aim of the Zionist movement -- the Jewish State. "We depend for sustenance on the nations who are our hosts, and if we had no hosts to support us we should die of starvation." So wrote Theodor Herzl in "The Jewish State". It is for this reason, among many others, that the Jewish State was founded. Israel is meant to be a place where Jews can feel safe being Jewish: where they no longer have to hide their identity, and never will have to again. It is the only such place in the world, and now we see that even in Israel -- especially in Israel -- it is not safe to be Jewish. One must continue to hide their identity lest they are attacked and possibly killed by "enemies of peace".
No wonder then that a majority of Jewish parliamentarians dissent from this agreement by which we now see that it becomes increasingly unsafe for Jews to walk the streets -- even in daylight! No wonder the government rests on Arab support to implement these circumstances. It is a sad statement indeed that almost half of the Jewish parliamentarians actually support this abandonment of the Zionist ideal. It is they who, sadly, have lost all perspective on a Jewish history filled with the ultimate in endless suffering, for which the State of Israel was meant to be the remedy.
Unfortunately, the current Israeli government is blinded to the fact that they are abandoning the entire reason for Israel's existence. Israel does not exist merely to exist, as other countries do. Nor does it exist to further the interests of any other state or nation. There are no fundamental strategic, economic, political, military, technological, or other reasons for Israel's existence. Israel exists as a home and refuge for a nation tired of persecution at the hands of the entire world, a nation wanting only to worry about itself instead of what its enemies are doing. Israel exists as a home -- as the home -- for the Jews of the world.
The sad truth is that the Israeli government does not realize this fundamental fact. It hasn't realized this for twenty years or longer. Now, though, neither does the diaspora Jewish community realize this. That is where the Jews are in trouble. As long as one or the other of these bodies realized what Israel is, we were fine. Now, neither of these groups realize it, and so we sit back and watch as the Israeli government commits national suicide on our behalf. It starts with twenty killed and sixty injured in three months -- all at the hands of those "enemies of peace" who would destroy the entire nation.
We see our government in Israel giving the Arabs a police force larger than Israel's for an area less than one-tenth the size. This means one of three things: either they need such an overly large force due to the excessively large number of violent criminals in their society, or they plan on "controlling" the Jewish population of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza much as their terrorist progenitors have until now, or both of the above. We see our government in Israel conceding every issue to the terrorists and murderers with whom they negotiate our national future. And we see our government in Israel bowing to international pressure and allowing such terrorists free access to, and control over, our holiest sites, our natural and strategic resources, access routes to our large cities, and virtually total control over our small towns.
We also see those who perceive the truth: that our government has abandoned the principles of Zionism. We see a group willing to fight this abandonment, as well as those who are mere "enemies of peace" -- the actual enemies of Jews. Alas, this group is small in number, and while they have the support of public opinion, public opinion is a fickle thing. What they need is the support of the masses, of their brethren in the diaspora, for whom they are ultimately fighting. For certain, our support should in no way be going to the government that seems bent on abandoning Zionist morals, and with them our continued existence.
Copyright 1993. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
