I have returned from my travels! At the risk of being labelled a webjournaler I will spare you all the details. Welcome to all the new members we’ve got recently and just to let you know we had a record amount of individual hits this month (8907). Thanks to the staff for looking after the site while I was away. I look forward to seeing the site develop in new ways in the near future. Happy Posting!
To Ben,
Rising the question “Should Israel exist†shows to me that your visit to Israel was a waste of time and money, because the information and instructions you got were given to you by the wrong people.
Fore people living in Israel , even the 70% secular, there is no question about the right of the Jews to live in this land in a Jewish state. I myself am living in Palestine\Israel for the last 70 years and my comments to your question are based on personal experience and not on theories and books. Thus, let as deal with your essay step by step and each issue, one by one.
Your idea about “aducating the society to accept and understand Judaism†has been tried for the last centuries and has failed. The answer to this failure, was Herzl’s Zionism. His proposal for Uganda was a temporary solution for the Jews who suffered from progroms in Russia at those times, a kind of “first aidâ€, but was opposed immediately by all the other members of the Congress (1904), why?
Because the Jews are not “a group of people who are connected only by religionâ€.
Judaism includes a religion, but is much more than that, it is a faith, believing in Torath Israel (given through Moses by the God of Israel), the land of Israel (Palestine) and the people of Israel (the Jews). Judaism cannot be compared with other religions who have no territorial commitments. Judaism is never “only a religion†because of his commitment with a territory called “Eretz-Israelâ€, the land of Israel.
The history of this land was always connected to the people of Israel (Jews), since the second century b.C. Jerusalem became its importance only because a Jewish king, David, took it by force and made it the capital of his kingdom. Since then. During thousand of years, it was never claimed by any people as capital of a national identity. Except for 100 years of the crusaders period, but this also had a connection with the Jewish identity. As Christianity is based on a Jewish background (the Jew Jesus).
There have been 3 highpoints in the history of Palestine: The period of David and Salomon, the period of Herod and the State of Israel. Between those periods, without Jews, this land has been a neglected desert, without any political meaning.
Zionism and anti-Semitism. You are saying that “By creating a Jewish state you are not getting rid of anti-Semitism……surely you are only provoking racism and divisionâ€.
This argument has been used before by Jews opposing the creation of the Zionist organisation. (1897). What is Zionism?
Since the destruction of the second temple and Judea in the second century a.C., he connection between the Jewish people and their land has never been interrupted. Their longing and hope for comeback was transferred into Synagogues and prayers. Trough all these almost 2000 years, the Jews gave never up the hope for returning to their land.
The name Palestine, given by the Romans to Judea, was identical with Eretz-Israel and had never any connection with Moslems ore Arabs who lived in Palestine, but never created a “Palestinian identityâ€. (even not under 19 years of Jordanian-Islam rule).
The first Zionist Congress in Basel 1897 took this longings out of the Synagogues and prayers and created a political frame, the Zionist organisation, not to “separate†the Jews from the world, but to make them an equal partner to other nations, instead being minorities in other nations.
Zionism and the creation of a Jewish state have never been the cause of anti-Semitism,
These anti Jewish feelings were forced mostly by Christian religious motives which led to the terrible Shoa in Europe. Today these feelings are masked as political ant Israeli arguments in order to give them a legal coverage.
And now about the Jewish-Arab (Palestinian) conflict.
You are absolutely right about the existing conditions of the Arabs under Israeli rule.
Israel is making many mistakes and evil against this population. Their standard of life is much lower than ours, but in order to understand (not to agree) you have to find the roots of these relations which are rooted deeply in the emotions of faith and believes. They started long before Israel.
The purpose of the Zionism in those times was, to bring Jews to Palestine-Eretz-Israel, in order to develop a desert to the benefit of the people who were living under very poor conditions, being very few and mostly Arabs (but also Jews). (You should the book of Mark Twain about his visit to Palestine.). The population was about 500,000 in the area where today are living about 6.5 million Jews and Arabs. The aim was to create a Jewish majority and by that a democratic State with a Jewish majority and Arab minority with equal rights and proportional representation in all institutions, government, parliament, justice, ect. I repeat, the aim was to turn the desert into a paradise, with joined effort, Jewish and Arab.
But, unfortunately things did not go this way. The Arabs were afraid to become a minority and because of that were opposed from the beginning to uncontrolled Jewish immigration. They forced the British to keep ratio to 1/3 Jews and 2/3 Arabs. In 1920-21-29-36-39 there always were Arab riots against the Jewish settlements and people. We never had a peaceful time her since I remember (1934). Than the War started and the holocaust in Europe.
1948, when Israel was established, 5 Arab States invaded, and together with the Palestinian Arabs, tried to destroy the Jewish population and avoid the creation of the Jewish State. Their purpose was not the construction of the land, even not to themselves, but the destruction of the Jewish achievements. Since then, for 56 years we are living a life of fear, never knowing when and where the terror will hit us. “Security†is our biggest project. In order to prevent attacks we have to take measures against everything and everyone. Every non Jewish is a suspect. We are living in a steady panic, overdoing everything. It is panic and fear which are dominating our actions which are often unreasonable and even worthless and unneeded. This is the situation that can be understood only by living here.
This is all for now. If you have any questions, send them to me and I will answer them/
By the way, a Jew a person with a Jewish mother or a convert.
Menachem
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Short and sweet…Welcome back Ben