Hamas War

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Morality? Pragmatism? Democracy?

We'll begin with a series of quotations, verbal images to think about.

"We have decided to make Sderot a ghost town," said a spokesman for Hamas who gave his name as Abu Ubeideh. "We are not going to stop launching our rockets until they leave."

"Over the weekend, serious events* occurred in the Gaza Strip area."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, 11.6.06

"For many weeks, Kassam rockets, which are designed to maim and kill Israelis who live in nearby communities, have been fired from the Gaza Strip. This firing is very serious. It strikes at the fabric of life in communities in southern Israel and threatens peoples' lives. "
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, 11.6.06


Soldiers Find 150 Knives at Checkpoint
12:59 Jun 11, '06 / 15 Sivan 5766
(IsraelNN.com) Alert IDF soldiers Sunday discovered an Arab with 150 knives at a checkpoint near Tulkarm, east of Netanya. They confiscated the weapons...

Machsom Watch: The word machsom is Hebrew for "checkpoint," referring to Israeli Defense Forces checkpoints whose stated purpose is to prevent Palestinian terrorists from the West Bank from entering Israel... Machsom Watch has been accused of bringing false charges against the Israeli troops, being hostile towards them, and disrupting the operation of checkpoints.

*the "serious events" Olmert referred to: "seven members of one (Arab) family were killed on the Gaza beach."

"The IDF is the most moral military in the world"
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, 11.6.06

These are all connected. Olmert's daughter is a leader of Machsom Watch. Olmert's concern as a "moral leader" is with the good health and safety of the enemy. Yes, the same enemy that wants to wipe us off the map. I don't see the same moral outrage from him when Jews are murdered.

Just like the incident a few years ago when an Arab boy was killed in "cross-fire" between Israel and the terrorists. Israel kept apologizing, then it was proven that the kid was killed by the Arabs, and his father had known it all along... Even though Olmert is pledging to investigate the tragedy thoroughly, facts are already emerging that the family was killed by their fellow Arabs. But that won't stop "moral" Israel from compensating the survivors and apologizing for existing.

If someone was to re-write a modern version of The Mouse that Roared, they'll substitute Israel for the United States. It's the story of a very poor country that declared war on the U.S. in order to lose it, so they would get generous compensation and development funding. It's written as a political satire, and the movie stars Peter Sellers, which should give you an idea of its absurdity. And if you didn't guess, the U.S. surrendered, certain that the unknown country had a dangerous secret weapon. That connects us to China's Mao Ze Dong calling the United States a "paper tiger."


Yes, Israel is some sort of sick joke. What's the cure? It's certainly not the perverse "morality" so popular among our "elite."

I've noticed a new and disturbing phenomena in the media. The cities and villages which are being bombed--think of the London Blitz during WWII--are being referred to as: "near-Gaza communities." Just like Disengagement was marketed as "withdrawalwl from Gaza," which it wasn't, now that leper-label is being applied to cities like Ashkelon and Sderot and even left-wing kibbutzim.

At what time will our People wake up? That's the question, and it's an old one. This coming Shabbat, here in Israel (abroad a week later) we read Parshat Shlach Lecha, about the sin of the spies. One of the main and most important lessons from this portion of the week is that Democracy isn't reliable. Or should I be blunter and tell the truth, that Democracy isn't Jewish; it's a sin. Well, think about it. Moshe sent a representative, the top guy from each tribe on a special "pilot tour" of the Promised Land. It was sponsored by "the boss" and the deal was that they were supposed to return all hyped up:

"Yaala! Let's go!"

"It's gorgeous, fertile and rich! You can make a meal on that grape, try it."

"The locals will disappear in the sand, like the Egyptians did in the sea!"

They weren't sent for a "pragmatic analysis" of the relative defensive and military strength, and demographic predictions according to the Egyptian supreme court... Unfortunately the report by the ten out of twelve (majority) reminds me of the New Religious-Zionist Pamphlet: "Our Way at This Time" by "leading religious-Zionist leaders such as Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Yaakov Ariel, Shlomo Aviner, Tzfaniah Drori, Moti Elon, Eli Sadan, Aryeh Stern, Chananel Etrog, Yigal Kaminetzky, David Stav, Avi Gisser, and more." It's a carefully worded document which tries to marry Jewish Law with pragmatism.

Why "pragmatism?" It's like a "shotgun wedding" to a rapist. No true leader is a pragmatist. The conservative accountant won't make a fortune; he'll make a steady safe income.

"Pragmatism," during our interview with Daniella Weiss of Kedumim, Sharon Katz and I heard her talk about the dangers of pragmatism, and I agree with her. The people who believe in pragmatism would have had voted with the ten spies who sinned against G-d and our Land. They were pragmatic! Calev and Yehoshua were not, and they were the ones who were right, but in the end the entire People had to suffer because of the majority.

There are three things that endanger us:

pragmatism

democracy

morality

Think about it. OK, you may have to get "out of the box" to do so, but do you really want to live behind barbed wire in a ghetto?



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