Hamas War

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Countdown to Israeli Independence Day!

In one more week we'll all be celebrating Israeli Independence Day!  Sixty-six 66 years since David Ben-Gurion took on the world and declared that enough was enough.  The Jewish State, aka the State of Israel was declared!

The odds were completely against us, and the world sat by watching, expecting to see a simple bloody rout. There was no way that a bunch of poor Jewish farmers, beggars and undernourished survivors of Hitler's concentration camps could defeat the Arabs who had the de facto backing of Great Britain and other countries.

Juara Haganah Museum

Ben-Gurion didn't even have a united Jewish army to fight with him. Actually, that was mostly his fault. He was so against the Etzel and Lechi during the latter years of the British Mandate that he even cooperated with the British by informing against them in a period known as the sezon, The Hunting Season.  He continued with his extreme hatred of those Jews who didn't support him politically by tricking the Etzel, led by Menachem Begin, and attacking the Altalena which resulting in the death of Jewish patriots and the destruction of valuable weapons which had been brought to liberate Jerusalem from the Arabs.

Altalena on fire

It wasn't only the Revisionists, Jabotinsky followers, members of Etzel and Lechi that Ben-Gurion tried to defeat, he also did everything he could to brainwash, deprogram religious North-African Jews from strictly observing Judaism. Children were sent to secular boarding schools to be "educated" and turned into Leftist, secular Israelis aka modern Jews.

Honestly, when I began this post, I didn't plan on rehashing the terrible side of early Israeli history. But in order to understand today's State of Israel we must remember the awful, disgraceful side, too.

When we wonder why the Israeli Left, and even Center, are so rabidly anti-Jewish Life in Judea and Samaria, and we wonder why Shabbak, Israel's "secret police" can be so cruel to fellow Jews instead of concentrating on our real enemies, and we wonder how the Israeli Judicial System can judge Patriotic Jews so unfairly, we just have to think of David Ben-Gurion.

They are the spiritual, political, immoral heirs of David Ben-Gurion.

What's the great irony here in Israel sixty-six years later? The descendants of Ben-Gurion and his followers are less interested in Israel than the descendants of those he tried so hard to destroy.

Considering all of the civil war, a battle for Jewish souls going on during the War for Israeli Independence and the early years of the state, it's even more amazing that G-d allowed the state to survive and thrive.

We wouldn't have a State of Israel if G-d hadn't supported us. There's no rational way to describe our victories in 1948, 1967 and 1973.

That's why it is so important to thank G-d with Prayers including the Hallel on Israeli Independence Day!


Israeli Independence Day Prayers in the Mishkan Tabernacle Synagogue, Shiloh

Yes, we still have a long way to go, but we won't succeed without the Help of the Almighty!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I usually really enjoy your posts, but this one is so... weird: how can you justify saying Hallel when you just write the exact reason why I wont? Ben Gurion and all the leftists and socialist zionism supporters didn't want jews and judaism but a new kind of man: the israeli Tora and massoret free...

Batya said...

a, Rav Elchanan Ben-Nun has said that the great miracle, act of G-d, was that Ben-Gurion actually had the guts to declare independence.

I think you get it wrong. We don't say Hallel to Ben-Gurion, Bibi or Arik Sharon. We praise and thank G-d for continuing to protect and save us. I've never said that things here are perfect. We're working hard at improving it. I've been living in Israel for almost 44 years, and things have improved greatly in the Jewish, spiritual sense.

We wouldn't survive without G-d, so why not say Hallel?

Anonymous said...

What surprises me is that many religious Jews still cannot understand that H' works in mysterious ways (which we humans find hard to understand). H' used the Erev Rav to get the Jews back home through the nations (UN) which started the messianic era for everyone to see if wanted to see. The birth of the state was a miracle and all the victories that followed were miraculous. Those who want to see, see and those who cannot see outside the box (galut mentality of 2000 years). The turmoil that we are now in (and including the rest of the world) is all part of the birth pangs which will lead to the downfall of the erev rav (they served their purpose already) and will, hopefully, very soon, usher in Moshiach Tzdkeinu. Makes sense to say Hallel on Yom Ha'Atzmaut. The Land of Israel and the Jewish people are both miracles, and soon will become evident to the rest of the world also.

Batya said...

a, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. I do not use the term "Erev Rav," and the "nations (UN)" also had nothing positive to do with Zionism or the establishment of the State of Israel.
There are 613 mitzvot, which are in many cases complex categories. Very, very few people obey all they possibly can. The secular Zionists who profaned the Shabbat glorified and gave new life to the Land of Israel a very important mitzvah which shouldn't be ignored. They risked and sometimes sacrificed their lives and those of their families to create Jewish communities and farms in the Land of Israel. Rav Kook recognized that misirat nefesh as very great.
Don't stand in judgement of them. Without them the remaining Jewish People would be much fewer and still mostly in the diaspora. Today we're on the verge of having a clear majority of Jews in the Land of Israel!

Anonymous said...

Batya: It was through the UN that the nations voted so that the new state can come about. There was immigration on personal levels long before the state, but only when the nations voted for the rebirth of the Jewish homeland, did Israel become a sovereign nation in the eyes of the nations. Eventually, it will become Eretz Yisrael. I did bot mention zionism. Saying Hallel has nothing to do with the 'zionism' of those who founded the state. There was also the good zionists (revisionists) who did have Jewish souls. All this is not the reason to say Hallel; it is only because of our recognition that the Jews returned home enmasse and rebuilt the nation through literal miracles that it seems appropriate to say 'Hallel' on Independence Day. Also, those who built up the Land (chalutzim) had many orthodox Jews and even those who were not, were 'amcha'. Their mitzvah was great. No one here is judging them, chas v'sholom. Leadership is another story. You wrote about Ben Gurion, etc.

Batya said...

We have a state, because G-d helped. Generally the UN recognizes countries after they function as countries. We did not need that vote. It didn't help us one iota. It was an insurance policy for the nations that voted "yes." That way after, as they had expected, our defeat, they could claim that it wasn't their fault.