Is it too late?

In Hebrew the term for "civil war" is "milchemet achim," "war of brothers."

Our media and podiums of all natures have been warning that "if something isn't done, there will be a civil war, or "kera b'am," a division/chasm within our nation.

On Shabbat some neighbors got together to try to make sense of the post-Amona reality. Among those sitting in the living room was a beautiful young high school student with a terrible scratch on her face. It was done to her by a "Yassamnik," a Special Forces policeman who had attacked her, even though she was only sitting passively in one of the Amona houses. She was cursed at by the policeman and he told that he hoped the scar would stay on her forever. She told him she considered it a "badge of courage."

The kids said that the police were trained to attack them. They heard them count: "five, four, three, two , one--whamm!" And the kids weren't given a chance to move, forget about defending themselves, and how could a bunch of young teenagers defend themselves again well-trained, muscle-bound men wielding metal batons? The teens were just sitting on the floor, making it easier for the police to hit them in the head.

Foul, obscene and hateful language were used by the (sic) security forces against the kids. There were many reports of "If we had been given the orders, we would happily shot you all."

Even in the lobby of Hadassa's Ein Kerem hospital, a policeman told Yechiam ben Rachel's brother:
"I'm sorry he [Yechiam] isn't dead."

One of the now classic pictures from Amona is of a young man facing hoards of well-armed, well-protected police, trying to ask them how they could attack fellow Jews; their response was to throw him to the ground and beat him.

The police are trying to make themselves out to be the victims. And we're being blamed, at least according to the polls.

Our country is being attacked, and innocent Israelis are being injured, and the Olmert government is sending the police and army against some Jewish kids who value our Land and history.

Now, this sounds like there already is a "great divide," "kera b'am" in our precious Nation, and the politicians are working hard at making it longer and deeper. The government has declared war on the country's patriots. Something very sick is going on here.

This week's Torah Portion is "Bo," "Come." Moshe Rabenu is struggling to get permission from Pharoah for the Children of Israel to leave Egypt. Finally, they can go. But did they? The majority didn't. Only one-fifth, twenty percent left Egypt. According to democracy, we should have stayed there. The 80% of the Jewish People who stayed in Egypt disappeared; they assimilated into Egyptian culture or they were killed. But the twenty percent who left are the ones whom we're descended from. All of Jewish History is because of that small minority. The Jewish Nation, Jewish History would have ended if we had let the majority rule.

Shavua Tov