Recently people have been in panic informing me that Israel already signed away our independence and Land and is planning on uprooting, disposing tens of thousands or more Jews like myself. They want to know why I'm not rioting, screaming, firebombing, rebelling etc.
I keep on checking the news sites to see if this could really be true. As imperfect as things are here in Israel, Israel is still a democracy with over-chatty politicians and well-connected news media, so I really don't think all that much can be done, especially after the Oslo fiasco, so secretly.
Remember that the Oslo Agreement was negotiated by extreme Leftists who were not government representatives.
At least in English, I haven't seen anything very new. We've been in Shiloh for thirty-two years and we've been hearing these scaremongering rumors for the entire time. The summer we moved to Shiloh, 1981, the population doubled from thirty-something families to sixty-something families. And many of us who moved to Shiloh that summer had larger and older families than the more veterans, so we truly doubled the yishuv. In a few months or less I'll be able to say that I've spent exactly half my life here in Shiloh. There are now over three hundred families of all ages and backgrounds. Many of the young families are second generation. Their children are also the second generation to be studying in our school, or more accurately schools. The tiny three class school of eighteen kids that opened September 1, 1981, has mushroomed into an enormous school complex of two elementary schools (separate for boys and girls) each educating until the Eighth Grade.
That doesn't mean that I have faith in our Israeli Government and politicians.
The Israeli leaders have been making dangerous and foolish decisions from before the Declaration of Israeli Independence, the official establishment of the State of Israel. Remember that David Ben-Gurion and followers accepted the
United Nations Partition Plan.
The
partition plan took on a checkerboard appearance. This was largely because Jewish towns and villages were spread throughout Palestine. This did not complicate the plan as much as the fact that the high living standards in Jewish cities and towns had attracted large Arab populations. This demographic factor insured that any partition would result in a Jewish state that included a substantial Arab population. Recognizing the need to allow for additional Jewish settlement, the majority proposal allotted the Jews land in the northern part of the country,
Galilee, and the large, arid Negev desert in the south. The remainder was to form the Arab state.
Further complicating the situation was the UN majority's insistence that
Jerusalem remain apart from both states and be administered as an international zone. This arrangement left more than 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem isolated from their country and circumscribed by the Arab state.
Luckily (the Hand of G-d no doubt) the Arabs rejected it and went to war against us. In a sense the result was a stalemate, and the ceasefire lines lasted less than nineteen years. Also, it's important to remember that the Jordanians invaded the land on the west bank of the Jordan that was supposed to be an additional Arab state, and Egypt occupied Gaza. This illegal occupation was only recognized by two other countries, Great Britain and Pakistan.
That status quo ended in June 1967 when Jordan, Egypt and Syria threatened Israel with total destruction. The result of that was the dramatic Israeli victory in the Six Days War.
Just over six years later, 1973, was the Yom Kippur War, when G-d saved us again. I have no delusions that any of our victories, our survival was due to human intelligence and advanced military weapons. Nor do I have any ways of finding out what secret negotiations have been going on. And I don't believe that G-d will always rescue us, like in the fictional "Perils of Pauline."
We must fight and we must pray. We don't know if G-d will allow our destruction and then wait for a new generation to be able to take over and try again.
I have not given up. One of the reasons, the main reason I blog is to try to make the Jewish People and our true friends aware of the perilous situation we are in.
G-d willing, we will do the right things and G-d will help tip the scales in our favor.
