Shalom, dear friend!
Thanks to HaShem, my wife and I have returned safely home to Safed after spending six weeks in Jerusalem for the festivals and some personal business. Back here in the north of Israel we found our children and their families all safe and well despite the stress they have endured in face of continuing daily rocket, missile and drone attacks from the terrorists in Lebanon, requiring them to run repeatedly to their bomb shelters.
US Presidential Election results
Many in America and elsewhere showed signs of meltdown in reaction to President Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in the US elections. Yet many more, both in the United States and across the world, and certainly here in Israel, were greatly relieved that the immediate threat of another four years of Democrat misgovernment, diplomatic ineptitude and Israel-bashing has been removed. Nevertheless, Trump’s domestic and international enemies are now actively plotting how to thwart his stated intentions as President. Indeed, if he is able to follow through on even a fraction of his campaign promises against all the likely obstacles, it will be a great achievement.
So is Trump’s election victory “good for the Jews”? The answer would seem to be a resounding “Yes!!!” Clearly, many US Jewish voters thought so. He has a lifelong record of sympathy for Jews, he has Jewish grandchildren, and he has surrounded himself with advisors and key members of the incoming administration who have a record of pro-Israel stances. Domestically, President Trump may be expected to take measures seeking to curtail overt antisemitism, while on the international front he has expressed support for seriously reining in Israel’s current Number 1 enemy, Iran — though we all know, today more than ever before, that nothing is certain, and in the end, we have no-one upon whom to depend except our Father in Heaven.
Israel at war
Trump is still not president, and a lot may happen between now and his scheduled inauguration. Meanwhile, Israel remains in a state of full-scale war, fighting Big Bully Iran as well as facing daily barrages from her proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Arab cities within Israel itself. At the same time Israel is isolated on the international diplomatic stage as never before, though even the fiercest proponents of total economic boycott of Israel are unable to function in today’s world without total dependence on cutting-edge Israeli technologies.
Undoubtedly, both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been seriously beaten down, and earlier fears that a massive coordinated attack from both at once together with Iran could paralyze the country have thankfully not materialized. The beeper attack on Hezbollah operatives was a stunning feat, and so too were the eliminations of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Hamas leader Sinwar. As for Iran, the recent Israeli air attacks are said to have crippled her air defense systems, making this formerly much-feared foe look somewhat like a deflated paper tiger
Yet even now, Hamas in Gaza have not been fully neutralized and continue to fire rockets into Israel, though at a considerably diminished rate. According to official figures, over 100 Israeli hostages are still in captivity in Gaza with no signs that their release is imminent. Meanwhile, despite Hezbollah reverses in Lebanon, they continue to send daily barrages of rockets, missiles and drones reaching as far as Tel Aviv and other points in the center of the Israel .
Hamstrung army
On both fronts the Israeli army have been seriously hampered because of mixed messages from the political echelon, heavy pressure for “restraint” from our U.S. “allies”, and their literal withholding of essential weapons. Moreover, the high ethical standards of the Israeli army (unmatched by any of the American, British, French, Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Iranian and all other armies in the world) require strict avoidance of civilian casualties even if doing so puts the lives of Israeli soldiers in danger. This hugely complicates having to fight against brutal savages who have no compunction against using human shields, and who have systematically ensconced themselves in hospitals, schools, mosques and heavily populated areas and planted booby-traps everywhere.
Israeli losses among soldiers who have to enter these serpents’ dens have been shockingly heavy, with nearly 800 killed and 5000 wounded in the first year of the war according to official Israel Defense Force figures. In too many cases “wounded” may mean the loss of arms, legs, eyes and other crippling physical injuries, not to speak of deep traumas that can never fully heal.
The fifth column
Even as this multi-front war drags on, Israel’s internal fifth column of leftist opposition, heavily financed by George Soros and others, continue making every effort to besmirch and undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through media vilification, demonstrations and actual sabotage to the point of passing classified information about military plans and movements to the enemy.
To outward appearances, the Prime Minister himself seems not only undeterred, but on the contrary, positively emboldened in his conduct of the war, while still having to balance pressures from many different quarters. He recently dismissed defense minister Yoav Gallant, who was seen by many, including combat soldiers on the ground, as pursuing counterproductive strategies and acting as a Washington plant within the Israeli cabinet, intended to impede the war effort.
Many Israelis are weary of what indeed is intended by our enemies as a protracted war of attrition. In the weaker sectors of society, many are suffering severe economical stringencies, especially in the case of large families, small businessmen and the self-employed. Large numbers of army reservists in the regular workforce are currently on active service, resulting in a marked contraction in productive activity.
Despite all this, the majority of the population in Israel including many of her Arab, Druze and other citizens, understand the necessity of decisively quashing all Israel’s enemies and are fully supportive of the war effort. Many ultra-orthodox yeshiva students have enlisted for army service. In addition to official government provisions for the armed forces and their needs, there are countless individual initiatives by people of all ages up and down the country to show moral support and provide material help for soldiers on active duty, for the injured, for those who have lost precious dear ones and for those who are suffering in other ways on account of the war.
The Amsterdam Pogrom
The November 7 pogrom in Amsterdam Holland, following a football match between Ajax-Amsterdam and the Israeli Maccabi-Tel Aviv team, was the worst antisemitic incident in the Netherlands since the Holocaust and one of the worst in all Europe in recent decades. In what was clearly a preplanned operation, groups of Arab Moslem hit-and-run squads systematically scanned the Amsterdam city center for Israeli Maccabi fans, viciously assaulting and beating them to the accompaniment of cries of “Allah Akbar”, chasing them to their hotels and laying siege to them in their rooms, ostensibly for the sake of “Palestinian Solidarity” yet bearing all the marks of classic Jew-hatred.
The Amsterdam pogrom serves as a shocking warning to all Jews and Israelis visiting or living in Europe and America and all the other countries that have opened their borders to countless illegal immigrants, including great numbers of radicalized Moslems who are intent on sowing terror and bringing violent Jihad to all the world.
Many members of the native populations of these countries are appalled by the entry of aliens whose behavior in many cases can only be called barbaric. Day after day there are cases of savages walking shirtless in public places brandishing clubs and machetes and randomly attacking vulnerable passers-by, or grabbing young and old women to rape them on the spot. Shoplifting, burglaries, gang warfare, grooming of young girls as sex slaves etc. are all rife. Without doubt those who recognize the threat to civilized society are fully supportive of Israel’s multi-front war against radical Moslem enemies, and see Israel’s success as the world’s only hope.
Yet the Jihadis and their supporters are proactive, highly vocal, intimidating, filled with fanatical zeal and heavily financed. Their banners, buses and food for demonstrators, massive campaigns in the media and social platforms, free publications, outreach stalls on busy city streets etc. all cost money. (If only Chabad Jewish outreach had a fraction of the funds available to the Jihadis, le-havdil, they would have reached all Jews long ago.) What makes the Jihadis all the more dangerous is their almost erotic appeal, as supposed “resistance fighters”, to every unhappy, frustrated, woke, loser leftist who is disaffected with the reality of the powers that be and who fantasizes about a revolution that is never going to happen.
The almost hypnotic hold of the barbaric October 7 murderers, rapists and pillagers over the minds of an entire generation of students and their Marxist mentors, which led to the massive “Palestinian solidarity” protests on campuses, city centers and highways during the past year, does not augur well for future social harmony. We hope and pray that President Donald Trump’s incoming Administration in the US will succeed in instituting measures to counter these disruptive forces, but they may have only four years to try in face forces within the country and outside who are hellbent thwart all their efforts.
The Abraham Accords
It seems likely that after the four year hiatus in reconciliation efforts under the Biden administration, President Trump will attempt to move forward the “Abraham Accords”, which are intended to facilitate the formal recognition of the State of Israel by Saudi Arabia and other “moderate” Arab states, with all the benefits of increased bilateral cooperation this is supposed to bring. It remains to be seen what the Saudis will demand in exchange. Officially they demand a Palestinian state, but for the majority of Israelis, after the traumas of October 7, more than a year of war and enormous losses, this is a total non-starter even if the luckless Palestinians could ever set up a viable state.
Fighting Antisemitism
For decades since the “Holocaust” Jews have sought to “understand” antisemitism and to combat and hopefully eradicate prejudice and hatred through education, museums, legislation, etc. Yet after all these efforts, antisemitism is obviously rife and rapidly intensifying literally all over the world. Until recently, those fighting antisemitism perceived the enemy as being primarily the neo-Nazis and extreme right-wing. Yet all of a sudden, under all their very noses, classic Islamic hatred and contempt for Jews (which it’s not polite to discuss) have joined hands with the secularized woke extreme left wing in what has become a world wide threat to Jews.
Why is this happening.
It is undoubtedly of vital importance for the Israeli government to counter the floods of outright lies and willful misinformation disseminated daily by enemies and antisemites of all colors, dutifully parroted by the mainstream news media (Reuters, BBC, CNN etc. etc.). This must be done through the dissemination of accurate information and full evidence of enemy savagery both in international forums and through the media. However, Israeli hasbara (“information”) has traditionally been weak, and in any case falls mostly on deaf ears and blind eyes, as demonstrated by the total indifference displayed by the international media, diplomats, politicians and celebrities to exhibitions and live footage from the October 7 Hamas invasion.
Individual Jews and Israelis may have more success in working at the grass roots level with family, friends and colleagues, addressing those in the middle who are simply uninformed. It is also necessary to update our Jewish and non-Jewish friends and allies across the world, who may not have access to unbiased news sources.
Now that X (formerly Twitter) has become the world’s foremost news, uncensored speech and social media platform, there are in fact numerous contributors both in Israel and across the world, Jews and many sympathetic gentile commentators, who provide daily updates on the situation, real time monitoring of the war with its success and failures, reports of those killed and injured, with images and videos of what is actually happening on the ground and footage from war zones and combat soldiers’ body cameras. Among those who post are world class military experts and leading commentators who provide insights from many different angles, showing sympathy and admiration for the way in which the Israeli army is operating in the most challenging of conditions.
What is the root cause of antisemitism
Perhaps those who are not inveterate haters of Jews and Zionists will hear words of truth and help spread them in order to stem the tide of hatred. Whoever does so will surely be blessed. However, I personally do not believe that attempts at education and persuasion have much prospect of putting an end to the age-old blight of Jew-hatred any time in the near future, for the simple reason that it is “irrational”, “beyond nature”. That is to say, it cannot be explained as being simply the inevitable product of radical religious indoctrination from early childhood together with various psychological, economic, cultural and other factors engendering jealousy, bitterness and anger against Jews among unhappy populations.
Whatever the apparent chains of cause and effect that have led to the present eruption of Jew- and Israel-hatred across the world, I think that from our point of view as Jews, Noahides and lovers of Israel, we need to look at all this as being ultimately sent by G-d Almighty for two ends.
- Firstly, for the Jew-hater him/herself, it is their very hatred that keeps them locked outside G-d’s sealed garden of holy delights, the Torah, for they themselves exclude themselves and out of sheer prejudice reject its truth on account of the distorted lens through which they view it.
- Secondly, for the Jewish people themselves, the hatred of the nations must be understood as ultimately being G-d’s “rod” of chastisement at times when many weary souls begin to stray and seek to assimilate into the nations and Jewishly disappear. When these souls stray too far, antisemites crop up in all shapes and forms to remind them that they are Jewish and will ultimately never be accepted into the club of the goyim.
In pre-World War II Germany, the rise of Nazism came at a time when many German Jews had all but abandoned any connection with Jewish religion and tradition, and in many cases had become quite decadent. Similarly today, we may wonder if the current worldwide swell of Moslem and woke leftist Jew hatred are being sent, as it were, from above as G-D’s rod to forcefully remind Jewish people both in Israel and throughout the Diaspora that our mission and purpose is not to become like the nations. Rather, it is to fulfill our G-d-given mission from Mount Sinai and forever: To be His treasured people and a kingdom of priests, men and women in every walk of life, in every place on earth, who minister to the One God, serve as personal examples of rectitude and good deeds, pursue the ways of peace, and seek to teach His Word to all.
If Jews will not grasp and rise to our unique mission, the antisemites may be depended upon to show us that we are not wanted by the nations in our fallen state and will be rejected by all. Thus, in the period just prior to the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple, many of the Jews in Jerusalem were weary of the steep and demanding Torah pathway. They preferred the easier and more immediately gratifying path of joining the nations in their idolatrous celebrations.
However, the prophet Ezekiel retorted:
What you have in mind shall never come to pass—when you say, “We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, worshiping wood and stone.” As I live—declares the Sovereign G-d —I shall reign over you with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with overflowing fury. With a strong hand and an outstretched arm and overflowing fury I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, and I will bring you into the Wilderness of the Peoples; and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. (Ezekiel 20:32-35)
I do not know if the “Wilderness of the Peoples” is a physical place, but for sure many Jews in many locations in America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere are waking up to the feeling that they themselves are in a spiritually parched wilderness with snakes and scorpions all around. Will skyrocketing antisemitism drive Jews there to seek to move to Israel? (This is actually what happened in the early years of the State of Israel, when waves of horrendous pogroms resulted in the mass exodus of Jews from Iraq, Iran, Morocco and other Moslem countries to Israel.)
Today there is already a significant rise in Aliyah to Israel by Jews from many countries. Yet just as in Nazi Germany many Jews felt unable to leave their homes, possessions and livelihoods in order to escape while they still could, likewise today it seems that many Jews in the Diaspora today still do not feel they can make the move to Israel, with all the difficulties it entails, starting all over again and building a new life in a strange country whose language and habits are not theirs.
Aliyah to Israel has saved lives, and entire Jewish communities from many lands today thrive in a country that ,despite the burdens of war, continues to be one of the worlds most vibrant economies and engines of innovation. Nevertheless, coming to live in the Holy Land should primarily be intended for the purpose of fulfilling the mitzvah to dwell in Eretz Yisrael.
Most important of all is that Jews in the Diaspora should take all the surrounding hatred and animosity as G-d’s direct message to each one personally to strengthen his or her identity as a proud member of His chosen people. Dogs may growl and bark at princes and princesses. At times they may attack and bite them. This is G-d’s sharp wake-up call to His beloved children to come back in our hearts and deeds to His blessed Torah.
Football
I must confess, since childhood I personally have never been into football, though some dear family members and close friends may be said to be fairly soccer fanatics. Yet I do certainly respect football and other sports as generally safe ways for people to exercise in a healthy manner and compete non-violently against one another without making war. It is a great pity that for many fans, football is merely an unhealthy, pot-belly spectator sport accompanied by consumption of much booze and junk food. Far worse is the fact that too often, competition between opposing teams, particularly from different countries, leads to uncouth behavior on the part of fans on both sides.
Whether some Israeli fans in the November 7 Amsterdam Ajax-Maccabi-Tel Aviv match acted provocatively, shouting abuse against a few Arabs, depends on whose reports you follow. Yet no-one has accused a single Israeli of spontaneously assaulting an Arab without provocation or doing anything else to spark off the premeditated violent pogrom perpetrated against them by the Arabs. I see nothing halachically objectionable to Jews and Israelis participating in football and other sports on condition that it does not involve violation of the Shabbat and Jewish festivals. (Some Shabbat-observant Jews have season-tickets to their favorite club’s pitch, which, umm, urr, probably cannot be forbidden if they walk to Saturday afternoon matches lol.)
Without doubt, after having been bitten in this way in Europe, Israeli football fans will understand very well that Jews and Israelis are increasingly hated, and I believe this will only strengthen their Jewish identity and national pride.
Women’s Song
I do have greater halachic qualms about the desirability of participation by Jewish women participating in international song events, which cannot be said to be in line with Torah standards of modesty. At the world’s biggest live music event, the finals of the Eurovision song contest held last May in Malmo, Sweden, it was a miracle that a pogrom of the kind that occurred just now in Amsterdam did not take place in the poisonous atmosphere of hatred that surrounded the Israeli finalist and her support team, who were in danger of their very lives because of Moslem and woke left hatred in Malmo. The jury showed clear bias against her simply because of her being Israeli and grudgingly placed her fifth. Yet the beautiful, graceful Eden Golan artlessly won the hearts of live spectators and viewers everywhere with her breathtaking performance, in stark contrast to the satanist themes, costumes and abrasive styles of many of the other competitors.
For those who love Israel there is much to be proud about today’s generation of young Israeli women who are true lionesses both in the army, including in combat, in the public media and on social platforms, in the medical and caring services and many other fields. At the same time, as a Torah-observant Jew living in Israel, I hope and pray that the effect of the wave of hatred directed in Malmo against Eden Golan, who was modest in dress and style compared to most of the freaks taking part, will serve as a lesson to the girls and women of Israel that we do not need to win the hearts of the nations through competing in their contests, which are filled with immodesty and irreverence. Rather, let them be pure Daughters of Israel and Women of Valor, lighting Shabbat candles and singing songs of Emunah to their small children and at women’s gatherings, and bringing up the generation that will welcome Melekh Mashiach.
Israel’s best export
It is sad that in today’s world, one of Israel’s leading and most lucrative industries is by necessity the production of arms, which are sold officially and unofficially all over the world. Even here, France has seen fit to bar Israeli firms from major defense exhibitions (which will not stop buyers, who are interested in proven field effectiveness and not politics). In the light of the many actual and threatened boycotts of arms sales to Israel even by her “allies”, it is natural that the beleaguered nation must try to become militarily self-sufficient.
However, according to prophecy, Israel’s primary export should be not weapons of war but Torah for All the Nations — and if the nations had any sense, they would finance Torah for the Nations themselves! For teaching Torah is not intrinsically materially productive or wealth-creating, though it is the source of all blessing spiritual and material for all the world, Jewish and gentile alike.
In the immortal words of the prophet Isaiah:
And the many peoples shall go and say: “Come, Let us go up to the Mount of G-D, To the House of the G-D of Jacob; that we may be instructed in G-d’s ways, And that we may walk in G-D’s paths.” For instruction shall come forth from Zion, and the word of G-D from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)
Today, notwithstanding aggressive Moslem chauvinism, which is succeeding in making deep inroads into the native populations in many formerly Christian countries (or in cases like Nigeria etc., simply killing Christians off), there are significant numbers of courageous individuals among the nations in countries across the world, including those with some living under the most oppressive of regimes, who have already woken up and heeded the call of the G-d of Israel and His Torah, and who are faithful allies of His people and deeply care about and pray for His Land.
The future of Islam
It is time to state publicly that if the barbaric savagery of those who kill, rape, plunder and destroy with cries of “Allah Akbar” is authentic Islam, then it is destined to fall, since this it is a perversion of true religion and can in no way can be described as a “religion of peace”. Anyone who thinks otherwise must prove his case against mountains of evidence that as practiced by many until today, it is certainly not.
Here is what a leading latter-day rabbinical Bible commentator wrote about the ultimate end of Islam. This is from the commentary of Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser (1809 – 1879), better known as the MaLBIM, in his commentary on Daniel chapter 7 verse 11. The text there says:
I was watching, and then, on account of the sound of the arrogant words that the horn spoke, as I looked on, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and consigned to a fiery furnace.
Malbim comments (ad loc., and I translate his Hebrew as directly as I can):
He [Daniel] saw that the root of the judgement and the sin as written in the books [s’farim] comes on account of the sound of the arrogant words that the horn speaks, and thus the horn of the Ishmaelites, which is their prophet, giver of their Torah [sic], spoke disparagingly against the true Faith and against HaShem. Over this comes the essential Judgment.
If the “Abraham Accords” ever come to fruition in one form or another, it will be interesting to see if Saudi Arabia, which has the world’s primary Islamic shrine, will formally acknowledge the truth of the Torah and Moses as G-D’s supreme prophet, and show due reverence and submission. It will be even more interesting to see if millions of avowed Moslems will follow suit, and if so, how soon? Don’t hold your breath.
Meanwhile as good, proud Jews and good, proud Children of Noah, who are on the cutting edge of history in line with Biblical prophecy, our work today, tomorrow and every day is clear: To strive to be the best people we possibly can, fearing G-d alone as His faithful, industrious servants, seeking to fulfill His commandments and sing His praises to all the peoples, so that the world may came to its complete repair.
Shalom from the Holy City of Safed amidst the green, wooded hills of the blessed Galilee!
Avraham Yehoshua ben Yaakov Greenbaum
