The New Ghetto

Watch this video and you'll understand the predicament of Israel and the people of Sderot.



There is an old expression that says that it is easier to take the Jews out of Egypt than to take Egypt out of the Jews. Similarly, the late great Rabbi Kahane HY"D said: "The Jew left Pinsk and Minsk and he returned to Minsk and to Pinsk." Even though the Jewish people left the shtetl a century or so ago, our leaders continue to act like ghetto-Jews and refuse to stand up for Jewish rights. In an age where the Jewish people possess one of the greatest armies in the modern world, it is still deemed "un-Jewish" in many quarters so fight back.

Living as a stranger in Christian Europe or under Muslim rule, the Jews were subjected to harsh and debasing circumstances. Starting in Venice in 1516 and spreading throughout Europe, the Jews were forced into cramped and confined living quarters, known as ghettos. Jews were extremely restricted in their choice of profession and often become money lenders, as immortalized in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. They could not leave the ghetto at night and whenever they did leave, the Jews had to wear special clothes to in order to identify themselves. In Afghanistan, Yemen or Algeria, for example, Jews had to walk barefoot, were segregated, wore distinctive clothing and lived in constant fear of massacres, rape or abduction. The Pact of Umar, the document that spelled out clearly the requirement of dhimmitude the debasement of non-Muslims, forbade Jews to ride on horses, to carry weapons or to repair or build new synagogues, among other things. In this atmospere of humilation, Jews learnt to keep their heads down, to avoid trouble and to accept any discrimination or oppression as "the will of the Almighty". It is from here that the prevalent image of a weak Jew begging or prostrating himself before his gentile overlords arose. It was necessary for the exile-Jews not to argue or protest, to keep his head or prevent a horde of Cossacs from burning down his village. This mode of existence was essential for the time period as the Jews had little choice in the matter of their rights.

Today, the Jews for the most part have left the exile and yet the exile has not left the Jews. We continue to worry about asserting our selves in fear of "what the goyyim will say". We don't realize that G-d has reinstated us as a free nation in our own land and has blessed us with a booming economy, material wealth and a mighty army. There are more people today living in Jerusalem than there ever were, even in the time of king David and Solomon! Our leaders, the PM of Israel, Ehud Olmert and his corrupt cronies, insist on surrendering Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and expelling tens of thousands of Jews to appease the United States and the murderous Arabs. There is no cost too great for "peace now". Peace at any price! Peace immediately! When a terrorist blows himself up on a Jerusalem bus or in a Tel-Aviv cafe, instead of destroying the terrorist infrastructue, Israel's government decides to put Israel behind a fence, as if a fence can stop missiles. Where we once fought with all of our might to be able to leave the ghetto, our leaders are now walking back into one of their own making. This bunker mentality pervades all aspects of Israeli life. Every Israeli is frisked tens of times each day by security guards whenever he walks into a mall, a store or any public building. When rockets fall on Sderot and entire families are forced to live in shelters, Olmert remains silent and explains that nothing can be done. He suggests building more shelters. Peres dismisses the hundreds of rockets as "kassam shamssams". Maybe we should rebuild the city underground? Who needs Sderot anyways- we parted with Gaza? If we release terrorist, the Arabs will stop killing us. If we give them weapons, the rockets and attacks will stop. If we surrender Jewish land, there will be peace. The Jew can never stand up for his own rights and everytime he does, the world condemns him for "responding disproportionately". The US or Europe, in fact any sane nation, would not tolerate such repeated attacks on its sovereingty and its citizens and yet they have no qualms about demanding the impossible from the Jews.

Enough is enough! The ghetto is dead and we will never return willingly to it again. It is time to act like a rational, proud and strong people living in our own land. The Judaism of the exile is dead. "There is no Torah like the Torah of Eretz Yisrael and there is no wisdom like the wisdom of Eretz Yisrael" (Bereishit Rabba 16:4). The Torah of the exile was necessary in its own time but today, we need not fear refusing the goyyim. Jewish self-defense and strength is not a contradiction, it not an "un-Jewish" concept but rather mandated by our Sages. We learn in Tanchuma, Shoftim 15: "When you go forth to battle against your enemies" (Deut. 20:1)... What is meant by "against your enemies"? G-d said, "Confront them as enemies. Just as they show you no mercy, so should you not show them mercy." I do not want the Judaism of the galut, of the ghetto, of the bent-backed Jew pleading for his life. I do not want weakness, surrender, compromise, retreat. I want, no, I demand the Judaism of Samson, who prayed: "Lord GOD, remember me... O God, that I may be this once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes." (Judges 16:28). I want the Judaism of king David who asked: "who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should have taunted the armies of the living God?" (Samuel I 17:26). I want the Judaism of Moses our Teacher who said: "Arm ye men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute the LORD'S vengeance on Midian." (Numbers 31:3)

Israel, fight against your enemies and show them no mercy! "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And men shall say: 'Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." (Psalm 58:11-12)

"Pour forth Your wrath upon the nations that do not recognize You and upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your name. For they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his habitation. Pour forth Your fury upon them and let Your burning wrath overtake them. Pursue them with anger and destroy them from beneath the heavens of the L-rd."