When the Arabs run wild, the only proper Israeli response is to make it clear that the pogrom days are over
By: Rabbi Dov Fischer
As Arabs run wild in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel, here are five additional things to keep in mind:
- Does Israel want a government that relies on Arab Muslim parties for its 61-seat coalition majority? If a Likud-religious-Bennett government of 59 seats would rely on Mansour Abbas, or if a Leftist Lapid–Michaeli-Labor–Horowitz-Meretz government of similar numbers relies on Arab parties for the power to remain in governance, is that a Jewish government for a Jewish country?
When the Arabs run wild, as they are doing now and will do every so often in the future, and the only proper Israeli response is to erect a psychological Iron Wall of resolve to make it clear that the pogrom days are over, that Jews no longer hide under beds in the ghetto and board the walls of their homes, shall a Mansour Abbas enjoy and wield the power to say: “You are hitting back too hard at my people, my constituents, and I will pull out of this coalition unless your Iron Wall response ends now”?
Think about that. Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir are absolutely correct: Why are they the only ones? No government of Israel can rely on Arab parties for their majority.
- Pursuant to the above, at what point does Gideon Sa’ar’s status transition go from “principled statesman” to “egomaniacal myopic”? He always has believed in Jewish rights to Judea and Samaria. He is Orthodox-friendly. He is a perfect fit in Likud and always was until he lost his primary challenge against Binyanim Netanyahu and wasn’t given the job he wanted.
I, too, am disgusted with the personal-character flaws of Netanyahu, just as I was disgusted with Donald Trump’s character flaws. I wish all leaders would be honorable, dignified, trustworthy, honest. After his Gantz gambit, Bibi’s political mendacity seems obvious to one and all.
But we Jews would not have returned to rebuild the Holy Temple after the Babylonian Exile had it not been for emperors like Cyrus and Darius. They were not pussy cats. The Talmud narrates some very unpleasant things about Alexander the Great, and history books tell even worse, but two thousand years of Jews have named sons “Alexander” in memory of his kindnesses to Jews when he came to Israel and found himself choosing between the Jews and the Cuthean Samaritans.
Nowadays, the end of Netanyahu’s premiership may well be within sight, but the way to achieve it is not by forming a government of Israel that relies on Arab Muslims like Mansour Abbas, his associated Muslim Brotherhood, or the other Arab list. A solid 65-seat religious-nationalist government still is possible, utterly without relying on Arab Muslim parties who can tear it down any time Israel needs to respond properly to Arab terror with an Iron Wall.
All it takes is Gideon Sa’ar drinking a sip of Jewish reality.
- One of these days, Hamas or Hezbollah will send an unguided or wrongly targeted rocket towards Jerusalem from Gaza or South Lebanon, and it just may land plop on the Dome of the Rock and explode the Al Aqsa mosque. You read it first here. Although Israel’s brave soldiers of 1967 excitedly proclaimed “The Temple Mount is in our hands! The Temple Mount is in our hands!” the truth is that the weak and cowardly Labor government and its leaders then failed miserably to actualize the moment at hand. Eshkol was weak, and Dayan was more a coward in statecraft than the public then realized and cared nothing about the Temple Mount, actually derisively calling it the Jewish Vatican..
But leave it to unguided or wrongly programmed rockets from Gaza, and one of these days one of those rockets just may clear the area for rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple.
- Ariel Sharon walked away from Gaza and left it to the Arabs unilaterally. They responded by putting Hamas in charge of Gaza. Ehud Barak walked away from South Lebanon and left it to the Arabs unilaterally. They responded by putting Hezbollah in charge of South Lebanon.
Half the population of Israel and half the Jewish world knew this would happen, predicted it, warned of it, and has not been surprised by one moment of it. The other half — the ones on the Left who were in charge — laughed at the warnings and predicted inanely that the unilateral cessions would usher in an era of Messianic peace.
As rockets fly now, do not ever forget how this mess unfolded. This is the vision of Merav Michaeli’s Labor party of today, Nitzan Horowitz’s Meretz, and a good chunk of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Even some in Benny Gantz’s orbit and, if history is a guide, even a few in Likud. That is why a strikingly large majority of Jewish common people — some 70 percent of all Jewish voters — continually vote right-wing.
Never forget the price of Oslo and the MK from Raful Eitan’s Tzomet party who sold Rabin his vote in return for a Mitsubishi. That is the price of dissolved national will and of retreat in the face of Arab promises. And always take a moment to think a kind thought about Yasser Arafat, may his bones rot, for refusing to accept Ehud Barak’s offer to give him 97 percent of Judea and Samaria because, if G-d had not hardened Arafat’s heart and if Arafat had not responded to that offer with an intifada instead of a fig leaf, today’s rockets on Jerusalem would be getting launched from across the street, not from Gaza.
- Distinguish the Jerusalem riots of 2021 from those of 1920. Today Jews do not need to rely on perfidious British soldiers and police who are more interested in suppressing the Jewish defense than the Arab massacres. The 1920 Jerusalem riots that erupted one month after Yosef Trumpeldor was killed at the Battle of Tel Hai ultimately saw Ze’ev Jabotinsky arrested for defending. He was sentenced to fifteen years for the unlawful possession of three rifles and two pistols found in a British raid. The sentence was “commuted” to a lifetime exile from Israel. Thus, he died in upstate New York while visiting Camp Betar in 1940. Ben-Gurion, ever vengeful towards his political adversaries would not allow Jabotinsky’s remains to be buried in Israel, so his reinterment on Mount Herzl had to wait a quarter century until 1964 when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol finally authorized the return of Jabotinsky’s bones.
By contrast, today there is an independent country of Israel. It is led by Jabotinsky’s disciples. While the British and their fellow European hypocrites and cowards, joined from America by neo-Nazi Ilhan Omar, Elizabeth Warren, and the apostate Bernie Sanders, all join to form a chorus condemning Israel for defending herself, know that it all is just hot wind. As Trumpeldor would have said: “Ein Davar (No Matter).”
What matters is that an independent Jewish country can crush this uprising. It needs only the will to erect a psychological Iron Wall and for Gideon Sa’ar to grow up and be a man.
(This article originally appeared on the www.ArutzSheva.com web site)
