Is history repeating itself? Just like during the Holocaust, Jewish leaders, afraid of fighting back, are misleading their people, promoting deadly results and endangering the Jewish state.
Holocaust-era hero Rabbi Dov Weissmandl and his Working Group, who worked tirelessly to save Jews from Nazi extermination camps, had one message to the Jews of Hungary: Above all, do not let them put you into ghettos! If you fight them putting you into ghettos, half of you may die. But if you allow them to put you into ghettos, from there you are going to your deaths.
Czechoslovakia was told: If you do not agree to give up the Sudetenland – despite Czechoslovakia’s certainty that it meant suicide – then you, Czechoslovakia, will be the obstacle to World Peace, and we, Britain and France, will not honor our defense agreements with you.
On Tuesday I attended what was called an anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) conference at the United Nations, led by Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon.
I felt so honored to attend and thrilled that perhaps now, Israel and Jews were finally beginning to stand up against deadly vilification.
I was heartened to learn that the conference, planned on short notice, had in fact attracted a huge turnout. My first pause, however, came when the conference bag offered to me had the logo: “Building Bridges not Boycotts.” I wondered why the victim, who was just beginning to stand up against attack, should be focusing on building bridges. Should not the accuser offer bridges, apologies and not boycotts? I declined the bag.
Inside the hall, it was wonderful to hear the Israeli ambassador and other leaders speak strongly about standing up for Israel. In fact, Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, stated that the organization had committed itself to providing all resources needed to support the students in fighting BDS. “You are not alone,” he told the young people. He would personally read every email that they sent! Other key points were:
1. Unity: Only together can we win the war against delegitimization and you, the students, the brave soldiers, are needed for our great Jewish nation.
2. Creating an Arab state in the Land of Israel is the only viable chance for peace.
3. How nice we are to the Arabs in Israel! The conference seemed to be taking a stand against the accusation of Apartheid. A senior Israeli judge explained proudly how Israel compromised on safety in order to respond to the complaints of the Arabs who – because of their murder sprees – forced Israel to build a fence. And the judge told the young idealists how, in the midst of the killing, the court heard and responded – by changing the route of the fence – to complaints about how “Palestinians” were inconvenienced and had to drive an extra half hour to get to work because of the fence. I wanted to shout that the murdered Jews would never be able to even live for another half an hour.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon (AP)
4. How nice the Arabs are! We were encouraged to have a “Palestinian” friend and send them a flurry of Happy Ramadan greetings or, “even better, wish them a Peaceful Ramadan”.
5. The legal fight. Here we thought we might hear about our legal rights, because the key accusation against Israel is that we stole the land from some poor helpless people called “The Palestinians.”
There was nothing about how the “Palestinians” are a made-up people. There was no sharing of records that the Arabs in Israel are NOT indigenous to the land, but in large part came from over 20 other countries and entered Palestine illegally with British permission under the Mandate – despite having being granted sovereignty in over 96% of the Middle East. The League of Nations had unanimously approved the Palestine Mandate, which required Britain, under international law ,to facilitate the return of the Jews to their homeland and not to cede any land to other powers.
Instead, yesterday’s talks on Legal rights meant the right to claim that barring a Jew because he is connected to Israel is discrimination – even while leaving the “land-libel” intact! In fact, one of the few references to the occupation lie – the very basis of BDS – was one sentence by one panelist: “There is no occupation.”
And so the message was:
We are good Jews, which means that we will give up on our security in order to allow the creation of another Arab state in Palestine, in addition to Jordan and Gaza.
An anti-Israel demonstration in the U.S. this year. (Shutterstock)
We are allowed to fight BDS and we have the biggest and brightest of our leaders with us all the way.
We must present a unified voice and any dissension will not be tolerated.
I asked one leader how she/he could accept not telling the students about the truthful answers to BDS, which is based on the occupation lie. Our land was given to us by the Creator of the Universe. Our over-3000-year-old history in our homeland was recognized, and legal sovereignty rights were granted beginning with the 1920 San Remo Resolution. The Arabs in Palestine-Israel do not have historical rights to the land. They are descendants largely of recent illegal immigrants. This leading speaker said there are attempts behind the scene to speak about the truth as I have outlined it. And he asked me what I would say if Israel was told that the risk of doing so (bringing out this truth) would be to allow ISIS to win in the world!
I answered something about the Yezidis and only later was able to put together what I had been trying to say, and it is this:
Israel not giving up its heartland to murderers is NOT the obstacle to beating ISIS. Rather, the obstacle to destroying ISIS is the lack of will to fight evil and the lack of compassion for the victim! Proof: The Western world has done almost nothing to help little Yezidi girls whose families have been massacred, whose land has been taken and who, for the last two years, are enslaved and tortured in every possible way.
My guess is this: Someone told the Western powers that in order to get help in protecting themselves against ISIS, Israel must be served up! The U.S. then blackmailed Israel, saying that Obama and France are about to force an Arab state in Israel, and that if Israel wants any input at all, it better agree to give up the land now.
Two-State Solution: Ghettoizing Israelis?
Thus Israel moved into emergency mode to convince the students of the rewards and the need to support the two-state solution. In order to make it palatable for these young Jews to accept that their G-d-given inheritance is being given away, the BDS is presented as the key enemy. The students are told that they are the brave soldiers of the Jewish People and assured that the greatest and most powerful are standing with them. Any voices that contradict the unified stand for the two state “solution” are to be seen as an existential threat.
I believe our leaders feel that sacrificing our heartland and more young lives, and putting all of Israel in existential danger, is a decision forced on them and that it is the best path for the good of the whole. Similarly, the Jewish leaders during the Shoah felt forced to provide a small contingent up for sacrifice in light of the Nazi threat to otherwise annihilate everyone in the town – which they did anyhow, just a little later.
