These are hard times for us all, and nobody can say what the future holds. Last week we all experienced, together, the horror of an attack on a shul in Har Nof, in which four pious rabbis were killed, and almost 20 others were wounded, mostly people in the middle of prayers. Pictures of that attack evoked memories of scenes we have not experienced in 70 years.
In this most recent tragedy, just one of many, fate decreed that I had a connection to two out of the four Har Nof families in mourning, and many of you in Baltimore have at least one connection as well. Wednesday evening I paid condolence calls to Agassi Street in Har Nof, where the murders occurred, and where those two families live. Rabbi Arye Kupinsky, hy”d, of Har Nof was raised in Kiryat Arba, my town, and my family has several connections to his family, which still lives there. I also paid a call to the Twersky family, down the street, who were mourning Rabbi Mosheh Twersky, hy”d. There, as I had thought I might, I found Rabbi Twersky’s sister Tzippora, and her husband, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, a close childhood friend from Baltimore. The couple had just flown in from the Bronx, where Jonathan is a rabbi.
Shiva houses of this sort are a different experience from most others. Climbing into a cab in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood of Jerusalem, I told the bare-headed cab driver, “Agassi Street in Har Nof,” and he immediately responded, “You’re paying a condolence call to those martyrs, right? Here in Israel, the entire Jewish People are in mourning for these losses. You edge your way into such a house like a visitor moving forward in a crowded museum, and you stand, packed like a sardine, while great rabbis, sitting with heads bent, wait their turn to whisper words of comfort into the mourners’ ears. Nobody but the mourners can hear what they are saying, but as you sit or stand there, for one minute, ten minutes, or an hour, you still feel an exaltation of the spirit at being part of this. As you leave, you see crowds of new visitors coming out of elevators and walking up the stairs to have their chance.
The Arabs of Jerusalem have found a new ploy. No, they’re not bombing us, nor are they sneaking in from the Arab towns of Samaria. Rather, these are large numbers of local Arabs, local Jerusalemites, acting as individuals, inspired by the rhetoric of their own religious and political leaders. One day, those political leaders energetically egg them on to acts of violence. The next day, those same leaders self-righteously claim to be trying to calm the situation. What solution is there to the present problem?
Well, the answer to that depends on why they are murdering us. If they were killing us because the Jerusalem municipality doesn’t pick up their garbage as often as it should, or because some religious Jews like strolling on the Temple Mount (both of which were suggested, early on) then the solution would be simple. I think, however, that the problem is larger.
For 130 years, the Arabs have watched as we have returned to the Land of Israel, and as time has passed, their alarm at our success here has grown. In general, there are two things for which the Arabs cannot forgive us:
1) That we exist, live, and breathe in the middle of what they see as their growing pan-Arab empire. ISIS is expanding to the north of us, and Muslims seem to be taking over Europe. At the rate they are going, the Queen of England herself may soon be donning a hijab. Yet, as Haman said, “All that means nothing to me as long as I see that Jew Mordechai sitting in the palace gate” (Esther 5:13).
2) That G-d is fulfilling His promises to us. The Arabs’ religion is based on the belief that G-d chose them instead of us. Yet our return to the Land, and our success here, provides proof that G-d still loves us, and that we are still His people, as demonstrated through the gradual fulfillment of the Biblical prophesies. Each day that goes by makes it seem all the more that G-d’s wish is for us to return to the Land and to become a light until the nations. All this serves to prove that the religion of the Arabs is a mistake and a lie, and they cannot forgive us for that.
Problems like these are not going to go away. In the short term, it may also be that the Arabs are trying to distract us from bombing Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, or that they feel frustration and anger over the failure of their summer Gaza escapade.
Whatever the reasoning, I believe that if we take the right steps, we can improve the situation greatly. At this moment, we have a lot of reasons to be optimistic. The Arab world is in disarray, weaker than it has ever been in modern times. Our perennial existential enemy Syria is in no position to harm us, and Egypt could almost be said to be on our side. In various countries, the Arabs are killing one another by the thousands. The great Arab wealth of the past is waning. The present American president, whatever his real thoughts may be, is an unpopular lame duck.
I believe that now is the time for us to do three things: First we have to pursue our own interests vis-à-vis the Land of Israel wholeheartedly. We have to show the Arabs that we have returned to the Land of Israel and that we intend to stay. I believe that if we show them this, they will give up their fight.
As far as I am concerned, this includes building freely in Area C of Judea and Samaria. Sure, the British will condemn it, but they condemn us and threaten boycotts and divestment when we build even one house in Jerusalem neighborhoods like French Hill, so what difference does it make? And the condemnations are worthless, too, because despite all the British threats, British import of Israeli products has risen 26 percent during the past year. One sixth of all British medical pills are manufactured by the Israeli Teva pharmaceutical company.
Second, now is the time for Jews to stop blaming one another for this or that action which they believe provokes the Arabs. As Yitzchak Shamir put it 25 years ago, “The Arabs are the same Arabs, and the Sea (i.e., the sea into which the Arabs would like to throw us) is the same sea.” Translation: The Arabs don’t need reasons to murder us.
Third and last, now is the time for Israel to respond more forcefully and intelligently to Arab attacks. Columnist Caroline Glick has recommended that henceforth, if an Arab kills Jews, the government should not destroy his home but, rather, should take that home, and all the Arab’s other property and wealth, and divide it among the Jewish widows and orphans. In addition, Israeli terror victims should be allowed to sue the Palestinian Authority for damages, and the monetary awards should be taken from the tax revenues that Israel collects for the PA. Finally, citizenship and residency rights should be revoked from wives and other relatives of terrorists.
Another columnist recommended closing the Temple Mount to Arabs for 24 hours each time there is another terror fatality.
Our backs are to the Sea, as they always are, and G-d always saves us, but there are things we can do to improve our own fate, and I think the time has come for us to do them.
Raphael Blumberg, the author of a book about Rabbi Boruch Milikowsky, has lived in Kiryat Arba, Israel for 30 years. He translates books there from Hebrew to English, and can be contacted at: rdb1000@actcom.net.il.
