Israel’s Hopeless Fight against Terrorism

Recently, we learned that the US government and the Palestinian Authority have resumed their economic talks after a five-year hiatus. According to the State Department, the talks will revolve around infrastructure development, access to US markets, US regulations, free trade, financial issues, renewable energy, and environmental initiatives. In Israel, some people are concerned that the funds will not go to their stated goals but to fund terrorist activities, while others hope that a higher standard of living for Palestinians will reduce their propensity for terrorism. I think that terrorism stems from hatred and the political goals of those who promote it. Therefore, more or less resources will have no effect on its intensity or frequency.

As for Israel, we have only ourselves to blame, since our internal division weakens us and emboldens our enemies. There is only one thing we can do to protect ourselves: solidify our cohesion, social unity, mutual responsibility and solidarity.

Look at Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and all the governments in the Near and Middle East. For them, terrorism is a tool, a means to gain power and further their goals. The Palestinians are pawns to be sacrificed when circumstances make it advantageous. For leaders in the Middle East, terrorism is a legitimate means to pressure rivals and enemies, a way to gain control. It is a dirty business, as is the business of funding it.

As for Israel, we have only ourselves to blame, since our internal division weakens us and emboldens our enemies. There is only one thing we can do to protect ourselves: solidify our cohesion, social unity, mutual responsibility and solidarity.

Instead of worrying pointlessly about what others are doing, we should rekindle the spirit of connectedness among ourselves. Otherwise, our “neighbors” will soon oust us. The social rules of the State of Israel must be those that guided us until the ruin of the Temple: mutual responsibility and solidarity. When Maimonides repeatedly emphasizes in his commentaries on the Mishnah that “All of Israel are friends,” he means it not as a metaphor, but to affirm the basis of our nationhood. Without it, we are strangers who have no place on this land since we are not a nation.

The only law that should apply in the State of Israel is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Since we are still unable to live by it, we should at least strive for it. Our progress toward it will justify our presence here.

The only law that should apply in the State of Israel is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Since we are still unable to live by it, we should at least strive for it. Our progress toward it will justify our presence here.

When we strive for unity and cohesion, we are “a light unto nations.” When we bicker and slander each other, we spread poison and bile throughout the world, for which the world then hates us.

We can make any hostile government or regime behave favorably toward us or the other way around. We do not need to cajole or cajole anyone into accepting us. All we need to do is work on our internal unity. The example we will set will earn us the recognition of the world and make our presence in our country welcome in the eyes of the world.

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Israel’s Most Effective Weapon against Iran

"It seems that the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting it from anywhere," the Tehran Times recently opened its front-page article with a map of targets against Israel covering virtually the entire territory of the country. The headline, "Just one wrong move!". 

Cohesion among us should be of paramount importance. We have no stronger weapon than the power of connection between us. There is no stronger force than a close and cohesive bond between the people, of a positive spirit flowing between us as the result of mutual guarantee. If we can overcome our inner enemies: polarization, division, and rampant selfishness, we will be able to prevent any threat or war. 

The accuracy of the targets has been questioned by Israeli officials, but no one questions Iran's clear intention to wipe out Israel. Therefore, the Israeli people must wake up from their slumber and bring to the forefront the hope that there will be no war, either against the Ayatollahs' regime or against any other hostile factor. The next war could be very difficult and even involve the use of nuclear weapons. 

Even though we are surrounded by the feeling that our armed forces are capable of responding quickly to any attack, from wherever it comes, the situation is nevertheless alarming and we must not remain idle for a moment. No one wants to see pictures of destroyed houses, frightened people or screaming women and children. That is why we need to think seriously about how to prevent what looks like an imminent war. We must be constantly on our guard and vigilant. 

Cohesion among us should be of paramount importance. We have no stronger weapon than the power of connection between us. There is no stronger force than a close and cohesive bond between the people, of a positive spirit flowing between us as the result of mutual guarantee. If we can overcome our inner enemies: polarization, division, and rampant selfishness, we will be able to prevent any threat or war. 

The people of Israel have a supreme power to protect us, but it only works if we awaken it from a heartfelt connection between us. "When there is love, unity and friendship among Israel, no disaster can come upon them," says the Book of Maor VaShemesh (Light and Sun) and dozens of other ancient sources, and "When there is a connection between them and no separation of hearts, they have peace and tranquility ... And all curses and afflictions are thereby removed." 

When I look at the behavior of government officials and read the news, I do not see unity being considered a priority for solving our problems at home and abroad. Even those who are aware of the danger lurking on our doorstep are not taking social, domestic responsibility. 

Our existence, social and political, begins with the question of whether we will be able to raise our heads a little above our bickering bubble. We must realize that we have no other way to save ourselves than to begin to draw closer to one another, despite our natural sense of distance. 

We are given opportunities for correction from above, for a change in our relationship, from estrangement to cohesion. The threat from outside should bring us closer to our heart, but we underestimate the message of unity and are not ready to digest it, or at least to spread it and make everyone aware of its importance. 

We are given opportunities for correction from above, for a change in our relationship, from estrangement to cohesion. The threat from outside should bring us closer to our heart, but we underestimate the message of unity and are not ready to digest it, or at least to spread it and make everyone aware of its importance. 

In times of war I am sure we will unite to be saved, we will be brothers in need. But it is an outward and temporary unity out of desperation and there is no real love in it. "The eyes of the wise man are in his head" (Ecclesiastes 2:14), said King Solomon. So it all begins with our realization of the need to turn over every stone until we reach the noble goal of overcoming our differences. This is the correction we must strive for, to raise the value of the connection between us and make it happen. We, the Jewish people, have an orderly method, inherited from ancient times, waiting for us to apply it for peace and tranquility. 

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An Israel that the World Would Love

Among the many divisions that plague the Israeli society, one of the fiercest is the dispute between those who want to define Israel as a nation state for all its citizens and those who want to define it as the nation state of the Jews. Currently, the chasm between them seems irreconcilable. There is a way to resolve it in a way that benefits both sides and which the world embraces, but to do that, we must revive the original spirit of Judaism.

Over time, Jews often fell from their sublime perception. When they were overcome by competitiveness and hostility, they became divided and weak, and other nations conquered and tortured them. When they restored their unity above oppositeness, they regained their strength and other nations venerated them.

Maimonides writes in Mishneh Torah that in ancient Babylon, Abraham discovered that a single force governs nature, but it divides into the two opposites that we experience as day and night, winter and summer, cold and hot, male and female, and so forth. He also discovered that when you realize that the opposites come from a single source, you see how they complement each other and together create our reality and maintain its balance and harmony.

Abraham told what he had discovered to anyone who took interest in his words. In those days, Babylon was in a social crisis and tensions and violence grew among its people. The book Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer details the conflicts that Abraham observed: “They wished to speak each other’s language” as before, but “they did not know each other’s language. What did they do?” asks the book, “They each took his sword and fought one another to death. Indeed,” concludes the book and describes the inevitable outcome: “half the world died there by the sword.”

When Abraham introduced his idea that differences are inherent in nature and complement one another rather than compete with one another, many people in Babylon took to it and Abraham began to garner followers. Gradually, people from all over Babylon united around him. When he moved out of Babylon and headed for Canaan, still more people joined him along the way.

Isaac and Jacob, continues Maimonides in his description in Mishneh Torah, followed in Abraham’s spiritual footsteps. Under their leadership, the alien individuals became a nation united by the idea that opposites complement rather than compete.

These were the ancestors of the people of Israel. They were individuals who came from countless tribes and nations, cared nothing for each other, had no relation or affinity for one another, but believed in the tenet that opposites complement rather than compete, and this is the secret to nature’s vitality and harmony; this is the secret of life.

Eventually, they were called Jews for two reasons: One was that they settled in Judah, and the other was that the Hebrew word Yehudi [Jew] comes from the word Yechudi [united/unique]. The unity-above-oppositeness that they had attained made them a nation and gave them their strength.

Over time, Jews often fell from their sublime perception. When they were overcome by competitiveness and hostility, they became divided and weak, and other nations conquered and tortured them. When they restored their unity above oppositeness, they regained their strength and other nations venerated them.

Currently, the world hates us because instead of demonstrating how to make opposites complement, we are exporting high tech weaponry and cyberwar software. If we want peace to prevail, we must do it the way we teach Israeli officers to lead: by personal example.

The current State of Israel is rife with division and replete with clashing opposites. There is no Abraham to tell them to unite above their disputes, that opposites complement rather than compete, and that one-sidedness is their worst enemy. But if we want the State of Israel to persist and for the world to appreciate it, we must nevertheless return to our core tenet of complementary opposites.

Currently, the world hates us because instead of demonstrating how to make opposites complement, we are exporting high tech weaponry and cyberwar software. If we want peace to prevail, we must do it the way we teach Israeli officers to lead: by personal example.

Only if we realize that no one will win the argument over defining Israel as a nation state for all its citizens or only for the Jews since we are meant to complement these opposites rather than win the argument, only then will we be able to make peace among ourselves. And as we do so, we will find that the world welcomes our newly found unity and embraces the idea of unity above divisions. If, however, we insist on division, the world will divest from us, boycott us, and sooner rather than later, the country will dissolve.