Yom Ha'atzmaut – Celebration of Hope!
by Steven Shamrak.
Out of the ashes Eretz-Israel began emerging
60 years ago. Jews around the world saw new hope with the commencement of the
realisation of a 2000 year-old dream. Since then Israel, a newly emerged agricultural
country, has become one of the leading technological centres of the world. The
country, which had no real military force at the time of its creation, is being
defended by one of the world’s most advanced army.
Unfortunately, at the same time Jewish
national spirit has being systematically squashed by inept political leaders
who are selling out the Jewish national dream to the enemies. Fear, apathy and
lack of self-respect have again replaced the boldness, enthusiasm and belief in
the new bright future of the Jewish people. The spirit of the Zionist pioneers
is being deliberately discredited and squashed by a corrupt bureaucracy run by
a self-hating political elite both within Israel and in the Diaspora!
Sixty years is a good occasion to celebrate the country’s achievements.
In accordance with the Gematria, Jewish numerology, number 60 symbolises the
word “vessel” or unity. I only hope that this is a sign that from now on Jewish
unity is going to emerge and the Jewish two-millennium dream will be achieved!
Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak
Zionism was
always about re-creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, not to be against
anyone else. The systematic transfer of Muslim Sudanese, Algerians, Kurds, Cherkesians, Turkmenians, Bosnians,
Iranian, Egyptians and Arabs from Syria, the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq to
Palestine by the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain since the creation of the
modern Zionist movement in 1880s was a deliberate attempt of sabotage against
the Jewish National aspiration. Just imagine if the Arabs had won the war in
1948, would any Jew live in Jerusalem, Haifa of Tel-Aviv by now? Those
Jew-hating critics of Israel must take a close look in the mirror. Jews
invented Humanism and, in spite of personal suffering, we live it!
Traitors are Plotting Merger. Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert has said that he does not rule out the possibility of a merger
between his Kadima party and the Labor party. (A Kadima-Labor merger is
considered in a desperate bid to stay in power!)
Return Land to Jewish Owners. The Valero family is asking for the
return of several dunams of land near the Damascus Gate (Shaar Shechem in
Hebrew) of the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem as property of the
inheritors of Aharon Valero. Valero purchased the property prior to the
War of Independence, they say. The property was confiscated by the
Jerusalem municipality decades ago and now includes a promenade, parking lots,
and an Arab market.
Quote of the
Week:
"It was
not the decision by the United Nations that established the State of Israel;
Israel arose in the merit of the Aliyah and the settlement enterprise, and in
the merit of the struggle by the Lechi and Etzel, the Haganaha, and even
HaShomer and Nili. But above all, the State of Israel was established in
the merit of those who continued - the warriors of the Israel Defense Forces,
who repulsed the Arab attack after the declaration of the State." - Binyamin Netanyahu,
leader of Likud party. –Words are cheap! Has he learned his lesson of
the Oslo war? Is he ready to repulse the Arab occupiers from the Jewish land
after winning the next election?
Enemy Create
Artificial Fuel Crises. Terrorists in Gaza fired on Israeli trucks as
they delivered fuel to Gaza last Thursday afternoon. The attack took place at
the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, where terrorists murdered two civilian workers a
week.
Hypocrisy of the ‘Loaded’ Headlines:
“The children of Gaza deserve a childhood..." – Jewish children of
Sderot, who are being shelled daily by rockets from Gaza, do not? Jews left
Gaza, but the rocket attacks have intensified. Our enemies are using their own
children as a human shield and consider their suffering as a part of Jihad and
expected ‘collateral damage’!
Back into the Right State of Mind.
(Emergence
of New Leadership)
60
years of independence of Israel and there is not much to celebrate. Yes Israel
controls more land, but national morale and hopes Jews had attached to the
creation of the Jewish state are being systematically squashed by an inept,
corrupt, self-hating leadership in Israel and the Diaspora. The following is an
extract of an interview Moshe Feiglin (the head of the Jewish Leadership
faction within the Likud party) gave to Frontpage Magazine. It brought some
glimmer of hope. We need to revisit the past inspiration of Zionism in order to
achieve our goals in the future:
Feiglin:
…the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, came to a hospital in Ashkelon. He
came to visit the Jews of Sderot and Ashkelon that had been wounded by the
Qassam, Katyusha, and Grad rockets being fired from Gaza. Do you know what he
told them? He said "get used to it"; just like that, "get used
to it, I don't have a solution". Do you understand the meaning of that?
Just 63 years after the gates of Auschwitz were opened, Jews are supposed to
get used the fact that every once in a while we will get killed just because we
are Jews.
… we
don't have a solution. And this isn't about Olmert personally; the entire state
of Israel doesn't have a solution. Our whole state of mind, our mentality, and
our leadership are void of faith. That's why we have no solution. The problem
is much more than Olmert not giving the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) an order.
…The problem is our mentality. Since
Rabin's handshake, the entire state of Israel marched into a state of mind of
pragmatism and non-spirituality.
The
only way we can solve this problem is not by getting more weapons from the
United States. We don't need more F-15s and F-16s. That is not our problem. What we need is to march back into the right state of mind.
And for that we need leadership. True, authentic leadership based on Jewish values.
…I
say the entire Jewish Nation because whatever happens in Israel immediately
reflects back on all Jews worldwide. When these Jews in Gush Katif were pulled
from their homes, what happened to the level of anti-Semitism worldwide? It
went up of course. Israel did what the world
expected of us and anti-Semitism went up. When we defied the world
and did what we had to do in 1967, the level of anti-Semitism dropped. Suddenly
every Jew on the streets of Toronto and New York was proud to be a Jew.
How did
we achieve this true peace there? Rule number one:
the Syrian Arabs that were there were evacuated. None stayed. So the first rule
is, encourage the Arabs to leave. The second
thing that was done was the land was taken over. After the war in 1967, we took
the land over. The third rule is to annex the
land. In the Golan Heights we annexed the land and put it under full Israeli
sovereignty. The fourth rule is to flourish the
land with as many Jewish villages as possible. And the
fifth and most important rule is to never sign a peace treaty. We have
not signed any peace deals with respect to the Golan Heights and look what we
have - true peace. A real, true peace exists there, something that doesn't
exist anywhere else in the country. Our border with Egypt is very dangerous
even though we have a peace deal signed with them. To this day, Egypt fights
against us via that border. And we can't do anything because our hands are tied
because of the peace deal we signed.
Any solution that leaves the Arabs in their place will not work, period. Fortunately, one good thing did come out of
Rabin's handshake - 15 years under the PLO/Hamas regime have made the Arabs
want to leave. Various polls have showed this, the majority wants to leave.
…every year Israel spends 10% of our entire national income
on the concept of Oslo. That is $150 billion every decade spent
building fences, destroying Jewish villages, and putting guards in front of
every coffee shop and store. Before Oslo, Israel didn't need to have an armed
guard in uniform in front of every store. That is 60,000 people on full payroll
just guarding us from the effects of Oslo. That money is enough to give every
Arab family in Yesha (the West Bank and Gaza) $250,000.
America
did not want Israel to go and fight the Six-Day War. America did not want
Israel to go and bomb the nuclear reactor in Iraq. And there are many more
examples like that. I respect the United States a lot, but I expect that kind
of respect back and I believe I will get it. People
who respect themselves, get the kind of respect they deserve from others. I will not let anyone tell me what is in my best interests.
I am going to worry about Israel first, but I do believe that, at
the end of the day, my policies are in the interests of the United States as well.
First
of all, we have to stop this game of being attacked by sub-contractors. Egypt
is fighting us through Gaza. It attacks us daily. There is no doubt about it,
there is a war going on between Egypt and Israel today. It is just being fought
through a sub-contractor. Syria and Iran are fighting us through Hezbollah in
Lebanon. And we are playing their game, instead of making them pay a price for
what they are doing. We have to break this cycle and make them pay a serious
price.
We
gave up the Sinai for peace and now they are using it against us. …a strong Israel can achieve peaceful borders. Notice I
didn't say "peace". "Peace" is something totally different.
But we can achieve peaceful borders; a situation where people are
not getting killed. A weak Israel can only achieve peace agreements. But those
agreements come with a lot of bloodshed. Therefore, we should radiate strength.
We have shown in the past that we can do that.