Did you ever write something a while back and read it and realize…wow…yes. That is what I meant. I was looking for something and found this article I’d written back in 2007…I could try to look up what triggered the article, but really, it doesn’t matter. It was called Bowing to the Enemy – but in truth, I would not call Barak Obama an enemy and so, I’ll modify this to Bowing Before Others, because even to Obama, we will not bow.
Bowing Before Others…2013
By: Paula R. Stern
February, 2007 (and today as well)
If we Jews learn only one lesson about our relations with other religions and nations from the Holocaust, it must be that there can be no future for the ghetto Jew. With our backs to the wall and the enemy at the gates, the ghetto was a haven, a place in which our only hope was to survive today. There was no tomorrow in the ghetto, no future beyond the moment.
As a nation, Israel is blessed not only to have survived yesterday, but to be given the opportunity to plan for and even create our tomorrows. Sometimes, a look back is all that is needed to help guide us to that future. We need to remember that those that emerged from the fires of Europe joined together with those who had lived here for generations, and the Jewish community in Palestine grew. After the establishment of Israel in 1948, this growing number was joined by hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries who fled or were forced to leave their homes and possessions.
What is forgotten, too often, is that this massive ingathering strengthened a community of Jews who had managed to survive in an unbroken presence. This is the truth that Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would deny. There never was a time, in all the two thousand years between the Roman conquest and our reestablishing Israel that there wasn’t a Jewish presence here in Israel. There never was a time that Jews throughout the world didn’t turn daily to Israel in prayer and yearning. And, it was those daily prayers as much as the world’s reaction to the Holocaust and as much as the Haganah victories that ensured the rebirth of Israel.
This is something we need to repeat again and again, each time the Arabs propagate their Big Lie that their claim to this land is older, deeper, or more just. If there is a mistruth in the Middle East today, it is about the history of the Palestinian people, not the Jews. It is they who are the newcomers here, they who did not exist a mere century ago. Their roots are shallow, their ties weak, and worst of all, their contributions to this land’s development almost non-existent when held in comparison to what the Jewish people have brought to this land.
We built Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We drained the swamps in the north and established the beautiful city of Haifa. We made the desert bloom and created an internationally known resort in Eilat. We have created, shaped, planted, invested, loved and cherished this land through the millennia – only us. Only Israel, among all the nations of the world, can claim a great number of trees today than a century ago. It was Israel and the Jews who built hospitals with international reputations, where people from around the world come to seek our assistance.
That there is today a Palestinian people is undeniable and that they have rights, as all humans do, is also not something that we as a people can or should deny. But we do not have to let them attempt to birth their nation by denying ours. The ongoing destruction of Jewish facts underground on the Temple Mount is just one example among dozens of the Arab attempt to destroy and deny what is obvious and easily proven. Their goal is to deny our connection to the land but you only have to dig a little bit to uncover it. The ground does not hide, nor does it lie. And so, the Arabs will riot, lest we continue to uncover more proof amidst the digging below the Mughrabi ramp. That is the true reason the Arabs are rioting and protesting. It has nothing to do with the status quo.
Again and again, we allow the Palestinians to publish lies and mistruths and the world believes. When they claimed that we had killed a Palestinian family on a beach in Gaza, the world believed and the Israeli government tripped all over itself until days later it became clear that we were not responsible. When Mohammed al-Dura was murdered by Palestinians during a firefight with Israel (and all circumstances of his death suggest a massive manipulation of the facts), Israel apologized first and only then began an investigation which would show that only through the breaking of most of the laws of physics was it possible that Israelis were responsible.
German and French investigations concurred that Israeli soldiers were not responsible, and still, to this day, there are those who continue to lie about who really killed Mohammed al-Dura. In Jenin, during a military operation that cost the lives of 52 Palestinians (the vast majority armed and engaged in the battle), Palestinians immediately went into high gear to condemn the massacre of as many as 5,000 individuals. The UN condemned, Israel promised to investigate, and months later, quietly, the Palestinians confirmed what Israel had been saying all along. There never was a massacre in Jenin, just a battle between soldiers and armed terrorists hiding, as they often do, in a civilian neighborhood.
Amid a massive and successful propaganda machine, the single message that we must deliver to the Palestinians and to the nations of the world is so very simple. We don’t live in the ghetto anymore.
From 1948 to 1967, Jews were denied the right to pray at the Western Wall and on the Temple Mount. The world was silent to this ethnic and religious discrimination. The Vatican was silent to this religious atrocity. In 1967, Jordan chose to attack Israel in a show of solidarity with Egypt and Syria. In so doing, a third front was opened in the war, and Israel pushed the Jordanian army back beyond the Jordan River and claimed all of Jerusalem.
In a clear victory for the ghetto, the Temple Mount, the single most important and holy site in Judaism, was turned over to the Arabs, leaving us with security control only and opening the door to Arabs once again denying us our right to visit and pray in our holy places.
A few years ago, a ramp beside the Western Wall collapsed during winter rains. It is thought that a previous earthquake and repeated illegal construction by Arabs on the Temple Mount created the weakness that contributed to the collapse of the Rambam Gate (also known as the Mughrabi Gate). This gate was used by Arabs, Jews and tourists to allow access to the Temple Mount.
Realizing the area was unsafe and in danger of further collapse, Israel quickly constructed a temporary ramp to replace the one that had fallen. Now, years later, Israel is acting to build a more permanent structure, and the Arabs are once again rioting. They say we are changing the status quo and, of course, our leaders and the world are quick to believe the lies.
In the last few years, Palestinians have been digging below the Temple Mount, emptying the area known as Solomon’s Stables to create yet another mosque. This is certainly a violation of the status quo the Palestinians are so bemoaning today. After closing the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors, another violation of the status quo, the area was eventually reopened with the stipulation that Jews be allowed to visit, but not pray. A Jew who closes his eyes and silently mumbles a prayer on the Temple Mount will be forcefully and efficiently dragged out of the area, less it insult the sensibilities of the Moslems. This too is a violation of the status quo.
It is they who created the collapse of the Southern Wall – and it is the world and our government that has allowed ongoing illegal digging and destruction of archaeological treasures proving Jewish claims to the Temple Mount.
Insult upon insult has been heaped upon our legitimate claims to the areas. It is the Arabs who build their mosques on top of our holiest sites, as they did in Hebron, in Jerusalem, in Nablus, and in countless other places. Amir Peretz, ever one to bow in the face of international pressure, has once again offered his backside to the world in his latest call to stop construction of the ramp. It is only the latest example of why this government must fall.
Until we rid ourselves of the ghetto mentality, until we show that we are worthy of this land and will do all to protect our right to live and pray in all areas, we are condemned to watch the world believe the lies of the Palestinians. So long as Peretz and Peres and Olmert bow to our enemies in weakness, our holiest places will be desecrated, our cities targeted with rockets and bombs, and our civilians endangered by a weak government and army.
How is it possible, I keep asking myself, that a nation as strong as this one can be lead by such incompetent and weak fools? Sadly, the answer lies in the ghetto mentality that plagues this government and our leaders.
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