Montevideo, May 27, 2024
Mr. Andrés Danza
Búsqueda
I would like to share my personal perspective regarding some ideas circulating on social media, some of which were published last week in the Letters to the Editor section of your prestigious weekly, namely: 1) the Jews in Israel are European colonizers who are usurping Palestinian lands and 2) they are carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
For someone educated in the Western world of the 21st century, whose culture promotes value systems based on rational and logical considerations rather than dogmatic ones, it may seem anachronistic to defend ethical positions based on biblical criteria.
But this is precisely the crux of the matter: the Arab claim, expressed by the Islamic jihad (holy war), is based on religious criteria. According to their religious beliefs “infidels” have no right to live free of Islamic law — Shariah — in any territory that was ever under Islamic rule. They believe that once conquered by them the land belongs to them absolutely. Democracy: zero; “human rights”: zero. Any attempt at countering their claims with Western criteria would be like naming a color as an answer to a mathematical question.
The only logical answer in this case would be one based on their system, i.e. religion. To refute the authority of Muhammad with a declaration by Balfour or the UN would be blasphemous in the eyes of those who base themselves on their understanding of the words of their prophet. This is not the case when one’s response is based on the words of the prophet Moses. The Muslim claiming rights to the Land of Israel will disagree with the Jewish position based on the Bible received through Moses (the prophet “Musa” for them), but it will not be disrespectful to invoke him. It is their language.
One who does not believe in G-d or in His communication through the prophets, will not understand a discussion between two people who do believe, and will have little to contribute to help resolve their conflict. This is not a “human rights” issue. Raising the banner of “protecting the human rights of Gazans” is a conceptual error or worse, it is a nice propaganda wrapper intentionally and cynically designed to disguise the real cause of the conflict — religious intolerance — in order to make it sound familiar to the humanist/“woke” ear and thus gain their support.
Fundamentals
The link between the Land of Israel and the People of Israel stems from the Bible.
We can argue whether G-d exists or not, whether He gave the Decalogue on Mount Sinai or not, but the fact that it is clearly stated in the Torah/Bible that the Land of Canaan will be an eternal inheritance for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the people of Israel, eventually also known as the Jewish people, is indisputable.
Discussions in this regard by those who believe in G-d and the biblical account stem from the belief that G-d changed His mind and replaced the people of Israel with others (them).
Those who believe they have an updated version of the Divine preferences would have to prove their thesis in order to discredit the position of those who maintain the validity of version 1.0, that is, the Bible/Torah/Old Testament. Until they prove that G-d has changed His mind, the status quo of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who 3,336 years ago were freed from Egyptian slavery through Moses and, seven weeks later, gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai, heard the Ten Commandments, remains in force.
It is clear, then, that the Jewish people in the Holy Land are neither invaders nor “European colonizers”; the Jewish people are the only people in existence today that can identify themselves as descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and heirs of their covenant with G-d. Circumcision at eight days is proof of this.
One more point to consider:
Historically, any link between a territory and a people is circumstantial. There is no intrinsic link between any given land and the people inhabiting it. The connection is the result of having been born there or having conquered it from others. The only exception is the Land of Canaan, promised to Abraham by G-d. It was concretely transformed into the Land of Israel when it was conquered by the Israelites, led by Joshua, 3 296 years ago, forty years after the exodus from Egypt. They established themselves there as a sovereign people for more than a millennium.
The Jewish people were exiled from the Land of Israel by the Roman colonizers in 70 C.E. after they destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem. The Arch of Titus, built in Rome to celebrate said conquest and subsequent exile and thus humiliate the exiled Jews, serves today as a faithful and living external witness to that bond. Since then, no nation has ever claimed that land as its own. It was always dominated by conquerors and colonizers. It is as if the conquerors were mere caretakers, making sure that no one would appropriate it as their own until its exiled children returned.
It was the Roman colonizers who invented and superimposed the name “Palestine” on the Land of Israel in an attempt to erase its historical link to the people of Israel. We Jews, on the other hand, have never forgotten or abandoned our connection to it. In addition to an uninterrupted Jewish presence in Israel throughout this time, we have always prayed and longed for the realization of the prophecies of our prophets that promised that the exile was not permanent and that the time will come when we will all return home.
Genocide
Those who attempted and attempt Genocide throughout history were and are precisely the enemies of Israel. Its most recent iteration was perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and continues through those who claim to champion their cause. Torquemada, Stalin, Hitler, the Mufti, Arafat, and Sinwar care about one thing only: wiping out — G-d forbid — the Jew and anything Jewish from the face of the earth. It is as simple as that. It is a goal openly stated by them. They sought and seek to wipe out the Jewish people simply because of who we are, regardless of how we are or what we do.
The Gazans received their independence for the first time in history in 2005. It was not given to them by the Ottomans, the Egyptians nor the UN; it was given to them by the government of Israel in an attempt to achieve peace. The Israeli government took it upon itself to remove every last Jew from Gaza (over 8,000!) before handing it over. Gaza was left Judenrein, while millions of Arabs continue to live in the Land of Israel enjoying full citizenship rights.
Who, then, are the génocidaires?
Conclusion
For now, Israel could not achieve peace through peaceful means. And it is quite obvious why: you cannot achieve peace with someone that is sworn to your destruction and not interested in peaceful coexistence. Israel handed over an urbanized Gaza with a thriving agricultural industry intact and the first thing the Gazans did was to destroy it completely and set about building an infrastructure of terror. For years Gaza was the staging ground and source of thousands of missiles and rockets launched indiscriminately into the civilian population of Israel. The people of Israel suffered the invasion and massacre of October 7, and continue to suffer over one hundred hostages who to this day, 235 days later, are still in captivity, with no news regarding their whereabouts and whether they are alive or dead! Unfortunately, Israel has no choice but to free them by force and ensure the security of its people through military intimidation.
This is not called genocide; it is called self-defense. It is one of the most basic human rights.
With best wishes for peace, I send you my best regards,
Rabbi Eliezer Shemtov
Translation of Letter to the Editor, published in the Búsqueda weekly, Montevideo, Uruguay, May 27, '24
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