Every land is owned by those who acquired it. When a land is conquered, no one questions to whom the land belongs to. What was the last time someone seriously proposed that California belongs to Mexico? If California belongs to Mexico, then we must factor in the fact that the Spanish who established the country of Mexico took the land from the indigenous people. And the indigenous people fought one another, scalped one another, enslaved one another in order to take over each other’s territories. Each land throughout history has been acquired by means of war, purchase, or settlement. No one questions that.
Israel, however, doesn’t receive the same free pass, and for good reason. It doesn’t matter who conquered the land of Israel, the land was given to the nation of Israel by Hashem. And He promised us that when we are in exile, no one will be able to benefit from our land; Hashem kept His promise. After being exiled for two thousand years, every nation failed miserably at making anything out of our land. It was barren and desolate, until we returned, Baruch Hashem. Our claim to the land is not the San Remo conference, not the Balfour declaration, and not the U.N. partition plan. In the paraphrased words of the Lehi underground resistance leader, Israel Eldad, Jews dancing and celebrating on the day that the U.N. passed the partition plan can be likened to the dancing around the golden calf, the golden calf being the U.N. As long as we hold these historical events as our claim, we have not truly learned the value of the eternal possession Hashem gives us and expects us to inherit…in its entirety with no compromises.
Israel is different, which is why the world’s response towards it is different. Israel does not simply belong to the one who took control of it. The nations abhor the fact that the land of Israel cannot belong to anyone else but the Jewish people (even if they do not consciously realize it). That is all fine and well. However, what they abhor even more is when the Jewish people act weak and do not take full possession of the land given to us by Hashem. Why? Because Hashem cannot stand it! The nations prey on our inability to take ownership of what is ours. This is the reason for all the wars. We are not faithful enough to take control over all of Israel as Hashem gave to us; so the nations harass us.
We prayed for this land every single day for two thousand years. A Jew living in Russia and a Jew living in Yemen both knew that they were related to one another through Avraham, Itzhak, and Yakov, and they both knew that they would return to the same land that their common ancestors once dwelled in. If you take anyone, say a Native American and you send them to Europe, two hundred years later their descendants won’t even know they have Native American blood (unless of course they run for office and need to play the multi-cultural identity card). Here we have a nation that was dispersed all over the world; not for two hundred years, but nearly two thousand years. We could have become Russian, Polish, Moroccan, Yemenite. We could have forgotten our land and our Torah, G-D forbid. And yet, with a miracle from Hashem, we survived as a nation. What’s even more miraculous is that we came back to the land that Hashem gave us, the same land we dwelled in two thousand year ago.
This is all to say that there is a destiny to the Jewish people. To ignore it is to be more religious than the most religious person. Prophecy is unfolding before our eyes; we are living out Hashem’s miraculous promise.
Here, however, we come to a dilemma. We have a people, the Arabs, who are in our land. The question is, how are we to deal with this population? I do not believe in giving away land given to me by Hashem. I do not expect an Arab to want to give up land that they believe is theirs; it would take a very enlightened Arab to do such a thing. In Islamic law, once an Arab army conquers a land, it becomes theirs forever; it’s not illogical per se, it’s just that they are wrong about that when it comes to the land of Israel.
In Jewish law, a non-Jew can reside in the land of Israel if they follow the seven Noahide laws, one of which is to recognize the G-D of Israel as the One true G-D. To recognize the G-D of Israel is to recognize that He gave the land of Israel to the people of Israel. The Arabs do not, and so there is war and conflict. In Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and War, there is a category of war known as Milhemet Mitzvah, obligatory war. This war applies to three different groups of people: Amalek, the seven Canaanite nations, and nations who seek to destroy the Jewish people. An average Arab would prefer not to see Israel and the Jewish people on what they consider “their” land. As long as we live side by side with them, they will continue to see us colonizers; you cannot convince them otherwise. If there is a war between Israel and hamas (G-D forbid) an Arab will side with hamas, not because they love hamas, but because they want to see us out of what they call “their land”. That is the nature of war. And we saw this clearly in the most recent conflict. The Arabs attacked Jews all throughout Israel. In Lod, in Bat Yam, everywhere! There were not “terrorists” from Gaza, these were “normal” Arabs who smiled at Jews, worked with us, lived side by side with us for years. You would think that with the cushy lives they have thanks to the opportunities in Israel, they would not rise against our people. But they did. They rose, because unlike us, they are not stupid. They know this is a conflict where there are two sides. They want land that they think is theirs, and they are not afraid to do everything it takes in order to fight us, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks.
This is all to say that the Arabs fall under the third category of people when it comes to a Milhemet Mitzvah. They are a population that wants to see the Jewish people out, and if there is a war, they will side against us. Not just the terrorists, but the average Arab. Yes, there will always be a Rahab among the Arabs like in the story of Yehoshua. And just as Rahab, they should be granted proper treatment as the example set by Yehoshua in his time (Rahab – Jewish History (chabad.org)). But the population must be fought. They have proven long ago that they desire our destruction. There are no more chances to be given. Chances for what? Chances to see if they launch thousands of rockets, chances to see if they will riot in our cities, chances to see if a woman or teenager attack our soldiers at a bus stop, chances to see if they will fight against the terrorists that they elected? The Arab “civilian” population is the least innocent civilian population there is. They are brainwashed to hate us. Women and children would pick up a gun or knife to kill an Israeli civilian or solider alike, G-D forbid. And if they die, they would be pronounced a shahid, a martyr; such is their culture and tradition. It is one nation fighting another. I cannot expect the Arabs to side with us in a war against their own brothers.
Thus, Milhemet Mitzvah calls for an all out war. The wars that Israel fights today are immoral. When you allow your enemy to live so that they can fire thousands of rockets at you as soon as they rearm themselves, that is immoral. Israel is trying so hard to please the west’s sensibilities that they cannot protect their own citizens who are being terrorized year after year after year. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH. It is wrong to put one’s own people under fire for the sake of pleasing the nations who wouldn’t mind seeing your destruction (most western countries). When there is a war, you must finish business. If you are kind to the evil, your enemy, you will be evil to the kind, your own people. Anything less than a full war is immoral; you allow the conflict to continue, and more lives to be lost G-D forbid.
For this reason, as everyone was celebrating the passing of American funding for the Iron Dome, I shook my head. But my reasons are different than the reasons of the anti-Semitic, evil politician AOC. She cried because she didn’t want to see Israel defend itself against thousands of rockets launched by even more evil Arabs living in Gaza.
For different reasons, I do not want to see Israel play mere defense. I want to see Israel complete its G-D given mission: “You shall clear out the Land and settle in it, for I have given you the Land to occupy it… But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle.” (Bamidbar 33:53-55). The Iron Dome is a tool of defense, it’s a band aid. As the Arabs send thousands of rockets, Israel taxes its people to put a band aid on a problem that needs surgery.
The Iron Dome may stop rockets, but it does nothing to stop our bloodthirsty enemies. A full out war will. In a shootout, a bulletproof vest is a nice back up, but not the solution. If someone is shooting at another person, and the other person has a firearm to respond, you better believe they will not puff out their bulletproof chest to protect themselves; they will shoot back. Israel has the resource necessary to fight its wars: G-D! We cannot proclaim our faith in Hashem, and then wonder what will become of us if the U.S. does not send us money. We have survived this long thanks to Hashem, through all our trials and tribulations. And we will continue, with G-D’s help. We are reliving prophecy, exactly as Hashem explained to our prophets 2500 year ago. Let us have some faith! If we would stop trying to fund all this defensive technology and engage in this war as a proper war, as a Milhemet Mitzvah, we would quickly see Hashem’s hand clearly fighting our wars for us. So, I shake my head as Israelis and Jews all over cheer about the Iron Dome. Let me be clear. I appreciate those who voted to pass the bill because it shows where they stand in their support for Israel. But I am disappointed with the Jews who care more about this bill being passed than about Israel doing what they are supposed to do. The dollar is the new golden calf, we must put our trust in Hashem.
We cannot even begin to bring justice and peace until the nation of Israel takes control of its possession given to us by Hashem, the Creator of the Universe. We must have more faith in Hashem than in the opinion of the western world. We must have more fear of upsetting Hashem, that we are not inheriting the land of Israel in its entirety, than upsetting the sensibilities of the ignorant western countries. It is time to settle the land and settle the score with the our enemies. I pray that it comes quickly and easily. Hashem cannot stand spilled Jewish blood, He cannot stand His land to be defiled by those who deny His purpose for His chosen nation. Let us pray for real peace to come speedily in our days Bezrat Hashem where we see true Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel, with the Torah as the law of the land, and with the Jewish people crowning Hashem as king with the coming of Mashiach.
The Singing Soul 