RaP's editorial: The Current Situation in Israel

Guest post by RaP

The Current Situation in Israel:

Why Hamas will lose, and the Jews will win!

It's the Three Weeks and Israel is officially at war. As Shlomo HaMelech says in Koheles, there is a time for peace and a time for war! Perhaps that it has come to war is in itself a sign of the Three Weeks. But this is an unusual situation in Jewish history. The customary perception from a Torah point of view shaped by 2,000 years of Jewish life OUTSIDE of Israel, is not serving as a useful looking glass for what is actually going on INSIDE of Israel today.

Now, in our times, the majority of the world's Jews live in Israel. Israel is the Torah center of the world! It is obviously precious in the eyes of Hashem. Israel is now one of the strongest countries not just in the Middle East but in the world, especially in an Age of Technology that equalizes nations in the Digital Age. Israel is a foremost center of technological innovation and its people and army make full use of that, as one can see in the way the Iron Dome system has created a literal "Star Wars" defensive shield for Israel's people and cities. Truly amazing. Baruch HaShem! The British did not have such a merit when Nazi Germany blitzed them with V-1 and V-2 rockets trying to terrorize the British people and beat them into submission, a strategy adopted directly by the evil brains that drive Hamas in their rocket attacks against the Jews of Israel.

Another great paradox of Jewish history is that while in some way all of Israel is "besieged" by its Arab and Islamic enemies, as in the days of old when the Babylonians and Romans laid siege to ancient Judah and Jerusalem, however the modern-day Jews in Israel successfully hold them at bay and have now unleashed the force of their own army against Hamas to reconquer Gaza yet again.

Indeed these are scary and frightening days, echoes of real Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) that now also loom, when Jews turn their eyes to and beseech HaKadosh Baruch Hu for the safety of the Jews in Israel, victory and peace, yet something quite obviously different is taking shape in front of our eyes...the Jews will no longer "turn the other cheek" as the meek victims of a 2,000 year old exile, but will react and lead the way against any arrogant enemy.

Torah Jewry in Israel is as Israeli as anyone else is. They also do not "turn the other cheek" to the threats from the secular elements in Israel. In fact, now that that monkey is off their backs for the time being (it may well be the plan -- and punishment -- of Hashem to redirect the attention of the haters of Torah to deal with their own real Arab tormenters and leave the Haredim alone!) as Israel and its army (previously chasing Torah-observant Haredim, now they have to hunt Hamas for real -- THANK YOU HASHEM!!!) as they turn to deal with the Arabs in Gaza and Torah Jewry can get a reprieve and get on with the job of growth in Torah as the greatest zechus (merit) for Israel and all Jews, a spiritual "iron dome" in Hebrew "kippat habarzel" that is actually the "kippat haTorah" and unifying all of it "kippat HaShem" that protects His people!

Hamas's leadership has made a fatal miscalculation. In the olden days of the former USSR they used to think in terms of a "correlation of forces" that if "on balance" there was an opportunity to win, then they went for the kill. This time Hamas's unbridled killer instincts are backfiring on them badly. They have miscalculated. The cold-blooded ruthless uncalled for murder of the three teens unified Israel and unleashed a deep anger that none wanted to be the next family to suffer like the families of three martyrs. The Israeli people came together and for once even the Haredi parts of society prayed as hard and as bitterly for the teens return and then mourned their death. It reached all Jews everywhere in a very deep way and not just in Israel. It was the ultimate "trigger" that launched the Jews' "righteous fight" pushing back against the arrogant Arab onslaught from Gaza. The Gazans dig "attack tunnels" like rats digging for swiss cheese and gold-diggers hunting for "el Dorado" but only their aim is to kill Jews and hurt Israel. That is their perverted "black light at the end of their tunnel". Habo bamachteres (a robber coming through a tunnel) is so dangerous he deserves death according to the Talmud. Some "gold-diggers"! More like gravediggers, and the world media "glorifies" this as if it was something "normal" -- what can one expect from a weirdo crazy media driven by "reality TV" and other such meshugasen! Ignore them, they also have no credibility.

But Israel was still patient, while Hamas unleashed its wave of rocket attacks. Now many of the leaders of Hamas and the Palestinians are issuing a call for the Arabs and the world to "rise up" against the Jews, but all in vain. While immersed in their own fanatical Islamist ideology they have not noticed that the world around has changed radically in the last few years. Iraq and Syria do not exist as nations anymore. They have been sliced up by invasions and civil wars. Egypt's army overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood and put its leaders in jail. Egypt is now a de facto ally of Israel and wants to be rid of the Islamic fundamentalists occupying Gaza. The Jordanians will never dare do anything against Israel. Both Egypt and Jordan have "peace treaties" with Israel that are holding out. In Lebanon it is quiet for now, Hezbola already had its war with Israel and Iran is very far away. Libya's Gadafi after provoking a lifetime of troublemaking and spending on terror is now long gone. The new so-called "ISIS" with its so-called Caliphate Sunni movement is now a perfect foil and counterbalance to the Shiite Iranians who hate them. The Sunni and Shia are killing each other by the tens of thousands! The Gulf States that give Hamas support have no armies and have nothing but oil, same for Saudi Arabia, they are out to preserve the anachronistic monarchical House of Saud, period. The UN is a silly caricature of an organization that none takes seriously. Europe is broke, Germany has been too busy bailing out (read: corporate take over) the "PIIGS" countries ("Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain" -- all impotent and dead broke due to overspending and corruption). Hundreds of thousands of Arabs butcher each other to death in Iraq and Syria, Russia invades Ukraine and they kill each other without mercy, and the UN yawns! Israel decides to wake up and protect its citizens like a "normal" country should and must and the UN jolts up like a drunk from his terminal hangover. It's all a joke to them! Like a toothless weak old dog!

The leading European and Western powers Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States have all basically expressed support for Israel's strong actions against the Gaza Islamist terrorists who if they had their way would launch terror and mayhem as they have all over Europe and in the US on 9/11 and frankly everyone is sick and tired of them and their antics and the dangers they pose. They are about to be defanged and they will have no choice in the procedure. There may be demonstrations on the streets by Arabs but that is not worth a heap of beans because they bullies and are like the boy who cried wolf one time too many. They cannot blow up people and buildings in the West and then expect to be heard when they are taught a lesson in kind. Like the kid who killed his parents and asks the judge for mercy because he is an "orphan"! What goes around comes around they say.

So coming back to the Three Weeks. While it is historically a very dangerous time for the Jewish people, yet in OUR times it is paradoxically a time of great opportunity because the wheels of history, the great Hashgocha guiding the world, is moving the Jewish people into position to build up the land even more, a huge kibbutz galuyos (ingathering of the exiles) in preparation for the imminent coming of Mashiach as all the rabbonim are saying now more than ever, the defeat of Amalek (the Chazal say that any nation that is the prime persecutor of the Jews is the 'Amalek' of that time, "am" plus "lak" = "the nation that 'hits' the Jewish people" = now it's Hamas and its supporters) and the inevitable building of the Third Bais HaMikdosh on the Har HaBayis, bimeheira beyameinu, Amen!

And thus, as the Oral Torah teaches, Tisha Be'Av will no longer be a day of mourning for the past but will be turned into a day of joy and celebration for the present and the future! Venahafoch hu, it will be turned around from a day of terror to a day of rejoicing over the defeat of the enemies of the Jews and the inevitable ultimate victory of Torah over all forms of darkness.