One of the greatest generals and kings we ever had was Dovid. Yet he learned
the hard way never to trust those who claimed to be his friends. When Dovid ran
away from King Shaul with his entire family and took refuge with the king of Moab,
he found on his return that they had killed out his entire family, except for one of his
brothers who fled just in time.
Yet, today we still make the same mistake! We still trust those who have never
spoken the truth in hope that this time they can be trusted. We still sign peace
agreements that are broken before the ink has dried. We still allow ourselves to be
fooled by those who have already fooled us more than a hundred times. The UN
and US endorsement of a Palestinian State only proves that terrorism against Israel
pays!
When Iraq sent its missiles and attacked Israel without any provocation, Israel
HAGADAH SHEL PESACH
82
was pressured into remaining silent and not responding. When Israel destroyed Iraq’s
nuclear reactor that was preparing atomic weapons to be used against Israel, the UN
condemned Israel for its pre-emptive strike.
By now even the deaf and blind should realize that the calls for peace are
meaningless and only allow our enemies time to regroup and renew their arsenals.
They have absolutely no intention of making a peace agreement with Israel until they
have pushed us into the sea. The only land that they will allow Israel to retain is the
bottom of the Dead Sea! All hopes that a Palestinian State will solve the problem are
purely a hallucination. All it will do is serve them with a legitimate site to hide their
nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction from which to launch their
continued war against Israel. Allowing a Palestinian state within Israel is no different
than the US allowing Cuba to have nuclear weapons only for self-defense.
As the Israelis go into the Palestinian refugee camps and towns which have
become terrorist sanctuaries and destroy their bomb-making factories and find the
tunnels through which they smuggle in their weapons, capturing some of their suicide
bombers, they are being condemned by the UN for their act of self-defense. Perhaps
when these same terrorists try to blow up the UN building, the world will realize
whom they are dealing with. The world knows what the US did when the Twin
Towers were destroyed by terrorists. It refused to even negotiate with bin Laden and
his terrorists. Yet they expect Israel to negotiate with yerrorists who makes a mockery
of every peace pact they have ever signed. “Do as they do and not as they say” is a
common piece of advice that Israel should heed. Let’s remember that negotiating a
pact with a suicide bomber is in itself suicide!
And so when the American President, who is a friend of Israel makes a statement
saying “I certainly hope that Prime Minister Sharon is concerned about the loss of
innocent life. We certainly – I certainly am. It breaks my heart, and I know it breaks
the heart of a lot of people around the world to see young children lose their life as
a result of violence,” one wonders exactly what the President is alluding to. Does he
in anyway believe that Sharon is less sensitive to the killing of innocent children than
he is?
Is he trying to imply that by Israel targeting Palestinian terrorists hiding in their
villages and thereby killing some innocent children that the Palestinians intentionally
place in the line of fire, Sharon is not concerned with the killing of innocent
children?
הגדה של פסח
83
M a n y
American Jews
where quite
shocked and
surprised on
hearing certain
s t a t e m e n t s
made by their
pro- Israel
friend, former
P r e s i d e n t
Nixon, on his
tapes. They
simply couldn’t
believe what he
had said!
Why is Israel
being held to standards different than the rest of the world? Does President Bush
have a better solution to stop the violence? Israel is the only democracy in the region
surrounded on all sides by dictatorships. Why is Israel being condemned for reacting
in the identical way that the US has responded in Afghanistan and Iraq? Military
attacks in Afghanistan have resulted in far greater civilian casualties than in the
West Bank. While Israel’s action was described as “not helpful” by the US, one can
only describe the UN’s vilification of Israel as encouraging terrorism. Such blatant
hypocrisy isn’t new at the UN, which once equated Zionism with racism.
While one would need a prophet to know what’s happening in the Oval Office,
our Sages tell us that “Chacham odif mi’novi” – that a wise man is even greater than
a prophet. We may not have any tapes of Clinton and therefore we may never find
out what his personal views may be, yet, if we just open our ears and listen to what
he said and learn to read between the lines, we will surely know his true intentions
and discover who our true friends are! (Note: His recent book has revealed his true
beliefs.) Our only glimmer of hope is our trust and faith that ultimately Hashem.
מידם מצילנו הוא ברוך והקדוש will surely come to our rescue –