My new article on Linkedin “The Ceasefire Doesn’t Cease the Fighting”

As soon as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, politicians, pundits, and a plethora of regular folk took to social media platforms, news media, and just about anywhere they could write or speak, to express their opinions on the timing of the ceasefire and the achievements of Operation Guardian of the Walls. But whether people are happy with the results or not, one thing is clear: Nothing is over. It will also never be over until we decide to stop fighting amongst ourselves.

We established our nationhood only after we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart.” Since then, the success or failure of our people has depended on our unity. When we fight against each other, we bring upon us enemies who destroy us. When we unite, we are untouchable.

The composition Masechet Derech Eretz Zuta, for example, written at approximately the same time as the Talmud, states the following: “Even when Israel worship idols and there is peace among them, the Lord says, ‘I have no wish to harm them.’ …But if they are disputed, what is it that is said about them? ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt.’”

The book Shem MiShmuel states even more explicitly that “when unity restores Israel as before, Satan will have no place in which to place error and external forces. When they are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.”

But our vocation is not only to unite, but to set an example of unity for all the nations. This is why whenever we quarrel among ourselves, even if only verbally, the nations punish us. The Talmud (Yoma 9b) explains that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel and destroyed the First Temple because the people of Israel spoke to one another “with daggers in their tongues.” But when the people of Israel display unity, everyone wants to learn from them how to unite. The book Sifrey Devarim writes that in the days of the Second Temple, during the three festive pilgrimages, gentiles would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

To this day, people want to learn from the Jews how to unite. Interestingly, it is often rabid antisemites who wish it the most, and express anger at the Jews precisely for not setting a good example from which they could learn. Vasily Shulgin, for example, a senior member of the Duma, the Russian Parliament, before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, dedicated almost his entire compilation, What We Don’t Like About Them, to disparaging the Jews. However, he also details what he and everyone else would do if Jews were to change their selfish ways and rise to the level they once possessed: “Let them … rise to the height to which they apparently climbed [in antiquity] … and immediately, all nations will rush to their feet. They will rush not by virtue of compulsion … but by free will, joyful in spirit, grateful and loving, including the Russians! We ourselves will request, ‘Give us Jewish rule, wise, benevolent, leading us to the Good.’ And every day we will offer the prayers for them, for the Jews: ‘Bless our guides and our teachers, who lead us to the recognition of Your goodness.’”

Therefore, if we want to defeat Hamas, we must first defeat the hatred we feel for one another. If we do this, we will discover that Hamas is no longer our enemy, nor is anyone else. And if we cannot believe this simple message, it is a sign that our hate-filled hearts are blinding us to the truth that hatred of each other is our worst, and only enemy.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Daggers in Our Tongues Are Killing Us”

We shouldn’t be surprised that while we are approaching the conclusion of Operation Guardian of the Walls in the south, a new front is gradually being opened in the north. We may not like it, and Hezbollah and Hamas are indeed terrorist organizations, but the whole world stands behind them. They enjoy the nations’ support not because they are fighting for the Palestinians, but because they are fighting against Israel, which the whole world hates. We can change how the world feels about us, but to do that, we must change how we feel about each other.

Whenever we hate each other, we summon enemies against us. This has always been the case with the people of Israel. When the Talmud describes the reasons that caused the downfall of the First Temple, for example, it writes that the Jews would “eat and drink with one another,” but they were so spiteful that they would “stab each other with the daggers in their tongues” (Yoma 9b).

If you go on any social media platform in Hebrew, any news outlet, or read any newspaper, you will find just that: daggers in people’s tongues, freely stabbing their dissenters for the “crime” of disputing them. Since we are repeating the conduct of the past, we are bringing on ourselves the cataclysms of the past.

However, things don’t have to be this way. The opposite trajectory works just as well: When we care for one another, we win the favor of the world. Describing how the nations felt about Jews while they were united, around the end of the 3rd century BCE, the book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354) elaborates on the three pilgrimages, which were festive marches to Jerusalem to celebrate and congregate three times a year. According to the book, gentiles would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Even infamous antisemites, such as Henry Ford, lamented that the Jews no longer set an example of a role model society, from which they would like to learn, if they only had the right example. In his virulent composition, The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem, Ford asserts, “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems on paper, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

There is a clear synchrony between the way we relate to one another and the way the nations relate to us. Currently, we could not relate to one another worse. Accordingly, the nations cannot stand us and side with our enemies, however immoral they themselves may be.

If we want peace, we must make peace with one another. If we want the love of the world, we must love one another. This has always been the case with the Jewish people, and until we accept it and change our relation to each other, missiles will continue to rain down on our people.

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My new article on Linkedin “Why Connection Matters”

In March 2009, in the wake of the Great Recession financial crisis, economist Mark Vitner offered the Associated Press a tactile description of humanity’s inescapable interconnectedness: “It’s like trying to unscramble scrambled eggs. It just can’t be done that easily. I don’t know if it can be done at all.”

Today, when we look at the world around us, we realize that everything is even more connected than in 2009. You cannot manufacture anything, from a pencil to an airplane, without including products from half the countries in the world. And for those among us who still weren’t convinced that this is so, the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated that infection anywhere is infection everywhere.

However, just as we are all connected, so we are all alienated, suspicious, and hateful of each other. In other words, we are inescapably connected, as Vitner pointed out, but we hate each other. The result of these unwelcome ties is endless friction, violence, and aggression to the point where our civilization is tearing at the seams. It is impossible to force people on each other if they do not want to be together. And today, the reality of our lives forces people to rely on foreign countries that are often their enemies, and tensions around the world are flaring.

Since we cannot “unscramble” the “scrambled eggs” that human society has become, our only other option is to learn to like one another. At the very least, we have to come to tolerate one another, agree to each other’s existence. Otherwise, we will fight each other to the death, and no one will win.

The solution to the deteriorating state of humanity is therefore to nurture in us affection for each other and understanding of our mutual importance. For humanity to survive, we have to shift from a technical connection to an emotional connection, to appreciating the very idea of connection. Otherwise, we will not be able to embrace the idea that we are all connected.

That is, we needn’t work on increasing our connection; we have plenty of this already. Instead, we need to work on increasing our desire to connect! We need to come to recognize the huge benefits of connection.

In fact, the term “connection” may sound a bit obscure. But if you think of connection as affinity, affection, and even love, the task before us becomes clearer. Now we can realize how far we are from it, how much work we have to do, and why it is so vital that we succeed in building warm and positive connections. Currently, we are like sworn enemies being forced to share a room. Can anything good come out of it? It is no wonder we are sitting on a time bomb.

The only way to disarm the bomb is to disintegrate the gunpowder—the hatred. The mixture is there; we can’t “unmix” ourselves, but we can and must teach ourselves to see each other’s beauty and contribution to society. If we understand how much each of us contributes, and why it is necessary that we should all be different, since what one contributes, none other can, we will welcome the changes between us, appreciate them, and be grateful to those who are different from us, precisely for being different from us!

When a mother loves her child, we needn’t ask if she is connected to her child; it is a given. This, eventually, is how we must come to be. It will not happen overnight, but it is enough that we begin to work on it to prevent the looming cataclysm that is headed toward humanity.
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My new article on Linkedin “(Our Women) Guardian of the Walls”

On the frontline fighting terrorists, on the streets facing rioters with guns and Molotov cocktails, and in the bomb shelters with our children, women are the inadvertent guardians of the walls. They are anxious about their children and their husbands; they cringe at the sound of sirens as they search frantically for their children. They know they have seconds before the rockets land. Our guardians’ hearts are breaking over our house, which is set aflame by hatred.

Women, mature and caring, are far more responsible than men. They should lead the call for reason. They should not keep silent at this time. If they only realized their paramount significance to society, and on what our future depends, they would not rest until they made us, men, reroute and take the right track forward.

The fate of our country and the fate of the world depend on good connections within the people of Israel, and only on that. The ancient Hebrews formed a unique nation with a unique role in the human mosaic. It was founded by people from all the nations that existed in the ancient world, who joined together to create a united nation based on love of others and mutual responsibility. The people of Israel established the first working model of a small-scale world peace. It was shaped as a sample for how full-scale world peace would unfold.

But the people of Israel fell out of love with one another and succumbed to the hatred that percolated from their untamed hearts. They stopped being a role model nation and forgot their duty to humanity. Now, who, better than women, can restore these connections and reestablish the unity? Who, better than women, knows the value of mutual responsibility and love of others?

Because our ancient root comprises all the nations, every step we, Jews, make toward each other brings the whole world closer. Every time we rise above differences between Right and Left, Orthodox and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, we “disarm” hatred everywhere, and the world recognizes our contribution and responds favorably toward the people of Israel and the State of Israel.

Conversely, every time we sink into hatred and division, the world, too, sinks into conflict, and senses that it’s coming from the Jews and from the Jewish state. This is why the world is always examining the State of Israel and always judges it.

Because of it, our women, who know the value of unity, can help us rise above our differences, unite our society, and in the process, unite the world. They do not need pretentious headlines or overbearing politicians to lead them; they need to treat our society the way only they know how: like loving mothers.

I sincerely hope that our women will not succumb to propagandists and lobbyists, that they will not be influenced by inciting discourse in the Israeli society, but rather show us, men, how to bring peace and security to our country and to the world: through unity above differences.
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My new article on Linkedin “Britain’s Jews Have Nowhere to Turn But to Each Other”

Since the beginning of the current campaign between Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Israel, there has been an alarming spike in hostilities against Jews. According to The New York Times, the Community Security Trust, which records antisemitic threats, saw a “490 percent increase” in antisemitic incidents from the previous seven days. The trust also said “it believed that many more attacks had gone unreported.” The attacks are not only growing more frequent, but also more brazen and violent, and the media coverage of them is, as always, biased or partial or nonexistent.

Regrettably, I don’t think there is much that UK Jews can do about it. As always, when Jews, or the State of Israel, are involved in a conflict, it galvanizes antisemites into action. As a result, the increase in antisemitic aggression is visible the world over, and not only in the UK.

For this reason, I don’t think that the UK Jews have anywhere to go. Israel might have been a safer place before, but I’m not sure this is still the case. It might become, in its own way, as unsafe as London or Brooklyn or anywhere else. In fact, the very places where Jews felt the safest have become the most unsafe places for Jews.

We are approaching a situation where people all over the world will tell Jews, “Who are you? You are not a nation, and therefore, you have no place. You conquered the land of Canaan, which belonged to seven other nations, and you think it belongs to you? Subsequently, you were driven out, and you yourselves fled from here, and now you want to return to that land?”

If we look into it, we will see that wherever there are Jews, there are problems. We are hated, rejected, and it will reach a point where we will not have one safe place for Jews. If we look even deeper, we will realize the reason for it, and then we will understand that in the current state of the people of Israel, we have nothing to look for on Earth. No one likes us; no one wants us, everyone hates us; and everyone rejects us.

In light of all this, the best, and only thing that Britain’s Jews should do is turn to one another. The unity of Jews has always been our shield against oppressors, aggressors, and other evildoers. Now, too, it is their only hope.

This, by the way, is true not only of UK Jews, but of all Jews wherever they are. In fact, our unity would be most effective if we weren’t forced into it by antisemites. If we opted for unity rather than our customary enmity toward each other, our haters would stop hating us. We wouldn’t have to apologize for being; our unity would project warmth and power, and its radiance would draw all the nations toward us, not in hostility, but in friendship.

Currently, the nations are becoming increasingly belligerent toward each other, and one way or the other, they blame it on the Jews. For our part, we do very little to show that they are wrong. On the contrary, we exude so much self-hatred that no one wants to associate with us. Therefore, the world will not change its attitude toward us until we change it toward each other. Our only hope lies in our unity—in times of war, as in times of peace.

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My new article on Linkedin “Shavuot: Light in the Midst of Chaos”

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the celebration for the giving of the Torah, has a special meaning this year. While Israeli society is under missile attacks, there is no festive atmosphere. It is a time to make a seminal decision about the people we want to be and how we want to face the future: in division and quarrels or to become guarantors for each other, to look at our actions through the world’s lens or through a deep introspection of our role as a people that received at the foot of Mount Sinai.

The Austrian Chancellor hoisted the Israeli flag on the roof of his office as a sign of solidarity with Israel. The Czech President tweeted a picture of his country’s flag next to the Israeli flag with a heart. Slovenia, Hungary and Poland expressed support for the struggle against Hamas, and Western governments, the UK, France and Germany, strengthened Israel with words of appreciation.

But the enthusiastic demonstrations of support by world leaders will have very limited affect, particularly if it only stems from personal sympathy with Israel. Politicians send hearts and wave Israeli flags in large cities in their countries, yet simultaneously hordes of enthusiastic people wave Palestinian flags and demonstrate against Israel.

If the clashes on the home field are not enough, then the clashes also spread abroad. In Germany synagogues have been vandalized and Jewish communities in Europe are on high alert for possible attacks and clashes.

This is the real way humanity looks at us, not through the diplomatic smiles and handshakes that come from some world leaders. The hateful demonstrations will far outweigh the expressions of support. Hostility will replace the former friendships until we are not tolerated anywhere in the world; no place will be left where a Jew will be able to live in peace.

But there is a way out. It is through our unity. Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor as yourself is the great rule of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim). When Israel received the Torah it received a power that elevated them above their egoism and division—the root cause of all the threats the Jewish nation faces—and made them love each other as themselves. It reminds us that only if we unite will we succeed. Otherwise, the Talmud warns us, “There will it be your burial” (Shabbat 88a, Avoda Zarah)

Mount Sinai, the place where we received the Torah, symbolizes thoughts of siná, hatred toward each other. From the time of ancient Babylon to this day, the ego has not stopped growing and overpowering us, demanding more at the expense of others and tearing us apart as Jews. And there, at the foot of the mountain, we were first required to make a far-reaching decision as a people: either we would be united as one man in one heart or we would endure ongoing suffering and external pressure.

There is no sooner or later in the Torah, these are eternal laws. What we go through in these difficult days is another link in a chain of predicaments we have experienced as Jews throughout generations. The external pressure today requires us to unite and create a protected space between us.

We received the Torah, the method to connect us, the means to cover all crimes with love. This is how we became a people, the Jewish nation or “Israel,” which stems from the Hebrew words “Yashar Kel” (“straight to the Creator”). It refers to a state where we are granted the method to attain the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, through our freewill.

The connection between us, the Jews, harnesses what the wisdom of Kabbalah explains are the seventy roots of the nations of the world. We are included in them and involved with them after a long exile in which we have absorbed those roots. Therefore, if we connect, we will radiate the power of the connection between us to all of humanity. The roots will all come together and grow into a strong tree that bears fruit for everyone, each and every one. And the stronger we become, the more we will radiate light to the nations of the world, and the more we will gain the world’s support as chaos will transform into peace.
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My new article on Linkedin “Coexistence with Arabs? We Can’t Even Exist with One Another!”

The current wave of violence has exposed the fact that the coexistence between Arabs and Israelis within Israel was an illusion. There were economic benefits that both sides enjoyed, but the hatred has festered all those years until a trigger set it off. The painful truth that the riots of Arabs in Israel exposed is that they hate us no less than the Palestinians in the West Bank or in Gaza. The numerous lynching attempts, that miraculously have not taken someone’s life, yet, the burning of Jewish homes, synagogues, businesses, cars, the shots fired into people’s homes, and the stoning of cars on highways leave no room for doubt: The days of tolerance are over.

If we want to stop the violence against us, we must rise above our mutual hatred. Our military edge can buy us time, but if we don’t use the time we are given to build brotherly love above all our differences, the time will run out and we will suffer calamity after calamity until we learn that there will be no peace with our enemies until we make peace with one another. But when we achieve this, we will have no enemies.

Yet, anyone who knows the message of our sages, knows that they do not attribute our woes to our oppressors. Our sages do not attribute the ruin of the First Temple to Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, although he was the one who destroyed it. Instead, they attribute it to us, to how we treated one another. They explain that the bloodshed and slander among us brought upon us the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar.

Similarly, our sages do not blame the Seleucid Empire for the war against the Maccabees. They blame the Hellenists, the Jews who insisted on installing the Greek culture and belief system in Judea.

And most notably, our sages don’t blame the ruin of the Second Temple and the two millennia long exile on the Romans, who did the physical conquering of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple. Rather, they blame it on a single culprit: baseless, unfounded hatred among us, Jews.

This truth has not changed since. We bring our woes upon ourselves. When we hate each other, the nations hate us. When the Talmud, for example, explains the reasons for the ruin of the First Temple, it writes that people would “eat and drink with one another,” yet “stab each other with the swords in their tongues” (Yoma 9b). Moreover, the Talmud further states that “Even though they were close to one another, they were filled with hatred for each other.”

Why do we expect things to be different now? Why do we think that the verbal swords we use against each other today won’t translate into physical knives and guns now? The fact is that this is what is happening. As then, so now.

Therefore, if we want to stop the violence against us, we must rise above our mutual hatred. Our military edge can buy us time, but if we don’t use the time we are given to build brotherly love above all our differences, the time will run out and we will suffer calamity after calamity until we learn that there will be no peace with our enemies until we make peace with one another. But when we achieve this, we will have no enemies.

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My new article on Linkedin “Where Do We Go From Here?”

We haven’t even recovered from Covid-19, and already, we are at war with our neighbors. And this time, it is not only with our neighbors across the Gazan border, but literally with our next door neighbors: Israeli Arabs who have been living peacefully with Israelis for more than five decades. In fact, most of the youngsters rioting now have never known anything but peaceful living alongside Israelis. They work in Israel, with Israeli Jews, went to Israeli universities with Israeli Jews, and send their representatives to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Yet, now they are rioting against Jews, raising flags of Palestine, where they do not want to live, and burning the Israeli flag, where they do want to live. They are lynching, shooting, and stoning Jews, burning Jewish owned shops, synagogues, and cars, and they are chanting “Death to the Jews.”

From day to day, our hatred for each other is growing more intense and venomous. Accordingly, the passion of our neighbors to throw us out of here is proportionally intensifying. The equation is clear and simple; we just have to be honest enough to see it: When we hate each other, they hate us; when we want to destroy each other (as we did in the Second Temple), they want to destroy us.

To us, Jews, this is a major shock. Most Israelis did not imagine that this was how their Arab neighbors felt about them. The situation calls for some serious reckoning. We need to contemplate where to go from here, and why we are here in the first place. No other nation needs to ask these questions, but we, Jews, must. Because if we cannot explain to ourselves, and even more important, to the world(!), why we exist, and why specifically here in Israel, then we will have no moral right to be here, or to be at all.

Telling ourselves that we are here because we needed to save ourselves from antisemitism in the wake of the Holocaust is not the answer. Already, the nations regret voting in favor of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine in November 1947. They haven’t decided to reverse that decision, yet, but if they had to vote on it again, they would vote overwhelmingly against the whole idea.

So, what should we do? We must remind ourselves that we are here not to build a shelter from antisemitism, but to reestablish our peoplehood. We became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai, when we pledged to unite “as one man with one heart,” and we were immediately tasked with passing on that unity to the rest of the world, or as the Torah phrases it, with being “a light unto nations.” This is why Old Hillel told the man who asked him what it meant to be a Jew, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah, and the rest is commentary” (Shabbat, 31a). This is also why Rabbi Akiva, whose disciples wrote both the Mishnah and The Book of Zohar, said that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the principal law of the Torah (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim, 30b). We should ask ourselves if we are keeping this law, because if we aren’t, then we don’t deserve to be here.

I think the truth is evident. From day to day, our hatred for each other is growing more intense and venomous. Accordingly, the passion of our neighbors to throw us out of here is proportionally intensifying. The equation is clear and simple; we just have to be honest enough to see it: When we hate each other, they hate us; when we want to destroy each other (as we did in the Second Temple), they want to destroy us.

But the opposite is just as true: When we love each other, they love us. We determine our fate by determining how we relate to one another. I don’t know where we will go from here, but I do know what we need to do if we want to go anywhere good: We need to start developing love for one another. The harder we work on this, the faster our situation will improve.
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[Image: People walk next to burnt vehicles as they enter a building after violent confrontations in the city of Lod, Israel between Israeli Arab demonstrators and police, amid high tensions over hostilities between Israel and Gaza militants and tensions in Jerusalem May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun]

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My new article on Linkedin “Where Israel’s Real Might Lies”

The rockets from Gaza are frightening, and they are certainly disrupting our lives. However, the real monster that’s emerged in this round of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the violence of Arabs who are Israeli citizens against Jews. Last night, rioters went through all the Jewish businesses in Old Acre, in Northern Israel, and torched every one of them. Attempted lynches were carried out in Lod, Tamra, and Acre. Jews were also injured from gunshots fired into homes in Lod, as well as from rocks and stones, and Molotov cocktail bottles. In Haifa, 60 Jews were hurt by smoke inhalation after Arabs torched cars owned by Jews, and the list goes on and on. All this comes on top of the hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, killing several people, wounding many more, and destroying homes and property.

Let me be clear, we must have military power. We must protect ourselves to the best of our ability, and attack those who attack us. However, if we base our confidence on military edge, it will fall apart, as we are seeing now. Israel’s only might always was, is, and will forever be the unity of its people, and nothing else.

Such mayhem is enough to shake up the confidence of anyone, and indeed it has. The Israelis are losing their confidence, but I believe it’s for the best, since now we can begin to base it on a solid foundation.

Let me be clear, we must have military power. We must protect ourselves to the best of our ability, and attack those who attack us. However, if we base our confidence on military edge, it will fall apart, as we are seeing now. Israel’s only might always was, is, and will forever be the unity of its people, and nothing else.

It doesn’t matter how divided we are; it doesn’t matter how deeply we hate each other for our different views or cultures. If we spread a canopy of solidarity over all our differences because of the simple fact that we are Jews and the essence of our peoplehood is unity above division, then no harm will come to us. On the contrary, by doing so, we will win the world’s respect and favor. Below is a piece of Jewish history that tells the tale of unity, division, and ultimate unity, and how it impacts other nations.

During the reign of Antiochus III the Great (222 to 187 BCE), Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire but enjoyed almost complete autonomy, as long as they paid their (reasonable) taxes to the king. In fact, in Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus writes that Antiochus the Great considered it his duty to guard the autonomy of the Jews. To show his appreciation for their assistance and his reverence for their way of life, he wrote a formal letter permitting the Jews to live according to their way: “On account of their piety toward God, [Antiochus decided to] bestow on them, as a pension for their [Temple work] … twenty thousand pieces of silver, in addition to abundance of fine flour, wheat, and salt.” His successor, Seleucus IV Philopator, kept the status quo with the Jews, who continued to live untroubled in Judea.

Even Antiochus Epiphanes, who succeeded Seleucus IV, initially had no intention to change the status quo in Judea, were it not for certain Jews who had decided to incite him against their brethren. Those Jews wanted to force the Hellenistic culture on Judea and take control of the country. To achieve this, their leader, Yason [Jason], paid Epiphanes a hefty sum of money, who, in return, ousted the incumbent High Priest in Jerusalem and handed the position over to Jason.

Jason quickly turned Jerusalem into a polis, renamed it Antiochia, and constructed a gymnasium at the foot of Temple Mount. In addition, the Hellenistic Jews abandoned ancient customs that related to the Temple and began to sow division in the country. In fact, the Hellenists sowed so much division that they even fought among themselves, between supporters of Jason and supporters of Menelaus (who in 170 BCE paid off Antiochus to oust Jason and make him the High Priest). By the time Antiochus Epiphanes wrote his infamous decree that demanded all Jews to become Hellenists, many of the Jews were already in agreement with his demands. In fact, according to The Book of the Maccabees (Vol. 1), “many of the Israelites consented to his religion and sacrificed unto idols.”

But we know the end of the story: The Hasmonean family in Modiin revolted against the decree, and under the leadership of Judah Maccabee, the Jews united and ousted the Hellenists. Moreover, Antiochus V Eupator, who succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes, restored the agreement of freedom to the Jews that his great grandfather, Antiochus III, had signed, and put the final seal on the Hasmonean Revolt when he executed Menelaus as a punishment for luring him into a war he did not want to fight.

Today, twenty-three centuries after the saga, it seems as though we haven’t learned much. As then, so now, we have to fight for our freedom because we didn’t fight for our unity before. Had this been our one and only focus, we wouldn’t have had to worry about anything else, just as the Jews in Judea enjoyed their freedom as long as they had kept their unity.

As long as we still have a country, we must shift our attention to our solidarity, to our unity, as this is our real weapon. While fighting against our enemies, we must fight the separation among us even more, since this, in the end, will determine the outcome of the war against the Arabs.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Illusion of Coexistence”

Israeli cities that were once considered symbols of Jewish-Arab coexistence are on fire. Riots and lynchings perpetrated by both sides have shattered what were perceived as peaceful neighborhoods. The large Israeli cities Haifa, Jaffa, Ramla, Acre, and Lod, burn in the ongoing barrage of thousands of missiles by Hamas terrorists targeting Israeli populations and the following military response in Gaza. Why is the bridge between both communities being consumed by flames of anger? Because there really was no such bridge or real coexistence. It has never been between us.

We need to learn how to create a true friendly existence, how to build it and consistently nurture it. We need mutual desire to achieve it, otherwise it will not work. It requires readiness and a consensual decision that we are not prepared to continue in this constant life of conflict and war.

There were cops and guards who did not let resentment flare up and it worked to a certain extent until now, but this safety valve was simply released and exploded.

We like to whitewash or paint reality pink, but there is hatred toward us on the part of the Arabs, as there always has been. We need to talk about it, admit it, and understand that it is not accidental; we need to realize what the reason for it is. Only in this way will we be able to arrange a fundamentally corrected mutual relationship with the Arabs without clouding the truth with pretty tales and naive exclamations like, “Oh, how did that happen? After all, we got along with each other so nicely!”

We need to learn how to create a true friendly existence, how to build it and consistently nurture it. We need mutual desire to achieve it, otherwise it will not work. It requires readiness and a consensual decision that we are not prepared to continue in this constant life of conflict and war.

Our haters feel deep inside that we interfere with them, like a speck of grit in the eye that they must get rid of because it is unbearable. This is how they feel about us, like we are the cause of all their suffering. Even the small quarrels between them that have nothing to do with us, they still point at us to blame. And it is not just about our cousins in the mixed neighborhoods, but about all the citizens of the world.

In the depths of their hearts, Arabs and non-Arabs feel that we are the source of all their problems, even the most private ones. If they could, they would have killed us a long time ago, only they could not. Not because we are so smart and powerful, but because precisely from the small point called Israel something new needs to spread to humanity, a new form of relationship, a bond of heartfelt inner connection, which is the whole fix for the entire world.

One hundred years ago, foremost Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote that Israel “Must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land! …Justice, and peace. And this wisdom is attributed to us alone.

“If this return is canceled, Zionism will be canceled altogether…And its residents are destined to endure much suffering. Undoubtedly, either they or their children will gradually leave the country, and only an insignificant number will remain, which will ultimately be swallowed among the Arabs.

“This would certainly prove to the nations the rightness of Israel’s return to their land, even to the Arabs. However, a return such as today’s does not impress the nations whatsoever, and we must fear lest they will sell Israel’s independence for their needs, needless to mention returning Jerusalem.” (“The Writings of the Last Generation.”)

Today the Jewish nation is deeply divided. Nonetheless, it is incumbent upon us to be the people whose connections between its members are the most beautiful, the closest and the most corrected.

The beginning of repairing the rift rests within us and solely between us. From within us the power of oneness will spread in widening circles to the whole world. This is an order that cannot be changed; this is a supreme law of nature. First we need to reach the love of Israel within us, and later reach the love of the world, affection for all humanity, and adherence to the Supreme Power.
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