The Secret is Out: The Shoah is not the Reason for the State of Israel

by well-known educator Rabbi Yoni Lavi, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Time to say it clearly: Israel does not exist because Jews are poor and helpless, but because history and ethics demand it.  

It's standard procedure in the Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel: Every foreign diplomat or head of state who lands in the country is whisked away for short visit to Yad Vashem. Only after he directly experiences just a taste of what the accursed Nazis did to the Jewish nation will he begin to get down to business and be shown what else Israel has to offer.

Even the Jewish calendar has been recruited for this purpose, in that Holocaust Remembrance Day precedes Israel Independence Day by just one week. 

What is, in fact, the connection between these two dates and these two events?

For most people, the answer is clear: The Holocaust is the justification and reason for the existence of the State of Israel. The terrible calamity in which a third of the Jewish People was cruelly and systematically annihilated made clear before the entire world why our people requires a safe haven and a country it can call its own.

This approach is totally and essentially mistaken, and harms very practically our standing in the world. 

For one thing, though the Shoah did in fact happen – it did not have to. The establishment of the State of Israel, on the other hand, is something that is entirely a historical necessity. Mankind and history waited breathlessly for nearly 2,000 years for Israel to arise, even if they didn't even realize it. It would have happened with or without the Holocaust, even if it would have taken a few more decades or even centuries. 

The Jewish view of history, as seen in the Torah, is that the exile of the Jewish People over the course of nearly 2,000 years was a historic glitch. That is, it was purposefully executed by G-d (as we recite in our prayers: "Because of our sins we were exiled from our land"), but it lasted longer than we expected. The ultimate Divine plan, however, regarding the Chosen Nation [i.e., chosen for its mission] never changed: "This nation I created for Me, it will recount My praise" (Yeshayahu 43,21). We have a mission and a destiny, which can be fulfilled only via a sovereign Jewish kingdom living a Torah life as an exemplary society serving as a prototype of life of truth and morality for the entire world. This is of course the "light unto the nations" (Isaiah 49,6) of which the Prophet spoke. 

On the practical level, the attempt to use the Holocaust as a justification for our national political existence is not smart. To play on the world's conscience and cry that "you owe us a state because of what you did to us" cannot be a successful approach. Simply put: It's no longer the Jews who are viewed as victims, but rather the so-called Palestinians.

They have become professionals in the field, awarded the ultimate global gold medal in "victimhood" time after time. What's more, they don't hesitate to lie and manipulate in every possible way to portray their misery and wretchedness. The fascinating question, "Could it be that they themselves are to blame for their misery?" doesn't exactly interest the world. For us to try to remind the international court of opinion (and all the more so, of "Justice") that we have no place to go and that we face daily threats of extermination is an exercise in pointlessness.

What we must do is revolutionize our own thought process about the underpinnings of the State of Israel, and this will lead to an overhaul in the way we present it to the world. It is time that we realize, and declare to the world, that we are not here because we are poor victims – but rather because integrity dictates it. Our position is historically correct and just. 

We don't need the world to have pity on us and throw us a bone of Middle East real estate. We stand proudly to demand the fundamental right to actualize our historic rights, as first exercised by our forefathers. We did not conquer this land; we simply returned home.

How can one be considered an occupier of his own home?

After nearly 2,000 years of being forced to wander the world, we have finally begun to return to ourselves, to our land, to our home – and the heart of the world has begun to beat anew. 

And in this vein, I would like to offer a word of advice to our Foreign Ministry: How about, instead of dragging the foreign diplomats to Yad Vashem, taking them for an inspirational visit to the Machpelah Cave? How about showing them the places that our forefather Abraham walked, that Isaac lived, that Jacob dreamt – accompanied by the repeated Divine promise they each heard, "to your descendants I have given this Land"?

Any chance we will gather up the fortitude to say this truth aloud? If so, the world might even begin to listen!

The New Misconception: No Less Dangerous than the Old One

by Haggai Huberman, Israeli journalist, author, and the editor of Matzav HaRuach, translated by Hillel Fendel.

If someone thinks that granting the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) control of the Gaza Strip is a defeat for Hamas, he is misreading reality.

The more we complain about the "conception" that led the government and army astray straight to the catastrophe of this past Simchat Torah, the more we now seem to be overlooking yet another "conception" sprouting in our midst – one that is no less dangerous than the previous one. Until eight months ago, the common belief was that Hamas was "deterred," that Sinwar wanted only to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip, and that all was under control. But now, the new conception, spouted and echoed by all the politicians and talking heads on every channel and website you open – on the left, that is – is: There is no way to defeat Hamas militarily.

The conclusion thereof is that we must hand over the Strip to the control of the Palestinian Authority – otherwise known as Fatah, Hamas' nemesis - and that this will be the ultimate defeat of Hamas. Hamas is frightened to death of losing its governing control in Gaza, and therefore the picture of victory for Israel, according to this mistaken approach, is when Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and his forces march into Gaza in triumph. 

It's interesting that those pushing for a deal for the captives and for PA rule in Gaza don't seem to note the inherent contradiction in their position: In return for the hostages, Hamas demands an end to the war and an end to Israel's attempts to depose it – a result that contrasts precisely with granting control of Gaza to Fatah. That is, if we insist on Fatah rule, there can be no hostage deal, and vice versa.

"But that's not the main issue," I say to my friends on the left. "The main issue is that you're once again building up a false conception - founded misguidedly upon your wishes and desires, but totally detached from reality." 

"Your first mistake is that handing over the Strip to Fatah control is not the great Hamas defeat that you think it is. In fact, Hamas has no problem with us granting control to Abu Mazen. At worst, it's a little glitch in their plans to retain sole control of Gaza. They most certainly know how to get rid of Fatah, as they did already in 2007 in a military coup, which included throwing Fatah rivals off rooftops [to which Fatah responded in kind]." 

Let us recall the history: In June 2007, the escalation of violence between Hamas and Israel began to wane, after yet another round of dozens of rockets fired at Jewish towns near Gaza. At the same time, internecine fighting between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza began to intensify. Though both Fatah and Hamas were partners at the time in one government, headed by Ismail Haniye of Hamas, their battles on one particular day – June 11, 2007 – ended with no fewer than 18 dead. Haniye himself narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. The next day, Hamas presented an ultimatum to Fatah, demanding that they turn in all their weapons and resign from their government positions.

Fatah was not fazed and the battles continued. On the 14th of June, Hamas captured the Preventive Security headquarters, one of the last strongholds of Abu Mazen and Fatah forces in Gaza, and threatened to execute senior Fatah officials. By that evening, Hamas had taken control of most of the Gaza Strip and many Fatah security headquarters. The next day, Hamas had taken over the Philadelphi axis on the Egyptian border and the Rafah Crossing there. On June 16, dozens of Hamas supporters had ransacked Yasser Arafat's home and the PA side of the Erez Crossings. 

Bottom line: 15,000 Hamas men defeated the 60,000 of Fatah.

Only a fool would believe that history will not repeat itself in this case. If Israel now withdraws from Gaza and hands it over to Fatah, Hamas will take much less time than the two years it took last time to ruthlessly defeat Fatah.

There is only one entity that can stop the above scenario: the Israel Defense Forces. A necessary condition for a renewed Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip is the total departure of the IDF from the entire area. Thus, the opposite is also true: The only way to guarantee that Hamas does not return to any form of power is for Israel to retain exclusive security control over the Gaza Strip. 

Only under such conditions is there room to discuss what civilian body will be authorized to run the daily lives of the residents of Gaza after the war ends.