Liora Ziv-Ami

But the main reason why you have to be in Israel long enough is to be able to make a discovery that you cannot do while in galut: the 2000-year dispersion is an absolutely necessary condition for the implementation of the Jewish chosenness ".

My observations during the first years of my life in Israel have already driven me to this conclusion. Truth be told, at first I did not think in terms of our “chosenness” at all. I was just trying to comprehend the reality of life while looking for the answer to one and the same question, which I kept asking myself over and over again: what has been uniting our people?

"Is it not strange, - I thought. – The Communists failed to create a united Soviet people, though, under their leadership, in fact, we did live as one nation. Why then here in Israel we, all, being so different, still consider ourselves one nation, and mind, without any leadership? Yes, we quarrel with each other, we fight with each other, and yet this sense of unity overpowers everything. I am sure, I am not the only one who feels that way. Many other people experience similar feelings. It is not possible that people just agreed on such matters…"

What is the reason for such a unique arrangement?

My eagerness to think about the Jews and not to think about anybody else started clearly clashing with another tendency, which was totally the opposite. In the early 90-s when the Soviet Union was about to collapse, everybody started talking about new world order, which will guarantee that nobody will be in the way of happy people getting united.

"Have we not already played games like ‘Working men of all countries, unite!’”, - I grumbled. – I cannot believe somebody is again trying to invent another International. They have not learned the lesson. The Bolsheviks have failed, what do these people hope to achieve? Are they so naïve that they cannot see that nothing will come out of it?

But the problem of unity could not be ignored; it was in the air and on all sides of us. Again, I began to look for the answers in G-d’s Given Book.

What I discovered seemed to be strange.

G-d wants people to be united. And the prophets predict the unity at the end of days when people would "beat their swords into plowshares" and would accept One and Only G-d. At the same time G-d does not want this unity. This is proven by the history of the building and destruction of the Babylon tower. G-d condemned such unity as Evil.

What this means is that the concept of unity might be very different. There is a unity under G-d Almighty, there is a unity of the Sons of Noah. Our tradition even refers to the Seven Laws of the Sons of Noah, which should be the basis for such unity. On the other hand, there is a unity of the Babylon Tower, i.e. a unity of all kind of Internationals, a unity under the leadership of the world government body called the United Nations.

One unity overrides the other one. This is the core of the problem, which has to do with us, the Jews. We, the Jews, are united because we are the descendants of common ancestors, we are members of the same family. Other nations cannot reach such level of unity because they do not have common ancestors. We, the Jews, are the uniting force because we are connected with all the peoples. We absorbed the experience of their ancestors, and now these peoples live inside of us, in our souls. This is precisely the reason why the dispersion was needed; it transformed the nature of the Jews into a dual one.

Despite all that, we decided to be like all the other nations in the world and to get our assigned number in the UN list. Was it worth to live such a glorious life to limit everything to such a shallow goal? Anyhow, it will never work. We already are not like any other people. We are unique because of our dual nature.

This dual nature of ours should be the basis for us to develop our national idea. Otherwise, we will end up failing to solve any of the problems. We will solve neither the problem of our relations with each other, nor the problem of our standing in the world.

These conclusions caused such a shocking effect on me that I decided to share my views in an article, which I titled “The Chosen People”.

"We come from the west with its individualism and from the east with its clan tradition, - I wrote in my article. – None of us will ever agree, and should not agree that he is worse than anybody else. Each of us has his merits and lacks. Our goal is to separate the wheat from the chaff. We have to understand what exactly the life patterns that we copied from other nations bring to our consciousness. We have to find the solid base in our system of values, which will make us one again a united nation. This system of values we have to materialize in the family culture. Our goal is to build such a society, in which every Jew regardless of the country he came from, would enjoy the sense of his universal Jewish motherland. This experience other nations of the world will be able to use in order to find the initial core of the forefathers – The Laws of Noah’s sons. "

This was just the second article in my whole life. I typed it on an old “Erica” typewriter, which I brought from the Soviet Union, since I did not have a computer. I showed my work to a magazine editor whom I knew because he also had been a refusenik, like myself.

- Who you think will read your article? – He asked in a discouraging tone. – People work hard. They are extremely tired, they pick up a newspaper to relax. Do not bother them with your ideas.

I took back my article and left. Little did I know what a major role it will play in my life.

Letter from Lubavich Rebbe

This happened at the end of August, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. A girlfriend of mine called me and mentioned somebody she knew. He is one of us, he came from Ukraine, from the Zakarpatye region but at the same time he was born and grew up in the family of the Lubavitch Hassidim. Currently he resides in New York, being close to the Lubavich Rebbe.

- This guy is about to go back to New York. Do you want to give him a list of people so the Rebbe could bless them? – My girlfriend asked..

- Yes, I do, - I answered.

I approached my desk in order to write down the names. Accidentally I noticed my article “The Chosen People”. I do not know what got into me but I wrote the list of people on the back of the last page of my article.

- Ask your friend whether he would be so kind to give the list to the Rebbe along with my article? – I said to my girl-friend.

He agreed and left for New York with my correspondence. Since I did not hear from him for a very long time this whole episode started fading in my memory.

Once, it was already in November, when I came from work, my husband gave me a letter:

- This is for you from New York.

- Who from? - I asked almost positive that it could only be from one of my friends.

- As far as I understand, this letter is from the Lubavich Rebbe.

- What do you mean from the Lubavich Rebbe? Why would the Lubavich Rebbe

write to me?

I opened the envelope impatiently. Yes, my husband was right. It was from the Lubavich Rebbe but it was practically impossible for me to figure out what was written in it because of a great number of abbreviations, which are so typical in our tradition.

- Can I come to you right now? – I asked my girlfriend. Look, I received a letter from the Lubavich Rebbe but I cannot understand what he writes.

My girlfriend’s husband who graduated from a religious school gave us a hand in the deciphering process. Basically, we figured out what was written in the letter but since there were still some unclear parts remaining, my friends advised me to show the letter at Beit Chabbad – a communal Chabbad center in our town.

Finally, with the help of the Chabbad Jews, I could understand what was in the letter. Besides, the words that pertained to the list of people, there was also something, which had to do with my article. The first two words were abbreviated but the rest were written in full. In general, the Rabbi expressed his approval and thanked for the article I had sent to him.

It happened one year before his death. I knew that he was gravely ill. That is why when some of my friends expressed doubts that the Rebbe actually could have written to me I was ready to agree with them. Nevertheless, I decided to ask the Chabbad people.

What do you think – was the Rebbe able to read my article? – I asked.

- Do not doubt it for a second, - they assured me. The Rebbe is surrounded by people who know how to deal with these situations. They would never dare to write anything just using Rebbe’s name.

Только не думай, что это арабы и ислам. Общий враг – это извращенная картина мира. В религиозной традиции это называется идолопоклонством. Но мы, к сожалению, понимаем только светский язык, поэтому на нём и будем разговаривать.

На сегодняшний день все мы повязаны безумной системой идей. Для начала рассмотрим, как она работает внутри Израиля. Я заинтересовалась этим вопросом через несколько лет после приезда в страну, когда обнаружила, что мозги среднего израильтянина оккупированы безумием, которое представляет для государства смертельную угрозу. Советского опыта мне хватило для того, чтобы оценить ситуацию. Я, как и многие из нас, почувствовав на своей шкуре развал страны исхода, чётко усвоила: разрушение общества начинается внутри отдельно взятого гражданина.

Я помню, как в 92-м году, во время моего первого визита в Штаты, я объясняла своим знакомым, почему Израиль находится в опасности. В те золотые времена Арафат ещё торчал в Тунисе, и в страшном сне никто не мог представить себе, что будет в 2001, нынешнем году. Наш общий приятель Д. аж вскочил от возмущения, услышав мои речи: «Так ты что хочешь сказать, возможна угроза существованию Израиля?» «Израиль очень старается, чтобы это случилось», – ответила я тогда.

Понимаешь, когда один человек с умным видом заявляет: «Надо дать шанс миру» и потом начинает разглагольствовать на тему, как именно он даст шанс и что он будет делать, если надежды не оправдаются, ты его слушаешь внимательно, полагая, что сказанное – плод его размышлений. Но когда то же самое, в тех же выражениях, с той же маской на лице ты слышить во второй, третий… двадцатый ….сто девяносто первый, и т.д. раз, то начинаешь понимать, что тут дело нечисто.

Где-то должен быть источник заразы, гнездо, откуда вылетают все эти птенцы. Кто-то должен высиживать яйца. Где-то должен сидеть наш израильский «товарищ Суслов» (был такой главный ЦеКаковский идеолог, если ещё помнишь).

Перед собой я поставила задачу: выяснить, где именно сидит «товарищ Суслов», то есть, кто всю эту пакость производит. Я взяла несколько курсов на факультете социологии и даже думала поначалу заиметь ещё одну профессию: проблемы общества меня всю жизнь волновали, а в Израиле появился новый побудительный мотив – оправдать своё собственное присутствие здесь, так как мне оно начало казаться всё менее и менее оправданным. После года в университете я поняла, что ещё один курс марксизма-ленинизма я в своей бедной жизни не переживу.

Уже на первых лекциях и семинарских занятиях мне стало понятно, что координаты «товарища Суслова» я высчитала правильно.

Пример. На первых же лекциях преподаватель объясняет студентам, какие качества им мешают стать профессионалами. Главная помеха – существание у каждого из нас предрассудков, связанных с воспитанием. Когда сидишь на своём сучке, то тебе кажется, что ты всё понимаешь, знаешь, что Хорошо, а что Плохо; что Можно, а что Нельзя. Но когда ты знакомишься с культурами других народов, ты тут же обнаруживаешь относительность этических установок. Оказывается, нет общего на всех Добра и Зла.

-Скажите, кровосмешение – грех? – в восторге завывал лектор. – А в Швеции уже можно.
           До сих пор всё правильно. Проблемы начинаются тогда, когда из существующего положения делаются выводы.

Один вывод: если не существует универсальных Добра и Зла, значит, человечество вышло на новый виток развития – либо оно придёт каким-то образом к универсальной системе, либо начнётся распад цивилизации. Наша еврейская традиция говорит о том, что универсальные законы существуют. У нас они называются Семью Законами сыновей Ноя.

Казалось бы, в еврейском университете из уст лектора-еврея можно было бы услышать подобный вывод. Ну, хотя бы в качестве варианта.

Ничего подобного. Вывод делается следующий: раз у всех народов разные представления о том, что такое Добро и что такое Зло, значит разделения между Добром и Злом не существует вообще.

Теория, философствование? О, нет, матушка! Самая что ни на есть практика. Убийца Арафат превратился в выдающегося политического деятеля не только потому, что кто-то сильно его раскручивает, а потому что весь мир перестал различать между Добром и Злом.

Всё это мы проходили в нашей старой жизни. Помнишь, как нам «объясняли», что такое «свобода», «прогрессивное человечество»? «Свобода – это когда выбираешь Москву столицей мира». «Прогрессивное человечество» – это товарищи, которые ещё вчера поедали печень своих убитых врагов, а сегодня строят социализм. И вот уже по трапу самолёта сбегает смугленький лейтенантик, превратившийся в генералиссимуса и президента после двух часов перестрелки с такой же шпаной, как и он сам, а наши ЦеКаковские вожди целуются с ним взасос.

Мы же обязаны были верить, что человечество мучительно развивало цивилизацию только лишь для того, чтобы докатиться до таких сцен.

Как ни странно, но там мы были в лучшем положении. Мы знали, что ЦеКаковцы – это Зло и защищались от них: чтением, беседами, спорами, слушанием «голосов» – в общем всем тем, что называется свободомыслием.

Здесь те же ЦеКаковцы – только нового поколения. Эта мутация опасна тем, что так научилась манипулировать понятиями «свобода», «совесть», «прогресс» и проч. базовами понятиями, что у людей не возникает даже потребности в свободомыслии.

Люди им верят!

Тебе, как бывшему советскому человеку, должно быть хорошо понятно, что может сделать горстка хорошо организованных идеологов, если у них есть тоталитарная власть над обществом. А у университетов есть эта власть. Горстка идеологов, которая засела в университетах, вообразила себя духовной элитой, отвечающей за народ и знающей точно, что именно нужно народу делать. Этакие светские раввины или партия большевиков (кому как нравится) – кузнецы народного духа.

Насколько ужасающе их влияние, можно понять, если учесть, что через университеты проходят все, кто по окончании учёбы начинают функционировать как влиятельные люди. Неважно, где будет трудиться университетский зомби: в министерствах, в средствах массовой информации, будет ли он экспертом по каким-либо вопросам – он всегда будет опираться на систему идей, которую он усвоил как интегральную часть своей профессиональной квалификации.

О диктатуре «интеллектуалов» сегодня говорят уже открыто. Но проницательные люди поняли их суть намного раньше, чем «интеллектуалы» успели озвереть окончательно. (Если хочешь вникнуть в проблему, рекомендую труды Фридриха фон Хайека).

У нас они к тому же ещё и лезут в политику. В правительстве Барака заседал один профессор истории (отдельная песня!) и ещё одна профессорша неизвестно чего. Эта профессорша стала министром абсорбции – то есть, получила Министерство репатриации. Она так яро выступала за возвращение «палестинских беженцев», что было грех не воспользоваться своей профессиональной подготовкой и подвалившей должностью. Как же она этим воспользовалась? У нас репатрианты возвращаются в страну по Закону о возвращении. Достаточно доказать, что ты потомок еврея в третьем поколении, и ты имеешь полное право на израильское гражданство. В результате у нас тут появилось множество народу, у которого если и был какой-нибудь дедушка-еврей, то, очевидно, недолго и не всерьёз.

К арабам всё это не относится. Но если очень хочется, то можно сделать так, чтобы относилось, и на почётную нынче должность еврея поназначать ещё больше народу. Вот наша профессорша и придумала новый вид еврея – «социальный еврей». Под эту категорию, как ты понимаешь, можно и пол-Китая подписать.

Почему же стал возможным подобный кошмар? Прежде всего потому, что общество не понимает принципиального различия между идеологией и наукой.
Наука исследует реальность и на основании полученных фактов выводит свои законы. Если появляется факт, противоречащий выводам науки, наука вынуждена пересмотреть закон.

Идеология строит некую схему, объединяющую факты и объясняющую их. Она, конечно, может объявить это законом, как это делали марксисты. Но права у неё на это нет, так как идеология изначально не наука, а лишь система идей и рано или поздно будет пересмотрена.

Я не утверждаю, что идеология не нужна. Более того, я претендую на создание собственной, прекрасно отдавая себе отчёт в том, что стараюсь объяснить факты и потенции текущего момента. И как только будут появляться новые факты и потенции (а исторический процесс без этого невозможен), нужно будет создавать другую идеологию.

Проблема возникает тогда, когда те, кто фактически являются идеологами (а я университетских «интеллектуалов» считаю именно таковыми) начинают претендовать на статус учёных, которым ведомы общественные законы. Мы, живые люди, должны этим законам соответствовать и поэтому обязаны влезть в их безумные построения только потому, что они объявили их законами, а свой бред наукой. Если мы как факты общественной жизни не соответствуем их «законам», тем хуже для нас – нас надо изменить или отменить вообще (в точных науках это сделать невозможно, хотя и там они очень старались, объявляя целые области научных знаний буржуазными девками и служанками империализма).

Есть ещё вариант – уничтожить нас. Отсюда проистекает их сатанинская ненависть к людям: мы им мешаем считать себя богами. Именно по этой причине и происходит то, о чём я тебе уже писала: один профессор призывал арабов стрелять в поселенцев, которые, по его просвещённому мнению, мешают миру; другой профессор обозвал бойскаутское движение детей-поселенцев гитлерюгендом.

Они возомнили, что по их проекту в очередной раз можно построить светлое будущее человечества. Коммунизм они уже строили под лозунгами «Пролетарии всех стран, объединяйтесь!» и «тумба-юмба людоед – прогрессивный человек». Теперь они строят Глобальную деревню. В этой деревне все в очередной раз равны – неважно праведник или преступник. Ничто нельзя назвать своим именем. Это крайне некорректно и разрушает планируемую идиллию. Последствия этого кошмара мы и кушаем все вместе.

Например, возьмём проблему несчастных беженцев. Откуда они берутся? Почему нет беженцев из Швеции, а из Ирака есть? (Я преднамеренно взяла Швецию как пример, так как о ней нельзя сказать, что она разбогатела, грабя богатства своих колоний.) Что, в Швеции природные условия лучше, чем в Ираке? Очевидно, что совсем наоборот. Просто в голове у шведов иная система ценностей, чем у иракцев. Именно это является причиной, по которой в Ираке жить невозможно и из него приходится бежать. Но ведь причина проблем беженца находится у него в голове. Поэтому она перебегает вместе с беженцем на новое место и начинает это место заражать. Попросту говоря, беженец по миру разносит заразу. Они проникли в поры всего мира, и эта история с небоскрёбами и сибирской язвой – это ещё цветочки.

Мы в плену безумия – ведь достаточно объявить человечество единым братством и все системы ценностей равными, как шведскую, так и иракскую, как ты автоматически снимаешь ответственность с носителя заразы и, начиная считать его бедненьким-несчастненьким, создавать именно ему идеальные условия для размножения. Помогать ему, укреплять его, чтобы зараза мужала и распространялась. Назвать вещи своими именами не моги – это политикал некорректно. Нельзя!

Но вернёмся в наши Палестины.

У нас они вбили всем в голову, что «интеллектуал» – это тот, кто в состоянии видеть не просто очевидные вещи (это только примитивные люди видят факты такими, какими они и являются). Интеллектуал – этот тот, кто в состоянии видеть то, что скрыто, находится где-то там, за горизонтом.

Например. Для тебя, наверно, являлось бы очевидным: с точки зрения здравого смысла, что тот, кто хочет тебя убить, – твой враг. Вряд ли ты пришла бы в восторг, если бы от тебя потребовали, чтобы ты его любила, ценила и с пониманием отнеслась к мотивам его ненависти к тебе. Это потому, что ты узколоба и примитивна. А вот если бы ты была человеком широких взглядов, то мыслила бы иначе. Например, наш нынешний глава оппозиции в свою бытность министром просвещения включил в список обязательной литературы, изучаемой в наших гимназиях, арабских поэтов – патриотов Палестины. Высоким штилем арабские поэты рассказывают нам, как они нас ненавидят, как кровью очистят родную матушку Палестину от такого нароста, как мы. А наши еврейские деточки должны это пиитическое творчество изучать, экзамены сдавать (ведь нужно проверить, как усвоен материал). Это чтобы не были узколобыми и в художественной форме постигали справедливость арабской борьбы с нами-захватчиками, чтобы плотью и кровью чувствовали ― убивают нас совершенно справедливо. Туда нам и дорога.

Недавно был большой скандал по поводу «исправленного» учебника истории (как они утверждали, более сбалансированного): в нём нашлось место для фотографий Сталина и Гитлера, но почему-то не хватило для Бен-Гуриона. Ну не нужен нам Бен-Гурион и детям нашим не нужно знать в лицо того, кто (при всех его недостатках) был настоящим вождём, первым премьер-министром Израиля.

Катастрофа, в которой сгорели 6 000 000 евреев, была «уравновешена» трагедией палестинского народа, согнанного со «своей» земли сионистскими захватчиками. И это не арабы пишут. И не кремлёвские мечтатели. Это наши родные еврейцы.

А чего стоит «палестинский народ»! Это евреи «интеллектуалам» поперёк горла стоят. Но когда речь о «палестинцах» заходит – о! Все помыслы, вся боль отданы им, родимым. Ещё совсем недавно Голда Меир заявляла: «Кто такие палестинцы? Это я - палестинка». (Эта земля официально называлась Палестиной, и палестинцами называли евреев, которые уезжали сюда из диаспоры. Гоим тоже кричали евреям: «Убирайтесь в свою Палестину!».)

Левые себя не жалели, чтобы вбить арабам в голову, что «палестинцы» – это отдельный народ, хотя жившие здесь до появления евреев арабы считали себя сирийскими арабами, так как никакой «Палестины» не было в помине. Теперь, когда «палестинский народ» сделали свершившимся фактом, с этим фактом носятся как с писаной торбой. О «народе» рассуждают, о его проблемах, о его единственном и незаменимом лидере Арафате. Так, как будто иначе и быть не может.

Это с подачи левых мы создали и вооружили «палестинскую» армию (как же «народ» может без армии обходиться?!), босяков произвели в генералы, создали им отделы, разведки. Мы переводим им деньги, зная, что они закупают огромное количество оружия, которое будет в нас же стрелять.

А если бы ты видела, как в телепередачах левые лезут в душу к арабам, интервьюируют их в противной прилипчивой манере: и что он думает, и что он чувствует (хотя бы сотую часть такого внимания к сотням тысяч русских репатриантов!). Как пристают к арабам с объяснениями, до чего евреи хотят мира, хотя арабы вовсеуслышанье устами своих политиков, поэтов, проповедников и просто народа объясняют, что будет им хорошо только тогда, когда они умоются еврейской кровью.

Если бы ты видела, как левые счастливы, когда у кого-то из евреев не выдерживают нервы, как произошло с Барухом Гольдштейном. Врач, который лечил арабов, – он открыл стрельбу в Гробнице праотцев, когда там молились арабы; было много убитых, но и его убили. «Вот, – кричали левые, – у арабов есть убийцы, и у нас они есть!». Знак равенства, стало быть, поставили между Барухом, которого большинство народа осудило за его поступок, и всеми арабскими Джихадами, ХАМАСами, Фронтами за освобождение чего-то от кого-то, самоубийцами и их счастливыми родителями.

Они так забацали народ, что в одном из кибуцов на севере страны наши деточки посылали письма дедушке Асаду в Сирию: дескать, давай, дедушка Асад, будем жить дружно! А во время конкурса Интервидения вышел большой скандал – наша певческая делегация выступала с флагами. Только не подумай, что с израильскими – это же узколобо. С сирийскими флагами. После долгой дисскуссии решили, что они ими не всё время будут махать, а только немножко и издалека.

Кто знает о том, что наши «интеллектуалы» шляются по всяким международным форумам, где рассказывают всем, какие мы нехорошие бяки-захватчики? (Я читала об этом в прессе, но мне бы самой страшно хотелось знать подробности – кто? где? когда? адреса, явки, пароли.) Кто знает о том, что эти подлюки подговорили Европейский рынок, чтобы он ухудшил условия для товаров, производимых поселенцами?

Им можно всё. Им, великим, и законы не писаны. Народ – тупица, а они люди с кругозором, которые парят так высоко, что народу их не понять. Не дорос народец. Поэтому с народом можно делать всё, что угодно.

Можно нарушать законы государства. Например, Соглашения Осло (Ослиные соглашения, как острит наш русскоязычный брат), они подготовили, встречаясь тайком с теми, с кем по закону встречаться было запрещено. У нас народ в открытый микрофон – есть такие передачи на радио – не кричит а воет: «Судить паразитов». Но судьи кто? Те же университетские зомби.

Они тайком от всех состряпали план раздела Иерусалима и врали всем перед выборами, что для них Иерусалим – вечная столица Израиля. Если ты прочитаешь план раздела, то ты начнёшь щипать себя за все места: почудилось, наверное. Это же бред сумасшедшего. Но нет! Не почудилось. Оказывается, такое возможно.

Это они настаивают на том, что государство должно быть государством всех граждан. Неважно каких. Национальное государство – это для всяких там узколобых. В результате складывается следующая ситуация. В одной арабской деревне жил да был один почтенный глава семейства. Вдруг родилась в сердце этого главы боевая готовность послужить справедливому «палестинскому» делу. Взял глава, опоясался взрывчаткой и попёр в город Нагарию шахидом заделываться. Бедные сиротинушки остались без кормильца: папашка выполнял ответственное задание – евреев взрывал. Кто же теперь о бедняжках позаботится? Те самые евреи, у которых есть такая благородная вещь, как Национальное страхование, призванное заботиться обо всех гражданах Израиля. А террорист-самоубийца самый что ни есть законный гражданин Израиля. Вот еврейские родители и должны отдать государству деньги для того, чтобы государство эти деньги перевело детям убийцы их собственных еврейских детей. Так сказать, оплатить собственную смерть. Кто же сомневается в том, что заматерев на еврейских денежках, потомство героя захочет подражать своему прославленному отцу-шахиду.

Если это не Содом, то что это?

Я помню, как в процессе обсуждения Осло многие предупреждали, что случиться, если арабы получат Автономию, закрытую для израильтян (например, точно предсказали ситуацию на дорогах – они устраивают засаду, убивают евреев и скрываются на «своей» территории). Узколобые как в воду глядели – так оно и вышло. Разве не нужно в эти факты левых рожей ткуть? Ведь они же делают вид, что ничего такого не было.

Я помню собственное недоумение, когда наши интеллектуалы объясняли, как они договорились с Арафатом о том, что тот не тронет арабов, сотрудничавших с израильтянами (по Political Correct арафатовцы такие же «вообщелюди», как французы и шведы, поэтому с ними можно подписывать «общечеловеческие» соглашения).

Естественно, как только головорезы из Туниса ворвались в Автономию, они первым же делом начали сводить счёты – да и можно ли было ждать иного от людей, до сих пор живущих по законам кровной мести? Такое придумать могли только те, кто видят за горизонтом то, чего там никогда не было и не будет. Многие арабы из-за наших «интеллектуалов» приняли мученическую смерть.

Они, эти интеллектуалы, внесли в общество такой хаос, что даже те неевреи, которые хотели бы жить бок о бок с евреями в нашем государстве, например, друзы, вынуждены заново пересматривать свою позицию, искать новую самоидентификацию.
Они и многих арабов с толку сбили – тех арабов, которые хотят найти своё место в Израиле. Они сбили с толку и наших потенциальных друзей в других странах. Те, кто хотят помогать нам и поддерживать нас, не могут понять, что именно они должны поддержать.

Теперь, я надеюсь, тебе понятно, почему Израиль не может объяснить свою позицию мировому общественному мнению. Почему он вообще не в состоянии эту позицию иметь, наконец! Почему у нас не рождаются яркие личности, а только болтуны и безумцы. Всех кастрировали элитарные «интеллектуалы».

Пока всё. Всем твоим большой привет.

We are presented as a bunch of morons who raised to the ground half of their neighboring country following an incident that could easily be resolved by exchanging two of their militants for our soldiers.

The discussions among some of the members of these forums reminded me of a conversation I had with a Ukrainian guy years ago in the Soviet Union.

“Why do you, Jews, react so strongly when somebody calls you a ‘kike?’ I wouldn’t even bat an eye if someone called me a Ukie or a Khokhol. I definitely wouldn’t jump the guy!”

“If you had paid the same price for the word Ukie or Khokhol that we paid for the word ‘kike’ you wouldn’t be saying that,” I responded.

I am not talking about pogroms or the Holocaust either. This is not what I have in mind. It is not the Jews alone who keep memories of pogroms and genocide. Many people had somewhat similar experiences.

We are paying a great price for the word “kike” for a totally different reason. We are guilty before other nations because when ages ago, more than 3,000 years actually, G-d asked each Jew individually, “‘Do you accept upon yourself this Commandment with all the halochot (Jewish law) pertaining to it?’ Every Jew answered ‘Yes’ after each commandment. ”

We brought the Monotheistic Idea to the world, and other nations have continuously punished us for this over the centuries.

*******

Do you even understand what this really means?

• Just      imagine: there lived a people, in complete harmony with the world

around it, with Nature and itself. This nation had no doubt that it was Zeus, Thor or Perun (depending on the people’s origins) who was responsible for sending thunder and lightning upon the earth; they believed that the ghostly remains of their newly dead fellow countrymen sought passage to the Afterlife by drinking from Lethe, the River of Oblivion, to forget their former existence and then bribing the boatman to ferry them across the river Styx into the kingdom of the dead ruled by Hades. The change of seasons occurs because gods die and are reborn. The future can be predicted by oracles, and elaborate rituals should be performed to curry the favor of this or that god or goddess.

Polytheists had quite an imagination – it awakened creativity and produced flourishing cultures.

Despite the immense variety of polytheistic religions, all polytheistic nations could easy find a common language because they had a similar view of the world. They could immediately sense this similarity: what difference does it make how you and we call this or that deity? We both know for a fact that one god is responsible for our harvest and another for our health. The God of War takes warriors into battle and the God of Love causes human hearts to fall in love, and so on and so forth.

• And then suddenly this harmony is ruined. A      nation appears on the

scene – a wild and primitive tribe of shepherds and animal herders, culturally unrefined and unremarkable, and they have the nerve to announce:

“What’s all this nonsense? These fruits of your imagination are all lies. It’s completely wrong. Now we have recently met with the true G-d and He explained to us how the world is really organized. He told us what is happening now and what will happen in the future.

Can you imagine something like that? Their stories destroyed the entire picture these people had of the world, broke down a worldwide consensus of opinion which was perceived as natural and unshakable!

The Monotheistic Idea does indeed transform people’s world view.

• First, the      Monotheistic Idea puts the entire world in motion. It activates

mankind’s goal-oriented history, which starts off with the early man’s conflict with G-d, the temptation and the fall, and ends with atonement and forgiveness. From that day the human race had to move on…

But was mankind really unhappy when its life moved in a predictable circle?

Now look at the consequences of all this. Thanks to the monotheists all other nations were pulled into universal processes. Such ancient nations as India and China, which had given rise to amazing cultures, were now picked up together with the rest and carried forward on the crest of this mounting tide.

And there is nothing on Earth that could stop this tide!

• Second,      the Monotheistic Idea deprives a person of rest. It disturbs the

conscience and creates inner tension. A person must live with an awareness of his original sin, from which he is trying to find relief.

Does he need any of this? Why should he torment himself and suffer from the realization of his own imperfections, waiting with trepidation for G-d’s forgiveness? Why should he live for some goal that exists outside of him? Isn’t he self-sufficient? Can’t he himself be his own goal?

Look what happened as a result…. Christians turned out to be the most restless of the lot: their theological concept of original sin led to the greatest inner tension within a person. It was they who created modern civilization.

• Third, the      Monotheistic Idea is inseparable from the concept of the

world order. One’s neighbors are no longer viewed as belonging to a tribe led by some local tribal deity, but as godless heathens who have not accepted the One true G-d. They must be forced to renounce their beliefs and accept the true faith. This is no trifling matter, and it allows for no compromises.

Tell me, who is on the war path today, fighting to impose a single world order?

It is the monotheists, of course!

· This entire mess would be reason enough to start hating the Jews with a vengeance.

But as if this wasn’t enough, the Jews went even further. They announced before the people of the world that during His meetings with the Jews, G-d said that they were the Chosen Ones and made an eternal covenant with them.

Only a nation gone mad could call such trouble upon themselves … or one which could not act otherwise.

How can anyone wonder after that why the Jews became everybody’s obsession?

*******

• By      bringing the Monotheistic Idea to the world, the Jews destroyed the

human race’s oneness with nature, deprived it of rest and pushed all of civilization onto an unknown path, along which it rolled forward, gaining momentum and only vaguely understanding where it was heading and for what purpose.

For centuries people have set goals before themselves and rushed ahead, convincing themselves that the Great Day was near when G-d would reveal Himself to them. But the day of the coming of the Messiah still isn’t here. It is only natural that at some point people were bound to ask the logical question: “Why on Earth did we need all this hassle?”

This moment is now!

People suddenly began to ask themselves: “What have we created? All we have done is bring about what we call progress, thanks to which man has lost his former harmony with nature, poisoned the environment, turned himself into a workaholic and developed an insatiable consumer appetite, forever chasing after new material things, new services and higher gross production.

What for?

• That might      surprise you but there are some who see the way out in a

return to paganism. Browse the Internet (if you want, I could email you the exact blogs and forums) and you will be amazed at what some people are writing about and calling for….

Former Christians are very adamant about making their views known. They blame Christianity for distorting the image of man, ruining his harmony with the world around him and imposing false goals.

You can find this kind of criticism at all levels – from scientists and scholars who search for original causes explaining the current state of the world and discover them in the Christian faith to those advocating actually returning to the beliefs of the forefathers, including the study of sacral polytheistic texts and restoration of pagan rituals.

It is not surprising that very few fail to note that it all started with the Jews: if it weren’t for them there would have been no Christianity.

• It is      symptomatic that the relations between orthodox monotheists from

among different religious confessions and the Jews have developed in a direction opposite to this tendency to blame everything on the Jews.

Such unthinkable things as the Pope’s visit to a synagogue or an interfaith summit like the one recently held in Moscow only became possible now, at a time when all monotheists have become aware of the threat facing the Monotheistic Idea itself. As for the Moscow summit, it brought together representatives from all monotheistic confessions who also invited members of non-monotheistic confessions so they could together find ways to stop the general degradation and keep people within the framework of traditional conceptions of Good and Evil.

Jews participated on an equal footing with everyone else, which would have been quite impossible in the past, particularly with members of the Russian Orthodox Church.

· But at the very beginning, when nations were only starting to implement the Monotheistic Idea, their attitude to the Jewish people did not allow for any compromise. The reason behind this was as clear as day: if G-d is One for the entire human race then why do you, Jews, imagine yourself to be “chosen people?” Is there any reason why we aren’t good enough for this role?

Not a single doctrine of other monotheistic religions could ignore the Jews because whenever they mentioned the original Revelation from G-dat Mt. Sinai it implied the presence of Jews as witnesses of Revelation.

Every monotheistic model explained in its own way why and how it took over from the Jews. Founders of other monotheistic religious confessions absolutely needed the Jewish people to accept their version of monotheistic faith, because this was tantamount to the Jews basically accepting that the mission they started would from now on be carried out by others.

They were totally infuriated when the Jews rejected it time after time. This is exactly what took place with Muhammad who was confident that the Jewish people were going to accept Islam. The same thing happened to Luther who had absolutely no doubt that the Jews were going to accept his version of Christianity.

But no matter how angry other monotheists may have been with the Jews, theologically they never called for the annihilation of the Jewish people. For the Muslims Jews and Christians were people of the Book. Christian believers have numerous conceptions according to which Jews should actually be protected because in the end they will accept Jesus.

• In any      case, you shouldn’t think that the situation with the Jews is all

that simple.

A nation which did all those things unavoidably attracts heightened attention. The ways in which this attention is being manifested is a totally different story. There can be any number of them….

Still, there is a certain way of viewing the world in which there is absolutely no room left for the Jewish people. Jews are placed entirely outside the human race, and for those who adopt this worldview the destruction of the Jewish people becomes a fixation.

I am speaking here about religious dualism.

· Religious dualism appeared as a response to monotheism because of the problematic understanding of Good and Evil born of monotheistic religion itself.

How is it possible to explain this paradox: G-d is One, and He is the G-d of Goodness yet there is so much Evil in the world?

In polytheistic faiths this contradiction is resolved fairly easily, since responsibilities for different areas of human existence are divided among different gods.

This problem clearly exists within the monotheistic vision but it is also being resolved through the idea of improving and perfecting the world: G-d corrects the world in which there is Evil and takes it closer toward the victory of Goodness. People should acknowledge the thought that they are participants in a certain process; they must accept the status quo, do their best to fulfill G-d’s Will and hope to be redeemed through Him.

• But what      should be done if a person can’t tolerate it and refuses to

accept this ugly and unjust world?

That is precisely when a different theology is born in response.

Yes, there is a Higher Supreme and Ideal G-d, the G-d of Goodness, who had absolutely no intention of creating this world of ours.

Who in this case created the universe as we know it? It was created by the Demiurge – the Great Artificer or Fabricator, the Architect of the universe – by an angel gone mad.

Who then is this Demiurge, on account of which the human race suffers needlessly? Oh, it is the G-d of the Revelation at Mt. Sinai, Who chose the Jewish people to be in a unique covenant with Him. He chose the most depraved nation to plant seeds of Evil among all other nations.

This is basically the picture. As you can probably tell, it is based on a theological rejection of the Scriptures. It is an Anti-Scriptures of sorts.

So what follows from that? You will be amazed!

· First of all it alters the perception of the world as such.

How do Goodness and Evil coexist in this world?

A consistent monotheist views the world as a single whole. The world is imperfect and is being improved along the road toward the ultimate victory of Goodness. In the meantime, Goodness and Evil exists in it side by side, like light and darkness. Darkness reigns wherever light recedes, and Evil becomes strengthened wherever Goodness is weakened.

Psychologically, such an approach is conducive to a positive outlook on the world. Such a person believes in the victory of Goodness and the need to make efforts to bring it about, to serve G-d’s ultimate plan in our own human way.

“If Evil things continue to happen in the world it means that I haven’t done enough to assure the triumph of Goodness,” says a consistent monotheist.

An orientation toward doing good deeds is characteristic of all monotheists. The exact manner in which people implement their intentions is already a different story. However, theologically all monotheists are directed toward the assertion of Good – be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim.

In this sense monotheism is a constructive system – is orients people toward a positive, optimistic approach to life and toward self-improvement.

Dualism offers an entirely different view of the situation.

In a dualist approach the world is split. The god of Goodness in it is opposed to the god of Evil, and Goodness exists separately from Evil. It is totally useless to make any effort to increase the amount of Goodness because Evil will not disappear or even decrease. The only possible solution is fighting Evil until it is utterly destroyed.

A dualist is forever looking for an enemy, for someone who can be blamed as the bearer of world Evil – the disseminator of Evil who absolutely must be destroyed.

That is the reason why dualism is not constructive but destructive.

• The second      distinction relates to the attitude toward Life and Death.

The monotheist’s G-d is the One Who created this world and blessed it. That is why the monotheist is oriented to cherish Life even if consists of nothing but gloomy days. In such a system of beliefs, suicide is naturally perceived as a great sin: G-d has given us life, and G-d alone can take it away. And this is equally true in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

You are bound to think back on the multitudes of people who have died over the centuries in religious wars. You must remember that I am describing the ideal here, and no matter how much people may divert from the ideal, it still remains their guiding star.

Dualism, however, is based on the premise that the world has been created by an Evil god, an originator of Evil.

So what can be the value of a world created by an Evil god? It has none! One should aspire toward the Higher Supreme and Ideal G-d Who couldn’t have created such an dreadful world.

There is no need to be afraid of death. Death is actually desirable. It is no big deal to part with this horrible world. It is even a good thing because it means freedom from the power of the Evil god and His creation

With a vision like this suicide transforms into the religious ideal.

• Let us now      turn to the most important part: how does a person view

mankind depending on whether he or she is a monotheist or dualist?

For a monotheist all people are Children of One G-d. That is why his actions are directed toward unifying all nations under the power of One G-d. Notably, Christians and Muslims have always been actively involved in proselytizing, whereas Jews believe that all nations will unite when they embrace G-d on their own and look upon Zion.

Dualists think differently. In their eyes the world is divided into bearers of Goodness, Children of Light, to whom they of course belong and bearers of Evil, Children of Darkness, who ought to be eliminated.

• Here is a      puzzle for you: Can you guess who are the dreadful Children

of Darkness who must be eliminated – these monsters who hate the human race?

Their existence is incompatible with the existence of mankind, which is bound to suffer from Evil for as long as these servants of the god of Evil continue to exist.

So who might they be – these bearers of world Evil, who must be fought without mercy or compromise, even by joyfully sacrificing one’s life?

You have probably guessed right – they are the Jews, of course! Jews who are witnesses of G-d’s Revelation.

And that is why dualists perceive the Jewish people as their sworn enemies.

• It is      precisely because dualism is a morbid response to the eternal issue

of Good and Evil, an offshoot of monotheism, this phenomenon recurs throughout history: it comes to the foreground whenever there is a serious crisis in world perception, when it appears that the world is totally unjust and is falling apart, and evildoers in this dreadful world are overpowering the righteous ones.

Monotheistic Christianity came face to face with dualism at the early stages of its development when the world of antiquity was falling apart. Manichaeism and Gnosticism, as theological dualistic movements, were charged with heresy, and the church fought violently against them until they were destroyed.

But 1,000 years later dualism recurred within Christianity itself in the form of the heresy of the Albigenses (also called Catharists) who were outraged by the scandalous lives of the clergy and concerned about people’s loss of canonical faith. The church adopted a course of severe repression, and the Pope even organized an internal Christian crusade against the Albigenses.

This particular heresy disappeared around the end of the fourteenth century but you are greatly mistaken if you think that was the end of the doctrine!

The problem of Good and Evil always acquires an acute form at times when the surrounding world strikes one as being particularly unjust. This gives rise to new variations of the very same dualistic nature.

• Yes, the      essence of the doctrine remains the same. It is like an actor who

changes his make-up and his costume on stage but remains the same person inside.

Take a closer look at Nazism, and you will discover the same dualist actor, only wearing a different outfit.

Once again we hear protestations against the G-d of the Revelation at Mt. Sinai, with claims that He has “corrupted” the world. I am sure you know that the ruining of the church and returning to the cult of the ancestors was the mystical aim of the ideologists of the Third Reich….

Once again “the Children of Light”, true Aryans, launch an irreconcilable struggle against “the Children of Darkness,” whom they blamed for corrupting the world. Not surprisingly these evildoers were the Jews.

It is noteworthy that the Nazis too displayed a special attitude toward Death – a pathological attraction to Death actually – something that always betrays a dualistic doctrine. Fascination with Death is the very mark of dualism.

• Now take a      closer look at Marxism, and you will find that this teaching

is nothing but a dualistic doctrine.

The world is once again perceived as being “wrong” and having to be destroyed.

Once again “the Children of Light” – this time it is the world proletariat – must overpower “the Children of Darkness” – the world bourgeoisie. This is seen as the only way to build heaven on earth.

Once again the result is a frighteningly long list of gruesome deaths – millions of victims in the name of “a better world” – in the Soviet Union, China, and Kampuchea (Cambodia), everyplace where the Marxist Children of Light were able to seize power.

And once again, not surprisingly, we hear about the Jews.

A Jew in Marx’s view was a huckster and a usurer, “a Child of Darkness” who must be gotten rid of. You will notice that Marx and his followers were determined to ignore the existence of millions of hard-working Jewish people. Marx saw the Jew as the embodiment of everything he hated the most, and he openly applauded “a world without Jews,” stating that Judaism would become impossible in his “improved and correct” society.

I don’t have to remind you how enthusiastically his Jewish Marxist followers supported Marxist “internationalism,” which is incompatible with Judaism. They too saw themselves as having the right to decide what the destiny of the human race should be.

• I      emphasized this fact related to the Jews to stress that a dualistic view

of the world is a universal phenomenon. It is not tied to any one people or religious confession.

This disease of religious dualism can flare up anywhere, at any time and in any society. As soon as people become scared of the world in which they live, the vestiges of this frightening disease once again begin to afflict the human spirit.

Individuals come to the fore, who hold themselves to be the bearers of the one and only truth, the Children of Light, who understand and are called upon to fix this ugly world, which is worth nothing without their intervention. To do away with the Children of Darkness, even if they should comprise all humanity, is a sacred duty.

It is often difficult to recognize dualism because it dons many guises, often taking the form of normal and even familiar phenomena.

There are, however, two distinguishing features that make dualism impossible to miss: Death and Jews.

Dualists always take issue with the Jews, sooner or later.

• I had to      go to such great pains to explain to you all of these subtle and

complicated matters so that you would understand how deeply rooted is the difference between the word “khokhol” and “kike.”

When someone uses the slur “khokhol,” to refer to a Ukrainian, even intending to insult him, it means nothing more than to demonstrate that person’s dislike of the given ethnic group.

There is little new about that. Whether we like it or not, all of us live in a world where someone doesn’t like someone else, someone repays someone else for offenses a thousand years old, for a different way of life, for a different faith….

Is this reason enough to bust heads?

If these were the only problems Jews associated with the word “kike,” then we too could have the luxury of ignoring the offender. So what if someone doesn’t like us? We know full well what qualities we have that others might find distasteful.

• But the      problem is that even a Jew who is not observant, even one who

openly renounces being a part of his people, is still perceived by others as a witness to Revelation. Perhaps people are sometimes unable to comprehend this, much less put it into words, but they still sense it, which is why their attitude to the Jews always contains an element of the “witnessing.”

The effect of this element on non-Jewish people’s feelings toward Jews is multifold – from awe (regretfully often undeserved and unsupported by our own behavior) to hatred of such proportions that causing the death of Jews becomes more important than preserving one’s own life.

Every dualist feels this extreme irrational hatred for the Jews. And we, Jewish people, subconsciously sense when we are dealing merely with a bigot and when with a religious dualist.

• Now too,      our intuition is telling us that we are again facing not merely

someone who resents Jews, but rather religious dualists, for whom the very existence of the Jewish people and a Jewish state is incompatible with their understanding of the world order.

And this means that the events in Lebanon do not really represent a conflict with Hezbollah as one might think at first glance.

And definitely it is not a war with Lebanon, which itself suffers from Hezbollah but can’t do anything to control it.

Nor is it a regional conflict, instigated by the local superpower, Iran, whose leaders openly strive for hegemony at least over that region of the world.

What is happening in Lebanon is the beginning of a war with dualism, a fight of such magnitude that many have already begun to speak of the start of World War III.

But what kind of a war is it?

Up until now, people have been speaking of it only in the usual political terms. And for politicians it’s obvious that Iran and its ally, Syria, have used long-suffering Lebanon as a hostage to their policies, implanting Hezbollah in the body of Lebanon as a state within a state, and arming this entity to the teeth both militarily and ideologically.

However, the Iranian leadership, the main instigator of these unfolding events, does not speak of the conflict using political terminology at all. It speaks of it instead in religious terms!

• The first      thing that comes to mind is of course Islam.

Yes, we keep hearing about the Islamic Republic of Iran that aims to

unite all Muslims under the rule of Ayatollahs.

Then why aren’t Muslim countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the emirates of the Persian Gulf rushing to unite under the banner of Ayatollahs?

We may think that we have the answer – oh yes, some are Shi’ites and others are Sunnis.

It’s a known fact that Shi’ites are a minority among Muslims, comprising on average no more than 20 percent in most Muslim countries. They are looked down upon by the authorities and generally considered second-rate Muslims. While observing their own traditional theology they accept their predicament.

The theological revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini has completely changed this state of affairs. Iran, which is not only a Shi’ite state but also a country ruled by the Shi’ites, has turned into a source of inspiration for the impoverished and disenfranchised Muslim masses. From now on, according to this new theology, it is the Shi’ites who are destined to lead all Muslims in a jihad for the transformation of the world order and world hegemony.

This, of course, should be done in the Name of Allah.

If we take into account that we are talking here about the Persian people, one of the most ancient and culturally enlightened nations, which keeps in its historical memory its experience of having created a great empire and which pines for this time of glory, we can imagine the power of the religious impulse projected by the Republic of Iran.

For such Sunni countries as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the emirates of the Persian Gulf or the Sunnis of Iraq this looks like the worst nightmare, particularly considering that the Shi’ites happen to reside in the most oil-rich areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Leaders of these countries are dreaming, more than anything, about some kind of miraculous power that would save them from an internal Islamic Revolution as a result of which Shi’ites would rule over the Sunnis.

That explains why they are staying away from this war even though they are being urged to fight for the honor of Muslims. They know very well what will happen to their Sunni honor once Shi’ite Iran succeeds in gaining leadership of the Muslim world. Compared to this catastrophic event which would destroy their way of thinking and their age-old way of life, problems with Israel seem no more than an annoying nuisance which can be ignored.

It is clear that only those who do not limit their analysis to the world’s existing realities can assert that all Muslims will certainly unite under the banner of Iranian Ayatollahs.

They have a preconceived idea of the world as being “wrong and unjust,” which is why they think they can disregard it.

• In this      respect the overall situation in the world is currently helpful to

the theologians of Iran because the modern world does indeed have a great number of problems. “The gold billion” of the world’s population have everything progress has made available in this day and age, while it exists side by side with the rest of mankind which has to accept a life of deprivation and humiliation. Muslims do not belong to the “gold billion,” and they feel that they are being oppressed. And Shi’ites, being the oppressed minority among Muslims, consider themselves oppressed doubly. So who if not they should lead the world struggle of all the oppressed peoples for a better world?

Of course, the Muslims have found themselves in a very difficult situation.

There is nothing surprising about the fact that Muslims perceive the world order which had developed within the body of an alien Europe as “wrong and unjust.” A non-Christian and non-European person is unable to adjust to it. And if you try to convince me that I am mistaken here, I will have to remind you of our own position in Europe just a 100 years ago.

Our own Orthodox community, merely a 100 years ago, went out of its way to prevent us from succumbing to Western temptations, forbade us from studying at universities, going to the theatres, and wearing “immodest” clothing (as you can imagine, bikinis were not even on the horizon then).

And merely a 100 years ago, the Europeans reproached us Jews for stubbornly clinging to our traditions and refusing to assimilate. But as soon as we began to integrate, they tried to expel us because deep down inside they didn’t want us in their midst.

And we, just as Muslims today, were at a loss, not knowing how to handle this world that was so “wrong and unjust.”

This given that we had lived in Europe for many centuries.

• At such      times, when people’s familiar picture of the world and way of

life collapses before their very eyes, people understandably worry about the future – what awaits them there? What they should strive for?

It’s a time to search for truth?

As far as the religious orthodox are concerned, they are reacting to the situation in their own way with an exalted anticipation of the promised “end of days” and the coming of the Savior, whether it be the Messiah, Christ, or the hidden Imam Al-Mahdi (depending on the religious confession).

Seen in this light, at first blush nothing new is happening in Iran.

True, the Iranian Ayatollahs have convinced the Shi’ites that the time has come for them to lead humanity’s struggle so that, in Khomeini’s words, the Name of Allah would resound across the world.

True, the President of Iran, Ahmadinejad, is a religiously orthodox man, a true believer in the coming of the Imam Mahdi. There is some information on the Internet to the effect that while he was Mayor of Tehran, he ordered the construction of a wide avenue for the Imam Mahdi and, upon becoming President, assigned $17 million for the construction of a mosque in Jamkaran that will toll the Mahdaviat, faith in Mahdi, throughout the world.

So what? I live in Israel and am used to people who await the coming of the Messiah. Why shouldn’t something that is completely natural for Judaism and Christianity be foreign to Islam?

• The real      issue is that in the case of the Iranian Ayatollahs, it is not about

Islam at all.

It is all about religious dualism, which has two unmistakable identification signs – the attitude toward Jews and toward Death.

That Ahmadinejad hates Jews is his own problem.

But he is convinced that Mahdi will not arrive until the Jewish state is destroyed. Zionism is, for him, an Evil creation that stands in the way of an era of universal harmony, happiness, and justice.

He never tires of repeating that the existence of Israel is the preeminent problem facing all Muslims. It is a train of thought typical of religious dualists.

A Monotheist seeks the root causes of problems within himself. That is why today there are a number of Muslim thinkers who seeks within Islam itself the source of problems currently afflicting their peoples. And this is a normal phenomenon, common to other Monotheists, Christians and Jews.

The dualist does not look for causes within himself. From the very outset, he sees himself as “a Child of Light.” He relies on a mystical resolution of problems, on a Heavenly Absolute Goodness, opposed by an Absolute Evil.

Unsurprisingly, Jews represent this Evil, whereas for Iranian Ayatollahs and for Iranian President Ahmadinejad, Absolute Evil is represented by the Jewish state.

If there was no Jewish state the Muslims would have no more problems. It’s as simple as that.

• If      Ahmadinejad’s sacral anti-Semitism was the only distinguishing

characteristic of his faith we might say that it presents a problem for the Jews alone. But that is not so.

The religious ideas of Ayatollah Khomeini absorbed by President Ahmadinejad have given rise to a phenomenon which is resented by Muslims themselves. It is incompatible with the tenets of their monotheistic faith, and they are unable to explain it: how has an actual cult of Death developed within Islam?

Mind you, Islamic jihadists, extremist suicide bombers, whom we now view almost as the norm of Islam, only appeared after Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution. This new theological “norm” was demonstrated to the world by the selfsame Hezbollah when its first suicide bomber blew himself up in Lebanon. It happened relatively recently, in 1983.

The virus spread instantly: these “Children of Light” who blow up “the Children of Darkness” have dispersed across the entire world – in the Near and Middle East, in Europe and the United States.

Their reach is truly global, and the idea of Death has enveloped practically the entire population. Now even women and children are dreaming about Death.

This is some sort of bloody, typically dualistic orgy – these people are being brainwashed, supposedly in G-d’s Name that this world isn’t worth living in and that after death something far greater than this “imperfect” world awaits them.

• To blame      Islam for Khomeini’s dualism is no different than blaming

Christianity for Nazism or Judaism for Marxism.

All these three cases involve tremendous disdain for earthly existence in the name of some form of higher, heavenly ideals, known only to a few chosen leaders, “the Children of Light.” They involve likewise a cult of Death and hatred toward Jews. In terms of its influence on Muslims, Khomeini’s theology can be compared only with the impact of Hitler’s ideology on Christians or the teachings of Marx on Jews.

All of these three phenomena are united by the fact that each was born within traditional monotheistic religious confessions and that they testify to the profound crisis of the Monotheistic Idea, with dualism – however it manifests itself in each confession - being a reaction to this crisis.

Muslims are now forced to prove that not all of them are would-be suicide bombers just as the Jews have to prove that not all of them are Marxists, socialists or lefties, and Germans have to prove that not all of them are Nazis.

That is why when a Muslim tries to convince me that the fundamental essence of jihad is man’s self-improvement, I tend to believe him. It does not faze me in the least that in some cases self-improvement can be manifested in one’s readiness to fight and die for one’s faith. We Jews, too, have shared this impulse and Christians also have their share of warriors and martyrs for the faith.

Still, for none of these monotheists, whether they be Jews, Christians, or Muslims, can Death itself be an ultimate religious goal because the G-d of the Revelation at Mt. Sinai is the Creator of Life. He has created this world and He has blessed it. And this is incompatible with Death.

It is not because I am proficient in the subtleties of Islam that I trust this Muslim. I am no expert in these matters. This is simply the logic of monotheism – monotheism is oriented toward Life.

That is why when the leader of a state in today’s world – Iranian President Ahmadinejad, in a moment of religious ecstasy, proclaims “we love Death,” when sermons about Death as a religious goal abound in mosques, when children at schools are taught to love Death as it now happens in the Palestinian Authority, I have no doubt that monotheistic Islam is not involved here at all.

We are dealing here with religious dualism in its unadulterated form – the most virulent form of hatred toward the G-d of the Revelation at Mt. Sinai.

Hatred of G-d is the source of the irrational hatred toward Jews and the Jewish state alike. Were it not for the element of “witnessing” this hatred would not bring people into such ecstasy.

***********

• We should      all remember this now, when we see the first signs of the

inevitable universal condemnation of Israel for its supposedly disproportionate response to the actions of Hezbollah.

Once again, people want to portray the Jews as pathological killers. Big deal, two soldiers were abducted and these Israeli warmongers, these bloody murderers… Well, you know for yourself, what CNN and other western media can do to portray Jews as enemies of the human race.

You and I have already exchanged our thoughts about how western correspondents portray the news. And even so, each time I encounter their work, I can’t help being amazed.

Here are the figures from the media: 56 Jews killed; 548 Lebanese, including 477 civilians.

And the expression on the correspondents’ faces when they recite these figures is coupled with such devastating images of suffering on the part of the civilian population that the conclusion the correspondent is after becomes self evident: Jews are the enemies of mankind.

And, apparently, it makes no difference that Hezbollah has turned people’s homes, schools, hospitals and even mosques into stockpiles of weapons and sites for the launching of rockets. That they do not spare their families, their own children, is well known. Yet even the families are complicit.

Not long ago, I watched a program about one of these families, in which they could voice their credo themselves in a live interview. It’s a horrifying sight, believe me: here is a mother who sits her young children in front of a picture of their dead father, a jihadist, and explains to them that he is waiting for them and that they, too, will die similar heroic deaths. There was also an interview with a schoolteacher who spoke animatedly of how wonderfully she teaches the children math, so that they can destroy the Zionist enemy.

This is simply pathological!

We bomb them because we have to destroy their weapons’ stockpiles and launching sites. It isn’t our fault that they have placed these military objectives in the midst of kindergartens, hospitals and their own bedrooms.

But they fire at us because they unabashedly want to kill us. They shout “death to the Jews” at every corner and fill the rockets with ball-bearings and shrapnel to inflict maximum suffering, particularly among the civilian population, which never intended them any harm.

The correspondents are outraged by the numbers?

But the only reason why we have relatively fewer casualties is because Hezbollah has not yet laid hands on the types of weapons, which could lead to mass casualties among the civilian population. They have already demonstrated that their organization has an arsenal of rockets, which can reach any part of our tiny “superpower.” Sheikh Nasrallah openly brags that his people can kill us anywhere and ensure that we will be killed by the thousands, not the hundreds. These same people are striving to get their hands on unconventional weapons, and unless they are stopped, they will succeed.

Then once again the world will witness the death of 6,000,000 Jews.

Don’t western correspondents know this?

They know it and understand it full well. The whole problem is that they would actually like this to happen.

And do you know why?

Because for the Europeans, too, deep at heart, we are “the Children of Darkness.” They can’t accept the fact that for 2,000 years, they have been suffering under the rule of our G-d, which they are only too happy to shake off. They can’t help but repay us for our onetime “Yes” at Mt. Sinai.

Six million Jews annihilated in Europe is not enough for them. They can’t get over the fact that not every Jew was killed during the Holocaust. That is why they are turning the whole world against us, to do away with those who have managed to survive. And Israel, which is home to the most virulent part of our nation’s population, is such a convenient target for turning its tiny territory into another Auschwitz.

Do you think that I’m exaggerating?

But ask yourself the following question: what is the point of portraying the news in this fashion so that an inexperienced viewer and listener would take the destroyed streets that had been inhabited by Hezbollah fighters with their rockets for the destruction of the Lebanese state? We have lived part of our lives in the Soviet Union after all. We know that whenever people are being manipulated and brainwashed, it is being done to serve somebody’s interest.

So ask yourself, what is it all for?

Why would western media present us as murderers when everyone knows what Hezbollah is all about? They know why this organization has stockpiled such power arsenals on the border with Israel, and what it intends for the Jewish state.

To my mind, the answer is obvious: western media is preparing world public opinion for another Holocaust. Journalists want to get people to such a point that when these Jews, these monsters, these killers, these only half-humans, these “Children of Darkness” are finally destroyed, as they hope, the world will simply sigh will relief and say: these Jews and their state asked for it all along!

Don’t even try to convince me that western media do this for the ratings, that they are trying to make their materials more sensational or that they are being paid by Arab Sheikhs.

Don’t buy any of this because it’s all lies. And do you know why?

You have to keep in mind one important thing: the Europeans are even willing to close their eyes to the fact that those who kill us today will kill them tomorrow.

They are prepared to die themselves just so that the world will be rid of us.

They are signing their own Death warrant and understand that perfectly well.

That’s all there is to it.

Hatred toward G-d and the Jews as witnesses to His Revelation – that is the lynchpin of all the European talk of “justice,” all the European indignation at “the Israeli aggressors,” all the “objectivity” of their newspapers, magazines and TV shows, all the prattling about the disproportionality of our reaction.

• Believe      me, I am not demonizing them.

Quite the opposite. I think that we, Jews, as the original monotheists, must understand clearly what is happening to them and to fully comprehend the trauma that we have inflicted on other nations when more than 3,000 years ago we said to G-d in the Sinai desert: “Yes. We agree.”

As the original monotheists we have no right to be like them, to sink to their level and seek an explanation for all our problems in external circumstances. We don’t have a right to blame the world because we are constantly being forced into wars, because we constantly have to assert our right to exist, to live and not just participate in hypocritical ceremonies commemorating the 6,000,000 victims of the Holocaust.

As the original monotheists we must be the first to ask ourselves: “If the world has found itself in the hands of Evil what have we, the Jews, done for the triumph of Goodness? If so many have emerged who seek Death, what have we, the Jews, done in the name of Life?”

We are the nation which has given the world the Monotheistic Idea. So we should understand that we will be seen as responsible for its survival.

Alas, the present crisis of the Monotheistic Idea started with us.

Our brand of dualism – the Marxist teaching – was born inside Judaism itself, and we spread this contagious disease all over the world. It is probably no secret for most that Nazism was strengthened in the chaos created by the Marxists.

But the fact that the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and the theology of AyatollahKhomeini is rooted deep in the selfsame theory of Marxism and in other “isms” of European origin is still not apparent to most people. Analytical works on this subject are already beginning to appear. I can recommend that you read a brilliant article on this subject written by Francis Fukuyama and Nadav Samin. It is called, “Can Any Good Come of Radical Islam?”

That is where we must look for the sources of all our troubles!

Some 200 years ago, in Europe, our people came face to face with a problem which the entire world was then confronting: the world had changed – it had changed in principle.

But our spiritual leaders were unable to comprehend this fact. They actually hid from it. In essence, they hid from G-d’s Prophesy. They did not want to give heed to His Deeds and answer His questions.

So these questions were answered by others: Marx, Hitler and Khomeini.

We must fight now because any sign of weakness on our part will lead to genocide. Our people understand that. That’s why they shout to our leadership: “We will endure…. Only you should destroy them. You know that they will not give up for as long as we exist in this world.”

But we are very wrong to think that the world is angry with us for no good reason.

The world is not waiting for us to destroy Hezbollah.

The world is waiting for us to destroy religious dualism.

And this battle is being waged on the main front – the front of religious ideas.

What precisely I have in mind I’ll tell you in my next letter.

It’s too late now to start a subject such as this one. It’s already 2 p.m., and I have promised myself not stay up after midnight.

It just makes me so concerned when I watch the dark clouds gathering over our heads and the blind hatred against us thirsting for more blood. Sooner or later it is bound to start a world conflagration.

They are calling us paranoid murderers and saying that our responses are disproportionate!

They are blaming us, who are being attacked by hordes of suicidal jihadists demanding that we hand them over the Promised Land so that they can turn it into another “Palestine.”

Just imagine, they see in this the answer to all of the world’s problems!

There is just one thing that everybody fails to understand – we as well as they –that Palestine is the banner of contemporary religious dualism, and for as long as this phantom exists the world will continue to be in the grips of war waged by “the Children of Light” against “the Children of Darkness”, in other words, the war of civilizations.

But, just as I’ve promised, I will write about this in my next letter.

All the best to you

and your loved ones.

I remember quite clearly what went on when we brought Arafat, the “peacemaker,” here to Israel, when we “heroically” fled Lebanon, and when we “exiled ourselves” from Gaza. So many people predicted accurately where this insane behavior would lead. Thousands of times, they repeated the same thing in different ways, saying that our “honorable” withdrawal would be perceived as a sign of weakness and that our conduct would only bolster their motivation to fight the “Zionist enemy.”

Unfortunately, all this is already a fact of history. The real question is what next?

The most disturbing part that simply can’t be ignored is the predictability with which everything we do, even things we do well, in the end turn against us.

I remember how about 25 years ago, when I was still in the Soviet Union, I noticed this odd pattern: Israel was winning every war it was involved in with flying colors and just as successfully losing the fruits of its victories. Furthermore, as a result of these victories, the situation only deteriorates, though in theory it should have been exactly the opposite.

Even Hamas and Hezbollah appeared in the wake of the victories of the Israeli army: Hamas after the 1967 Six-Day War and Hezbollah after the war with Lebanon, which was waged in the first place to expel Arafat and his gang from Lebanon and to secure our northern border.

What of it now? Look for whom we cleared these territories!

We now have substantially more serious adversaries, with motivations far more deep-rooted than those of Arafat and his henchmen. Take a look at our neighbors: Jordan and Egypt are crushing their own versions of Hamas extremists even though both are Arab and Muslim countries.

Rulers over there know who they’re dealing with.

So why then are we doing the exact opposite, seemingly creating conditions, as if on purpose, to allow extremists to flourish?

It is quite impossible to unravel this mystery without taking a closer look from the inside at how an Israeli’s mentality develops. I’ve been busy watching this process for the past 19 years. And I’ve learned a thing or two, so I can share a few my observations.

I’ve told you a number of times that I have gradually produced my own system of analysis, which may be quite foreign to those of us who come from the former Soviet Union. I always start by trying to find an answer to one and the same question: what do people believe in?

In other words, what is their theological vision of the world (atheism in my view is just one of the varieties). It is precisely this unprovable (and therefore religious) vision of the world that determines a person’s psychology, that defines what he sees as problems, and that motivates him to do one set of things and refrain from another.

You’ve been living in the States for quite a while, and you know full well that after some time your environment begins to change you. You begin to feel that the mentality of being protected by the law, working hard for a living, and acting as law-abiding citizens are completely natural qualities for all Americans, including those who have emigrated to this country from the Soviet Union. Many even go to great lengths to demonstrate their new allegiance, proudly stating “I am an American citizen.”

But very few pause to think (at least I haven’t met a single one) that these qualities are simply the outgrowth of the religious worldview of the founding fathers of the United States who were zealous Protestants, every one of them. These qualities were mandated by their religious beliefs, and they laid the foundation of the new nation, whose people were expected to possess these qualities as well. For as long as America preserves this faith, its institutions will continue to function properly and immigrants will gradually transform into Americans. But, G-d forbid, if this faith is shaken! Just take a look at Europe to see what might happen.

The conclusion is obvious: what people believe in is what they do. The way they understand the world is the way they build it. To make a long story short, they create their lives and themselves according to their faith.

I say all this because it is impossible to understand what is going on here in Israel without asking the fundamental question: what do we believe in?

I am not even touching the issue of traditional rituals, all sorts of religious rules, much less mystical notions about the essence of G-d. I speak solely about how we see the world through the frame of our faith. What is it that we are supposed to do from the point of view of our faith and how is it that we are supposed to act?

I have listened often to the sermons of our Rabbis: on TV, on the radio, and while attending their classes. But most importantly, I have real-life experience: over the course of many years I have observed how our Orthodox Jews live and how they think, and what happens to our fellow former Soviet countrymen when they return to the religion of their forefathers.

And I have drawn one unequivocal conclusion from all this, that Rabbinical faith and statehood are incompatible things.

Our religious scholars have clearly worked out how people should relate within their families and communities. But what next? Isn’t there life beyond those defined boundaries?

What do we know about it? And is it significant for us religiously?

And that’s the whole point – that for the religious Jew life beyond the synagogue-yeshiva-community is shrouded in a haze through which he can only barely discern the outlines of something unknown. And this unknown only takes shape when the Jew stumbles upon it and hits his head.

You don’t mull over these problems because you have no occasion to encounter them. It’s just that you live in a country that was built by a different people and that group of individuals, namely the founding fathers of the U.S., borrowed their ideas from their own religious experience and, as we can see, they succeeded. And that’s why you are so happy and proud to live in your country.

As for us Israelis, we have to think about these problems because it is precisely here, in our own state, that we discover the limitations of our people’s religious experience.

Even further, we discover that it is the limitations of our religious experience that give rise to our problems.

In the Diaspora, the one thing we had to know was how to separate ourselves from others and their experience. And that was the right way to go about it, given that our main goal was to survive, not to be completely absorbed, and not to disappear as a people.

Even now, when faith has become a matter of choice, you, in America, still attend the synagogue because the Shul is the place that brings Jews together, a place where you can go to feel that you belong to a certain community of “us” as opposed to “them.”

But in Israel the synagogue serves an entirely different function: the “we” are Jews but so are “they,” just different ones. In other words, in the context of the Jewish state, the synagogue divides people, since each group has its own synagogue, its own Rabbi, its own set of Kosher rules, its own traditions, and so forth. Take into account that there are also different educational systems, diverse neighborhoods, etc., and you will see that different sections of the population of Israeli Jews are for one another completely unknown entities.

Israelis are united exclusively by that which was created in contradiction to our religious tradition, that has nothing to do with it, and that has been borrowed from others: first and foremost, modern occupations and institutions built around them. In this field, people’s interests truly intersect, and they work with one another as a people.

Everything that we needed so vitally to create our state, we had to copy from other nation’s experience. Not only that, and here is the most important part – before anything else, we had to cross the boundaries set up by traditional religion and break free. What else could we do if in the name of G-d, everything was forbidden to us, including the study of natural sciences and practicing professions on their basis? Even the revival of Hebrew as the national language rather than the language of our religion was also forbidden.

This is how it happened that only those who fled from religion were capable of taking upon themselves the task of building the Jewish state.

And here I am approaching the most important point, which prompted me to write to you in the first place.

The fact that we were able to recreate a state in which religious people sit in parliament, work the land, and are involved in science and industry creates a dangerous illusion that all of this is a natural continuation of our history – as if we lived in our small-town Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe and then swiftly merged into our own state.

The trouble is that people’s psychology has not changed! It remains instead the mentality of the small-town Jewish community – the shtetl! Utilizing the fruits of the religious experiences of other nations has not meaningfully affected our collective mentality.

So what can we do about it?

One has to live here, and quite a few years at that, constantly observing the people, in order to see how one way or another every person in Israel becomes a member of a “provincial” community – even one who was born and raised in a major city and who outwardly maintains that image. Many feel this intuitively and leave, without ever being able to pinpoint the reason.

The interests that are being cultivated in an Israeli from early childhood are extremely limited. His worldview is highly superficial, even if he has traveled the globe. An Israeli is curious about the world but even if he is quite knowledgeable, he is completely unable to comprehend the world and make larger systemic inferences from it. Only those who have learned these skills elsewhere, outside the Jewish state and through the means of a different religious experience are capable of doing this.

Certainly, a great deal depends on the family, but I am not referring to each individual case. I am referring to the nation as such and to the atmosphere in this society, which determines the intellectual level of the people as a whole and those particular individuals who are responsible for making critical governmental decisions – from the highest level politicians to the lowest level bureaucrats.

Whatever issue you may be facing, you will always encounter a mode of thinking that cannot even conceive that this particular question is just part of some larger and more general problem. Any solution is always narrowly specific and near-sighted.

In the meantime, the issues pile up, and as the state continues to develop, their number only increases and the relationships between the problems grow more complex. That is why each of these problems must be resolved only within some broader framework. Otherwise, the moment inevitably arrives when one problem becomes disconnected from the others, when different solutions cease to mesh together, and the result is a systemic crisis.

This is precisely what happened now. That is why we found ourselves in the current situation.

Please note the following: the only social model which is being implemented here is the conceptual theory of the Israeli left. No matter how ridiculous it may be, its founders at least bring up certain general human issues. The way they interpret them is another story, but they at least understand that such problems actually exist.

It has turned out that Shimon Peres – our Levantine “Kremlin dreamer,” a relic of Marxism – is Israel’s only social scholar. Yes, he has offered the nation his unreal concept of the New Middle East, which is strikingly similar to the program of building a communist society – maybe a great theoretical construct but one that doesn’t work with real people. But if nothing else, Peres thinks about Israel in the context of the global village.

That’s why the left in Israel are leading the people as though on a leash. And this continues even though the people sense that something’s wrong and fail them in the elections.

But what can the people do? Whom can they advance against our leftist thinkers?

You probably want to point to the religious settlers?

You must be kidding. If anyone is incapable of thinking conceptually, it is surely them.

What is this Jewish nation whose fate the settlers constantly debate and pray for?

Their “nation” consists of those who attend their synagogues, live in their settlements, or, in the best case scenario, are like-minded neighbors from nearby kibbutzes. What the rest of the Israeli population looks like, what is really happening in our state, they have no idea and no interest in finding out because all of this lies outside their sphere – keeping Kosher, observing Shabbat, visiting the mikveh, going to the synagogue or Yeshiva, etc.

And surely that leaves no space for conceptual problems!

But the rest of us, Israelis, are suffocating because we can’t explain within the framework of our religious tradition, to ourselves or anyone else, why on earth we returned to this land. What is it that we doing here that we could not do without our own state?

The state places responsibilities on our shoulders that we didn’t have to bear before and forces us to think about things we didn’t have to consider.

In our Jewish state we’ve been joined by non-Jews, both those who lived here before us and those who emigrated with us. Do we even have the slightest notion of how we are to interact with them? Have we been able to work out any clear and comprehensible rules for this interaction? Not even close. We’ve let things run their course. And here’s where our inaction has brought us: angry non-Jews are drawing swastikas on the walls of our houses, illegal Arab construction is in full swing, and Arab members of the Knesset, from their parliamentary seats, call upon foreign governments and local extremists to crush the Jewish state.

It’s easiest just to blame our antagonists. But they are not the real problem. We are the problem – non-Jews in our midst are simply disoriented because we don’t know how to be the masters of our own home. For 2,000 years we have been temporary tenants. And even before we were expelled we always lived under someone else’s yoke – some power was always lording over us in our house, whether it was the Persians, the Greeks, or the Romans.

We never learned how to govern ourselves.

Likewise, we haven’t learned how to work together with other nations. For 2,000 years we’ve been learning how to separate ourselves from everyone else, and that is why even when someone extends us a hand of friendship, we don’t really know what to do with it. And in pushing it away, we lose those who wanted to be our friends or at least to collaborate with us. We abandoned the Southern Lebanese army to their own fate, and now in their stead we find Hezbollah.

With this kind of collective mentality, no military victories will help us. Even if our army could conquer, as the Torah says, all the lands from the Nile to the Euphrates, we would still be at a loss for what to do and would then escape to some small plot of land where we could fence ourselves off from everyone else. The point is that this tiny fenced-off piece of land is the image of the world imprinted on our subconscious mind, the most that the people with a small-town mentality can aspire to.

Now compare us to the Arabs. However problematic their current situation may be, they have one major advantage over us – the self-consciousness of a people who have had, thanks to their religion, the experience of creating a caliphate.

The Arabs are accustomed to being masters, which is why they think in different categories.

No matter how many times they lose in war, they will recover to fight again. And each time they rise up with greater motivation, if only because they feel in their bones that we Jews, with our small-town, shtetl mentality aren’t supposed to have a state. We aren’t up to it yet. That is why they believe that sooner or later, we will get tired and give up.

We don’t give up only because we have a certain religious vision of the world. Truth be told, our vision is one of process and history – the land of our forefathers, the Diaspora, and the return. This vision has given us the strength to survive for 2,000 years, to return, and to rebuild a state.

But today we need more. If we want to move forward, if we would like to create a state here that has significance not only for our people (which, by the way, isn’t the case today) but also for our present-day adversaries, we must understand that such problems as ours are not solved on the battlefield.

No matter how many wars we may win, no matter how smart our army, how outstanding our military leaders, how brave our soldiers, no matter what committed patriots we are ourselves, none of this will help us. We won’t break out of the vicious circle until we understand where the exit lies.

And do you want to know where it is?

The exit must be sought in the realm of religious thinking.

That’s all for now.

All the best to you and yours.

1

The most striking proof is the fact that we have lost the moral right to the Holocaust. Can you imagine something like that? Denying the Holocaust, i.e. the killing of 6,000,000 Jews, has become commonplace. But that’s not all. We are now told that even if some unpleasant things did happen to the Jews, they were no more than a minor mishap. Moreover, what the Jews are doing today to the “Palestinian people” is a genuine Holocaust – something very similar to what the Nazis had done to the Jews. The world community embraced all the lies coming from the Arabs so enthusiastically, as if it was prepared to come up with the most ridiculous pretext to attack the Jews. Why would the world want to know the true reason why the Arabs fled from Eretz-Israel in 1948? The truth is that they followed the call of their own leaders who urged them to leave their homes. Those leaders reassured their people that they would do away with the Jews, spilling Jewish blood all over this land but after they got rid of them, all the Arabs would be able to come back and take possession of the property belonging to the Jews. So it wasn’t the Jews who expelled the Arabs from their lands. On the contrary, the Jews were the ones so badly persecuted in the Arab countries that they were forced to flee, leaving behind their property and personal belongings. About 900,000 Jews fled from the Arab countries at that time, and 750,000 of them found refuge in Israel. The Arabs mercilessly destroyed the ancient Jewish community in Iraq. These Jews descended from captives in Babylon who had settled in the land of ancient Babylon long before the Arabs came there.

So, the Arabs left the land they lived in of their own free will, while the Jews were compelled to flee for their lives. Thousands of Jewish refugees integrated themselves in this tiny Jewish state, becoming its citizens, while the so-called Arab refugees were held in special camps within the vast territories of the Arab world for the sole purpose of inventing the “Holocaust of the Arabs”.

But why pay attention to any of these facts? The main point is “to steal” the Holocaust from the Jews and “hand it over” as the crown of thorns to those who followed in the footsteps of the Nazis.

2

It would be a mistake, however, to think that the only ones to blame are the Arabs and those who hoped that they would finish off the Jews the way their predecessors counted on Hitler to do the same. Let’s see how we, Jews, deal with the Holocaust issue.

Instead of learning, once and for all, a lesson from Moses who taught us not to get involved with the Gentiles, not to copy their example and not to follow their path, we do just the opposite, ignoring our past experience. We have become so attached to the Gentiles that nothing can separate us from them. We complain and whine:

“Oy, vey! Don’t you see how miserable we are? Aren’t you sorry for us? Promise that you will treat us better from now on!” We don’t notice that the whole world is laughing their heads off: “Dream on!”

The rise of anti-Semitism is unstoppable like yeast in dough. The Arabs are bragging that they are determined to finish what Hitler had started, and the world loves them for it.

And yet we don’t notice a thing. History repeats itself. We are hurtling at an ever-accelerating pace towards disaster. We are so eager to please our torturers that we abandon reason and sanity, helping them to engineer another Holocaust.

3

Years ago, I was severely rebuked for saying, “I don’t need your Babi Yar,” to an official at the Kiev Department of the Ministry of Internal affairs. We, “refuseniks,” would go there on a regular basis to try to resolve our differences with Soviet authorities.

When I said, “I don’t need your Babi Yar,” I didn’t mean to betray the memory of the events at Babi Yar where the Nazis murdered 33,771 Jews. But I absolutely refused to accept the notion that non-Jews were going to dictate to me what I should preserve in my memory and in which way I should remember it.

I’m sure you know what this monument, the one the authorities grudgingly erected, looked like. They wanted to build an entertainment center on the killing ground of Babi Yar… Only after a public outcry, they agreed, willy-nilly, to hold a mourning ceremony instead of having fun. But since anything related to Jews made them sick to the stomach they decided to erect a monument to “all the victims in general,” without any emphasis on the slaughter of Jews. In other words, they decided to build a memorial, which would erase any memory of the largest single massacre of Jews in World War II.

The memorial has met these requirements. There is a monument to the POWs, and, indeed, they were shot and killed in the ravine of Babi Yar. The same monument commemorates the tragic fate of the local civilians who were captured as hostages and executed. Alas, nothing in the monument identifies the Jewish victims, nothing at all. So how do the Jews respond to such a “monument”? They walk around it, viewing the stone images from different angles, and, finally, somewhere at the very back, they discover, among “all the victims in general,” the image of an elderly man. They take a close look at the old man in the composition, and they say:

“Oh! Don’t you see this old man? He has such a typical nose – it’s slightly hooked. Isn’t this a clear indication that he might be Jewish?!”

If that’s the way you want to remember Babi Yar, you’re welcome to do so. But as for me, I resent this kind of memory. I don’t want somebody else to decide for me how I should remember the Holocaust, what I should pay attention to, and what’s important and what’s not.

We, Jews, have a very special memory. Let me bring up one episode. I was 15 or 16 years old when my mother took me to Kiev for the first time to visit with her friend. A couple of years prior to that a major catastrophe occurred in the area. A large-scale mudslide with numerous fatalities hit a neighborhood near Babi Yar. “This is punishment for the Jews,” people said. Stories about this tragedy left a powerful impression on me.

Shortly after our arrival, Mom’s girlfriend took us to Kreshchatik, the famous main street in Kiev. As I was standing there along with my Mom and her friend, I experienced an amazing sensation: I was turning into a tree. Roots were extending from the soles of my feet down into the earth. They were growing very fast in every direction and soon they reached the level of subsoil waters. Then they began to absorb the water vigorously, causing them to swell. But somehow I knew that they were absorbing something else, not water. They were drinking blood – Jewish blood. I froze in horror. I heard somebody’s voice but I couldn’t move. I wanted to say something but I was numb. I had turned into a tree. At that very moment somebody touched my arm, and the fantasy was gone. Then we went to the place where my Mom’s friend lived. While the adults were busy preparing dinner, we went out to play tennis. I was about to take the racket and start playing when I felt a sharp stabbing pain go through my body as if somebody had pierced my stomach with a spear. The pain was so bad I couldn’t straighten my back. The adults came running out into the yard and almost carried me to bed. Someone called an ambulance. I vaguely remember the first ambulance leaving and another one arriving with special equipment. The second group of paramedics diagnosed me as having had “an ovarian rupture”. When they brought me to the gynecological department, my Mom’s face was pale with anxiety. The doctors suggested that I should be under medical supervision. This supervision produced zero results. Nobody had a clue what it was. I will never forget this first visit to Kiev.

4

You see, I believe that the non-Jews who live on soil soaked with Jewish blood should be the first to honor the places where Jews have been murdered. The Scriptures say: “…the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.” The earth remembers. I know for sure – people go insane when they have to live with sin that hasn’t been forgiven.

You should see how the Holocaust is remembered in Israel! On the morning of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day,air-raid sirens are sounded for two minutes throughout Israel. It is better to be outside at that time, somewhere in a crowded place. You will then understand what the memory of the people truly means. The whole country comes to a standstill as Israelis pay silent tribute to the dead. Cars and buses stop, even on the highways. People stop in the streets and stand at attention. Everyone is silent – the only sound you can hear is that of the siren. It’s alarming like a scream, like a sob through clenched teeth. That’s the only way to remember a tragedy of such magnitude!

Alas, you are wrong if you think that here in Israel we haven’t shown how much we are influenced by the rest of the world when it comes to remembering the Holocaust. It’s shameful that this kind of dependence on the non-Jewish world should continue in our own state. In order to understand what I am talking about you have to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

To begin with, the word combination – Holocaust museum – makes me intensely uncomfortable. I am used to museums since childhood, and yet I cannot fathom how one could come up with the idea of a Holocaust museum. I look closely at the dreadful scenes depicted in each of these pictures. One shows a Jew who is forced to crawl along the sidewalk. A group of women on another picture is ordered to strip before being shot. Every picture tells the story of trampled human dignity. And I cannot help but ask myself: “What if something like that happened to me? Would I want thousands of people to gaze at pictures of me taken at such a moment?” I answer without hesitation: “No way! I’d rather die once again!” Those who survived the Nazi concentration camps don’t want to remember or talk to others about the horrors they endured. Are these victims whose pictures we are staring at without their permission any different from those survivors? Why do they deserve such a violation of their privacy? Is it because they cannot rise from the ashes and give those who decided to humiliate them publicly a slap in the face?

It is a known fact that the Nazis planned to build a museum of the exterminated Jewish people. Probably, many of the shots they took were intended for this kind of a “museum”. The Nazis failed on both accounts. They didn’t exterminate the Jewish people and they never built their museum. But the idea of a museum survived … thanks to the Jews themselves.

Now, would you be so kind to explain: why should we have such a museum? Is it because the non-Jews have many museums? So what? Do we have to copy everything from them thoughtlessly?

I know, you will say that museums are created to promote the study of history and preserve historical documents. I am all for studying history and preserving valuable documents. And yet! Look what we did to the Holocaust legacy. It’s more like an industry now with all these foundations, grants, symposiums and conferences. Do you really think that somebody focuses on the tragedy of the Holocaust, on studying this tragedy and learning lessons from it? Come on! People have turned it into yet another occupation. They discovered what we now call a professional niche. How could they make a profession out of this horror and blood?!

They are trying to persuade us that the present generation should know more about the Holocaust. In other words, if our contemporaries know about the Holocaust, they will never think about repeating it. Unfortunately, knowledge can produce quite the opposite effect. It might arm people with information on how exactly something of this scope can be achieved. Knowledge might actually become a dangerous weapon. Knowledge helps people to overcome a certain psychological barrier. Things that seemed unimaginable might suddenly become a familiar experience. For instance, Germany is manufacturing a game for kids called “Kill a Jew”. Is it because the manufacturers are ignorant of the past or because they know it all too well? In fact, it is possible to make this game even more sophisticated, again thanks to knowledge. For instance, the manufacturers could add a crematorium to it. Whoever uses a greater number of individual elements gets more points. So knowledge might be very helpful in order to score more points.

I don’t even mention the fact that these days when everything is commercialized and psychoanalysis is applied even to advertising of canned food, it wouldn’t hurt if we considered that certain people actually enjoy watching gruesome and horrific scenes of violence, like the ones in those Holocaust photographs.

Too bad we don’t bother to think about that. Instead, we look for any opportunities where we can promote the theme of the Holocaust.

We turned the Holocaust Museum into an official site for laying wreaths. Why not – everybody else has a place where wreaths are being laid, why not us? Any government leader from another country is expected to lay a wreath at Yad Vashem, to demonstrate how upset he or she is, how deeply they sympathize with the Jewish people and regret what had happened to them.

So these foreign leaders stand gloomily at the site of memory. Men wear kippahs and don’t raise their eyes. Evidently, they are mourning. I can’t help wondering what exactly they are mourning. Maybe they just feel sorry for themselves because Hitler didn’t finish the job. Now, they, poor things, have to wrack their brains to come up with the notion of the “Palestinian people” and its liberation movement, and to bring up the issue of the “Israeli occupation”. Don’t you agree? How can one atone for genocide committed in the past and embrace those who openly boast about mobilizing all their resources for future genocide? Let me remind you how warmly Jacques Chirac greeted Yasser Arafat when this “dear guest” honored France with his visit. Chirac was in such a hurry to give a hug to his beloved friend that he almost knocked down his own bodyguards along the way. But Chirac is not the only one who welcomed Arafat as a genuine state leader. As for me, I would never allow a single one of them to get anywhere near our Jewish memory! It is a shame that these politicians are invited to official mourning ceremonies to demonstrate their “official grief”. We absolve them of their sins!

5

What we have done to the Holocaust legacy in our own country only goes to show that despite everything that happened to us, we, Jews, still cannot grow out of our servile and slavish mentality of dependence on the world of non-Jews.

The consequences of such attitudes have been grave. This was true in the past and it’s equally true today.

I am fully convinced that this unhealthy attachment to the Gentile world and the absence of self-sufficiency has resulted in a paradoxical situation, where we fear losing our special rights to Auschwitz, while we demonstrate remarkable indifference to our having lost Hebron.

Do you know what Hebron means for the Jews?

Hebron was actually the first acquisition of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. According to the Scripture, Abraham found Adam and Eve sleeping in the Cave of Machpelah, which was Heth Ephron’s property.

“And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver … four hundred shekels of silver…  And the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre – the same is Hebron – … the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession… "

(Genesis 23:16-20)

Why do you think Abraham purchased Ephron’s field with the Machpelah Cave, called the Tomb of the Patriarchs? Let’s read from the Scripture:

“…give me a possession of a burying-place … that I may bury my dead…”

(Genesis, 23:4)

"And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre – the same is Hebron...

(Genesis, 23:19)

The diseased is Sarah, the mother of the Jewish people.

That is why the Cave of Machpelah became our family tomb. All the Patriarchs are buried there along with their wives – Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. Jacob, who is also known by the name of Israel (that’s why we are bnei Yakov, children of Jacob, children of Israel) died in Egypt. But even there he still remembered about the cave and here is what he commanded his sons to do:

“I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah… which Abraham bought … for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah... And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them.”

(Genesis 49: 29-31; 50:12)

Pharaoh of Egypt who was benevolent to the Hebrews at the time sent a whole procession to carry Jacob’s body from Egypt to his resting place in the Cave of Machpelah.

But Hebron is not only the burial site of the founders of the Jewish people. It is also the birthplace of the Jewish people. Hebron is the place where Abraham and Sarah, who were advanced in years, finally received their long-awaited son, Isaac. Isaac lived in Hebron. Young David was anointed as heir to the throne there.

"And David said: Whither shall I go up? And he said: unto Hebron. So David went up thither… And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.

(2 Samuel 2: 1,2,4)

David ruled in Hebron for 7 years and 6 months before he conquered Jerusalem.

As you probably know, David was not just the King of the Hebrews. He was also the reputed author of many of the Psalms – the collection of sacred texts read by the Jews and the Christians. He is the founder of a royal house, the Davidic Dynasty. His first heir, King Solomon, built the Temple in Jerusalem, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred chest holding the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandmentsthat Moses received from G-d. The Messiah, for whom people are so patiently waiting, also belongs to the Davidic Dynasty – Messiah, son of David, Moshiah ben David. Jesus also called himself David’s son because he referred to himself as the Messiah.

When the First Temple fell, G-d sent the Prophet Jeremiah to Hebron to tell the forefathers what had happened. According to the Scripture, the forefathers tore their garments as a sign of mourning.

…The Holocaust is not the first major event that the non-Jews want to take away from us. According to a Christian legend, in the 5thcentury A.D., the Roman Emperor Theodosius ordered to transfer the bodies of the forefathers to Constantinople. But his messenger lost his sight as soon as he approached the Cave of Machpelah and recovered his vision only when he returned, without having fulfilled the Emperor’s orders.

In 1226 the Mamluk sultan Baybars issued a decree which forbade the Jews to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The Jews were allowed to climb the step leading to their forefather’s graves but not higher than the 7th step. But the Arabs realized it was not exactly their prerogative, which is why they allowed the Jews to enter the cave and pray there despite the prohibitive decree. Why would they suddenly become so merciful? They allowed the Jews inside during a drought hoping that their prayers to the forefathers would bring rain. So the Jews entered the cave and prayed there. “We’re going to wake up the ones who are sleeping in Hebron; we will wake them up in Ma’aras HaMachpelah. The moment you travel there, you can bring the resurrection of the dead. If we wake Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from their sleep, the resurrection of the dead will happen right then.”

Maybe you think that Jewish blood was not spilled in Hebron? Perhaps you think there are no Jewish graves there? First of all, they are everywhere… And secondly…

Once, a son of a Sheikh disappeared. His body was found not far from the Jewish quarter. The Arab judges ruled: the Sheikh should select 10 Jewish youths and kill them on the spot where his son’s body was discovered. The inhabitants of Hebron wrote a letter, which contained the following words: “You don’t know the meaning of horror if you hadn’t seen this horrible sight”.

In fact, Jews saw a great deal of horror in Hebron. In August of 1929, Arabs instigated violence in the Jerusalem area that spread to Hebron, where 64-67 Jews were massacred in a few hours of rioting. They murdered their neighbors with whom they peacefully chatted the evening before and whose help they often sought. Those not killed were crippled so that they would suffer for the rest of their lives. The surviving Jews fled from the city, and their attempt to come back to Hebron resulted in a new pogrom in 1936. The word was passed around that when the mutilated bodies of the Jews were buried, some Arab women heard what sounded like a female voice. “Why did you shed innocent Jewish blood?” the voice asked.

During the Six-Day War Hebron was liberated, and the Jews said that the decree about the 7th step would be abolished forever. What they meant was that the 700 hundred years when they had no rights were over. I don’t mean to say that we, Jews, are above reproach. But let’s face the facts: we didn’t chase out the Arabs or interfere with their religious practices. Everything we had we tried to share with them because our forefather Abraham was their forefather too. True, it seems a bit strange that they should pray at the grave of the woman who chased their father Ishmael along with his mother out of the house. But that was exactly what Sarah did and the Scripture provides us with the precise reason why she did it.

“And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, making sport.”

(Genesis, 21:9)

With a very decisive statement, Sarah requested that Ishmael should be thrown out of the house of his father, Abraham.

“She said unto Abraham: 'Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.'”
(Genesis, 21:10)

Abraham, the common forefather of the Jews and Arabs, got upset but G-d said to him:

“In all that Sarah hath said to thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called "
(Genesis, 21:12)

When we draw parallels with what is going on today we are stunned by the prophetic power of these words.

Now you know what Hebron means to the Jews!

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Too bad that we in Israel don’t care enough about Hebron. Instead, we are obsessed with Auschwitz somewhere in a foreign land. Where the Poles decided to build something there (let G-d be the judge of that) we raised a tremendous uproar. But we gave away Hebron and didn’t blink an eye.

We don’t need Hebron. We are totally preoccupied with our special rights to Auschwitz. Can you tell me, for G-d’s sake, why Auschwitz should be more precious to us than Hebron? When I see yet another festival from Auschwitz featured on TV, I immediately turn it off. I cannot watch these staged prayers of Jews that Polish TV broadcasts. In fact, I cannot understand how people can pray in front of the cameras. Particularly, when we are talking about Polish cameramen, knowing that the Poles murdered Jews who returned, having survived the Nazi death camps.

Our hypocrisy is so obvious. Each time the Israelis attend the Auschwitz festival we hear some kind of scandalous story. We find out that their bodyguards were playing cards and their spoiled brats were so tired and bored that they called in a stripper. It is useless to blame people for their poor judgment. They have to remember why they went there in the first place. As soon as they lose self-control, something shameful happens.

It makes me sick to hear about the grand opening of yet another memorial complex, or center for the study of the Holocaust, all these places where the Jewish elite gather to bolster their egos, paying no attention to the fact that people are already talking about the White Holocaust. The White Holocaust implies total assimilation and the vanishing of the Jewish Diaspora.

I have heard that the souls of those who perished in the Holocaust became reincarnated in the children born after World War II. I have to admit that reincarnation of souls isn’t my strong point. Nevertheless, strange things do occur sometimes.

I vividly remember a dream I had. I am running through a series of cascading rooms. It seems that they will never end. I haven’t seen anything like it in my entire life. A German soldier is following me. He has a gun. I run up to the next door and push it open. Simultaneously, he flings open the door behind me but he doesn’t have enough time to take a shot. Finally, I find myself in front of the last door. I open it, but there is nowhere to run. I am at the end of the road. I cringe with horror knowing that he will be here any second.

He fires at me as soon as he enters the room.

“So that’s the end,” I thought. “I am dead. Well, it’s weird. I am supposed to feel pain but I don’t. I just feel warm.”

I opened my eyes. What a relief – it was just a bad dream. But my back hurts, and this time the pain is real. The bullet from my dream hit me in the spine and that’s where it hurts. I also feel very warm, just as I did in the dream… This strange sensation connected the real world and the world of dreams. At a certain moment, I couldn’t tell which one was real.

Is there any memorial that can preserve such a memory?

I don’t believe in the kind of memory they are trying to impose on us. I don’t think such memory is genuine. I don’t believe that the Holocaust should be commemorated with an annoying monument in the heart of Berlin.

We, who brought into this world the very idea of the unseen G-d, fail to recognize that genuine memory is invisible. Instead, we would like to touch our memory with our fingers, exactly the way the pagans touch their idols. Well, it’s an alarming sign. What it implies is that the memory we have is no longer genuine. When we say, “Never again!” it also means that we will not repeat the same mistakes. Gained experience is the only true monument to a tragedy of such magnitude. But we haven’t been able to erect such a monument to the Holocaust! We didn’t actually learn or remember anything! And that’s the real reason why the Arabs stole our Holocaust from us so easily.

We haven’t given up our dependence on the world of non-Jews. That’s why we don’t need Hebron. So what remains? Sure, it’s Auschwitz.

We have made our own choice!

After September 11, Israelbegan to be perceived as “the somber capital of the world.” I have heard from many Israelis that a new component has appeared in their conversations with those who have never lived in Israel. These folks are trying to figure out how they can apply Israeli experience to what can now potentially occur in their respective countries. I had a similar feeling when talking to people. They seemed to be asking about us in Israelbut they actually wanted to know how to behave in a situation when a chance passer-by could turn out to be a terrorist intent on killing them. Should they go to restaurants, shopping malls and movie theaters anyway? Do they need to keep gas masks in their homes? How do they prepare their children for these extreme circumstances?

The world suddenly came to realize that we have lived that way for years and have gained some experience in the process.

It’s difficult for people to accept the idea that there are some who just want to kill them. Some who thirst for their blood. Now tell me, did this horrible tragedy have to happen in New York for everyone to realize what we knew all along – killing Jews is just the beginning? It’s the litmus test.

When after yet another terrorist act in Israel, I get a call from overseas and the person calling suggests that there are less dangerous places in the world, I always say, “Take a good look around! Can’t you see there’s danger right under your nose? You couldn’t seriously think that these people will be content with killing Jews in Israel, while the rest of the world remains safe!”

Perhaps it’s only now that many people are beginning to recognize that the dark force we confront here in Israelis filled with hatred toward everyone. Human life never had any value for those who won’t leave us in peace, and blood was always cheaper for them than water.

It’s frightening that their attitude to death, which is part of their accepted everyday reality, is becoming the norm for everyone else with alarming speed. They are consistently training us to tolerate hatred and death, and, after a while, we no longer notice ourselves change and respond with apathy to this endless killing that is quickly becoming routine.

I remember how I was looking at pictures taken in the Warsaw Ghetto and thinking to myself: death has such a mundane appearance. I found it impossible to understand the psychology of people who started to perceive death as a “normal” thing. Here they were, walking along the street past emaciated children and people in the last throes of death... And they just walked by as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

At the very beginning of the Intifada the response to the death of innocent people was different – everyone remembered the names of the victims, talked about them and knew their faces! A University professor was recently killed in Israel. He was shot to death by terrorist sniper fire while driving in his car. His death elicited very little response. The death of a single individual no longer affects us. We now react only to mass deaths. Victims are perceived as unidentifiable statistical data. Yesterday I caught myself continuing to organize my CDs as I was watching another bloody attack on TV. I suddenly remembered the faces from the Warsaw Ghetto and thought to myself, “So that is how they were taught to accept the idea that killing Jews was a normal thing.”

I tried to imagine what the people in the Ghetto must have felt when they went out into the street realizing that they might never return to their homes, caught by the Nazis in a routine roundup and designated for liquidation. I imagined them peering into the faces of their loved ones whom they might never see again…

How many Israelis saw their family members go out to buy groceries, spend an evening at a nightclub or a local restaurant with friends, or even simply get on a bus, only to find them in the morgue the next day or discover their crippled bodies at a hospital!

There is no way to know which of us will be designated for liquidation. After every terrorist act, I immediately rush to call my friends, asking, “Are you all right? Has everyone come home safely?” I sometimes want to phrase it differently, “Where any of you designated for liquidation today?”

Every single day the media warns us about new terrorist acts being hatched and prepared. These bloodthirsty monsters, who are always ready to go on a lethal rampage, appear out of nowhere, oozing from under the ground. Their voracious appetite for murder grows by the day. In the meantime, the thought that systematic liquidation of Jews is normal is being repeatedly drummed into our heads.

There was such uproar in Europe after the terrorist attack in New York! The Europeans became concerned that this terrible tragedy might put an end to the systematic liquidation of Jews in the Jewish state. Politicians rushed to Israelto voice support for the killers, calling them “a national-liberation movement”. What precise wording! These people were “liberating” the Holy Land from the Jews. What mission could be more important than that?!

Throughout history, non-Jews invented a variety of reasons that could turn the killing of Jews into their own sacred duty.

“They crucified Jesus,” – kill the Jew!

“They use the blood of Christian infants to make Passover matzah,” – kill the Jew!

“They have imposed their ideals on the Nordic race through Christianity,” – kill the Jew!

“The Kremlin Jewish doctors conspire to destroy the virtuous Soviet people,” – kill the Jew!

They have now invented a new “sacred duty” – freeing the Holy Land from Jewish “occupiers”. Once again, we are the embodiment of sin in their eyes.

They call their new blood libel “the Jewish occupation of the territories.” This means that they can once again yell, “Kill the Jew!” but put on superior airs as though they were saints.

So what are the “territories” that the Jews have supposedly occupied? The entire Christian civilization grew out of words of the Scripture, so everybody knows what it says from childhood: it speaks about the Creator’s covenant with the Jews, the Sinai Revelation, the Ten Commandments and … the Promised Land. “To your seed I will give this land,” – the Creator made a solemn promise to each of the Jewish forefathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The “occupied territories” are that very Promised Land – Jerusalem, Shechem and Hebron.

They harp on about some kind of “territories” counting on the fact that most ordinary Europeans are hopelessly ill informed and visualize Israelas a superpower that has occupied the lands of a small and heroic people. This fits in perfectly with the traditional anti-Semitic image of a Jewish person portrayed as an all-powerful octopus, snatching innocent natives with its slimy tentacles.

Do you know what would be the size of this “superpower” if their plans were ever to materialize? You might have a hard time believing it but the distance from the Mediterranean Sea to the border in the area of Netanya would be … 8.7 miles. This distance is, how shall I put it, laughable not only for a tank but even for a bicycle.

So who are those people screaming about the “Jewish occupation?” They are basically the same people who during Hitler’s reign were purging the territories of their own countries of the Jews. When we lived amongst them, they yelled to us, “Get out, kikes! Go to your Palestine!” They are now screaming for us to “get out of Palestine”. It turns out that we have “occupied” Palestine.

At Auschwitz, they were purging Europeof the Jews. At Oslo they set themselves a new goal – to purge the entire planet of the Jews.

The European habit of yelling, “Kill the Jew!” has become second nature to them and a key element of their mind-set. That is why Hitler’s flagrant anti-Semitism didn’t make anyone particularly uneasy. Arab propaganda, which is the identical twin of Nazi propaganda, doesn’t make anyone particularly uneasy either. Everybody just pretends that they don’t quite understand what it’s all about.

We are once again portrayed as a blood-sucking crew. A TV serial under the provocative title “Terrorism” recently ran in Abu Dhabi. Who do you think was presented as the chief terrorist? It was the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon drinking Arab blood. He was portrayed as such a dreadful terrorist that his blood poisoned even a vampire. This is a take on the Jews from so-called art. Now here is something that really happened. A UNICEF special representative in Jerusalem demanded that Israel release from jail 160 Arab children whom nobody had even seen. He didn’t demand that the Arabs close down the schools which teach young children how to become “suicide warriors.”

We are criminal in their eyes simply because we exist. And they concoct every sort of pretext, even the most ridiculous ones, as proof that Jews are supposed to die. The entire world wants us to accept this thought. We should come to terms with the fact that we must be wiped off the face of the earth.

Liquidation of the Jews has become a genuine obsession. I am convinced that the united front between the Europeans and Arab anti-Semites can be explained predominantly as part of this obsession, and only then as a desire to protect their oil interests. The so-called Palestinian people are also the product of this obsession. The strategy is a very simple one: if more is done to shrink the territory of our state, which as of now possesses only 20% of the land assigned to the Jewish National Home in the League of Nations Mandate, then Israel would become an Auschwitz and the Jews would perish with nowhere to go.

You asked me to describe our everyday life. It’s just as it used to be. Or almost as it used to be. We are so accustomed to this eternal imperative to “kill the Jew!” that it seems to have transformed into a kind of anti-stress vaccine. We have probably developed special resistance if we can continue to live amidst this never-ending mayhem, and even have fun and make plans for the future.

Is it frightening? Of course it is.

It’s frightening when your fellow citizens are getting killed. But it’s still more insidious and frightening when you watch these deadly plans being hatched and prepared. It’s even more frightening when the killing is justified and everybody tries to convince you that this is how it ought to be. Trust me, a person feels even more unhinged by justification of killing than by the realization that a chance passer-by or traveling companion might turn out to be a terrorist intent on killing him.

What is worse, the entire world is becoming unhinged by this mayhem. Throughout history, no one has ever benefited from hating the Jews. Such hatred brought other nations nothing but harm.

And yet the entire world is being taught to accept that a chance passer-by could be a terrorist intent to kill. Everybody is being convinced to accept that it’s OK to teach children how to become “suicide martyrs.” The entire world is being taught to accept that it’s OK to misrepresent facts as the BBC, CNN and all of the “free” media continues doing.

The entire world is being convinced to accept that mass death has legitimacy.

That is why Israelhas become “the somber capital of the world.” That shouldn’t surprise anyone. It was said for all of eternity: “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.”

The New Yorkattack was indeed bad luck. But it was just the first strike…

That’s all for today.

Best regards to your family.

Liora.