Dear World: I Don't Care, by Avi Lewis

light of 17 Heshvan 5784 | אור י"ז חשון ה'תשפ"ד

 

Dear World: I Don't Care, by Avi Lewis.
Used with permission.

 

Dear World: I don't care

I don't care that you sympathize with Hamas

I know you wouldn't tolerate any of the things they did to us if they would've done it to you

I don't care that you're outraged by Israel's response to the massacre more than the massacre itself

I know you would do everything to eliminate such pure evil if you experienced it yourself

I don't care that this doesn't fit neatly into your carefully constructed narrative of 'Israel as aggressor' and 'Palestinian as victim'

The truth hurts sometimes, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your feelings

I don't care if you think we are at fault, that we had it coming, that Hamas' actions didn't occur in a vacuum (or to deny they ever happened)

If you feel that the poster of a kidnapped child hurts your cause, maybe yours is a lost cause

I don't care about your calls for a premature ceasefire, about your demand that we provide them with electricity, that we stop fighting for 'humanitarian reasons'

What of a humanitarian gesture to release our 230+ hostages — elderly, children, babies snatched from their cribs?

I don't care that you've rallied for Palestine as part of your march for LGBTQ rights, trans rights, workers' rights, socialism, climate change, intersectionality, Black Lives Matter, fighting Islamophobia and 'all forms of racism'

Your gullibility would be laughable if it wasn't so hypocritical. None of those things exist under Hamas

I don't care that you 'love Jewish people — just hate Israel', that you have some friends that are Jewish, that maybe you're ethnically Jewish yourself — and therefore you're entitled to levy every libel in the playbook against us

Words matter. They lead to actions. When a lie is repeated often enough it's accepted as truth. You are laying the groundwork for more attacks against us

 I don't care that you wave the flag of 'human rights', that you've become overnight experts in international law, that you shout fancy slogans you don't understand such as proportionality, occupation and apartheid

Your humanity is selective. In your mind, human rights don't apply to us because we are undeserving. You didn't speak up when our women and children were horribly assaulted

I don't care if you think we are colonialists, imperialists, and settlers and that we should just go back to where we came from

We are back to where we came from

I don't care if you believe in a one state solution, a two state solution, a federation, an internationalized Jerusalem or any other theory drawn up in your ivory tower

We won't readily hold out our necks and endanger our lives in order to satisfy your thought experiments and placate your conscience from afar

I don't care if you consider yourself anti-Zionist but not antisemitic

We've seen enough Jews around the world attacked over the last 3 weeks under the guise of 'anti-Zionism'

I don't care that you think we are too powerful, too technologically advanced, too sophisticated

If we didn't build ourselves up to this point, we'd get eaten alive by Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran and Palestinian terrorism

I don't care that you blame us for 1948 refugees, for the fact that they have no state, for the keys that they wave in their fantasy of 'right of return'

Three weeks ago we got a glimpse of that 'return' looks like and what it means for our children

I don't care if you think we aren't real Jews, that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism, that Jews are a religion and not a nationality and so we deserve no state

Your denials have zero impact on the strength of our ideals and the self-affirmation of our identity

I don't care that you accuse us of flaunting the myriad of UN resolutions, inquiries and statements

They reflect more on the institutional decay of the UN than on us

I don't care about your media coverage, the lies, the equivocation, the acceptance of Hamas talking points and statistics

Your echo chamber is just another weapon in their strategic arsenal

I don't care that you accused us of bombing the Al Ahli hospital

It was only a matter of time before you found a symbol for Israel's wickedness. The subsequent retractions were a fig leaf once the truth emerged that Islamic Jihad was responsible and that the hospital is still standing

I don't care that you see us as a criminal state, a terror state, usurpers, baby killers, Christ killers, Khaybar Jews or any other depravity that exists in your mind

Your libels lay the groundwork for our dehumanization. Rings a bell. We will fight it

I don't care that you've inverted the truth by accusing us of genocide

If positions were reversed and Hamas held the power we do now, you'd see what a genocide looks like

I don't care that you're angry, boiling and outraged

I don't care that you're glued to your TV screens and Telegram channels

I don't care that you're mad

I don't care if you're out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans

We won't die silently the way you want us to

For the first time in 2,000 years we are organized, we are motivated, and we will defend ourselves

We fight for light over darkness

Morality over evil

Not that it matters to you — but we will stick to the rules and hold the high moral ground not because you expect it from us, but because they are a value for us

We will do so ethically and thoughtfully, for we are the People of the Book

Our power and strength are our necessity, because the alternative for us is:

Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Pittsburgh, Toulouse, Farhud, Hebron, Birkenau, Belzec, Babi Yar, Kristallnacht, Kielce and Kishinev

Do you think for a moment that we would return to that reality just to make you feel a little better?

You are deeply mistaken

World,

For so, so long, I really, deeply cared

I cared about fitting in

I cared about what you think

I cared about being a model citizen

I cared about setting a personal example of how a tiny people in a tough neighborhood could still be a Light unto the Nations

How the world's oldest minority — now a majority here — could treat its own internal minorities par excellence amidst the complicated and messy reality of ethnic conflict

How we could painfully dismember parts of our homeland and offer them on the platter of peace to Palestinians that want neither peace nor some parts (they want all of it)

How we could dazzle you with USB sticks, drip irrigation, operating system kernels, Nobel Prize winners, swallowable medical cameras, deep tech, quantum mechanics, generative AI and cures for disease

But now I'm finally accepting that you don't care

You never did

You don't see and you don't hear

And because I cared about what you think so much, that so deeply hurts

...but you don't have my best interests at heart

You take issue with my base identity, with what I represent

Don't expect me to wait for your approval this time

It doesn't matter what I do, you're not going to change

It doesn't matter how I act, because your issue is with who I am

Now I'm going to block out your noise, and do what it takes to win this war

Today
Finally
I no longer care

***

Clarification of the Jews' place in the world, in three videos, and more

 4 Heshvan 5784 | ד' חשון ה'תשפ"ג

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2cnHt9Fgo

 

One small correction: We are not the authors of morality. God, the Creator of everything, is; Moshe Rabbenu took dictation from Him directly, to put it in modern terms. Moshe also asked Him questions and wrote down (at least some of) these conversations.

The normal term for this is: Revelation.

 

This is not a small thing; I don't mean to make fun of Moshe, or of the video host, who seems to be from England (if someone knows more precisely, please comment!). I find his viewpoint refreshing and unapologetic without being arrogant. I hope this video will give strength to the weary. 

 

This ambitious young man has begun a video series about Torah Morality for the World, starting with this one, Who Does the Holy Land Belong To? — Torah Morality for the World, #1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqz3K5ZkE7I

 

You'll find the creators of these two videos on the sidebar  under the section "Get Israel Out of the Defendant's Chair" 🢥: J-TV: Jewish Ideas. Global Relevance.  

 ***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNf40sBcvKk

This videographer is Israeli; I thought you'd like to hear his view as well. He requires real proof from people who disagree with him concerning the rights of the Jews to the Holy Land.

These are just a small sample of what's coming up. I had never seen or heard of these people before.

***

Lastly, R' Chananya Weissman: The Bitter Truth That Must Be Accepted

I have heard that the government is making/has made a law that Israelis who disagree with their conduct of the war will be punished/put in jail (I'm pretty sure I read it recently, but I don't remember where.). I don't think this is the right move, since our leadership hasn't yet overcome the tendency to become "captive in wrong conceptions." 

I don't want to avoid reality, but I also hope this isn't true. We don't need leadership to be in denial. Please send me links one way or the other; I can't find them.

Nevertheless, don't blame the entire world Jewish population for this decision (if it was even made) or any decision like it. Do not apply everything you read about a Jew, or even a group of Jews, to all Jews. It has never worked that way.

***

My personal opinion: The Israeli government system needs a complete overhaul, and nothing less will do. When this "matzav" is over, I'd like to see how many people will welcome a new religious system for the Jewish people in Israel. 

The signs are good. After all, the current drive for every soldier to own and wear tzitzit is driven by our soldiers themselves. Even the ones who don't wear a kippah/yarmulke. I have videos on my phone that attest to this, but I don't know how to get them here for you to see.

And lots of women are reading and reciting Tehillim (Psalms) all the time, all day long.

We need to keep this up!

***

More reading:

The creeping war that isn't making any news headlines | Critical words from Rav Shlomo Yehuda (Yanuka) H/T Tomer Devorah | URGENT - What Gazans need to know NOW! - VIDEO, Arabic subtitles H/T Brucha Weisberger | Warships in Cheshvan |

 

 

Suddenly, real war is thrust upon us...

 26 Tishrei 5784 | כ"ו תשרי ה'תשפ"ד

 

 War - the Temptations (the original version, 1970)

If songs like this one had changed the world, we wouldn't be having this war now.
My beracha (blessing) is that our enemies will end up singing this song,
and the more shortly, the better!

 ***

The Eternal God of the Jews is a Jealous God, and He does not change, despite what others may tell you.

It won't be easy to explain to people who were taught that jealousy and envy are one and the same, synonymous. It wasn't always that way, and since this is a time of sorting things out and coming to clarity, I would like to contribute to that effort, even if only a little bit, by explaining why we need to separate them again in people's minds so that each has its own meaning, even though they usually refer to the same issues.

What does jealousy mean? What is different about it from envy? 

I'd like to share my studies on how and why God dealt with our "rubbing Him the wrong way" (my expression; our Torah example can be found in the Book of BaMidbar/Numbers, chapters 25 and 31, in parashioth Balak and Mattoth, respectively...) long ago, and how that relates to what's going on now.  

Of course, the offense back then was really much worse than a brush of another's hair in the wrong direction; part of the reason is because we don't fully understand God's prerogatives as the Creator, as opposed to our rights as human beings. Some have though that what God does is an example for them to follow, with disastrous results. Misunderstanding this, and many other things, has led to many mistakes, and even criminal actions, on the part of humans the world over.

We do have courts of justice to settle these things...or do we?

The work may be difficult if not impossible, but that doesn't mean we desist from hard questions. I am writing further about this topic, and how it applies to God and our relationship with Him. The war between Israel and Hamas (which might turn out to be between Israel and the "Palestinians" and even more) is a good place to use as an example before we start. I think that God allowed this war because we in Israel especially haven't been paying attention to His role in keeping it relatively peaceful here. Because our leadership is always blocking Him and His ways regarding how the country should be run, He cannot defend it fully. But He will, eventually, when enough of us say, "ENOUGH!"

I should not have to remind my readers that if we had done things the way He wanted them in 1967, when we had just won the Six-Day War, there would be total peace here (I'm looking at you, Moshe Dayan, who made the mistake of letting the wrong people have the Temple Mount at the worst possible moment, and a few others as well, for being all too generous after the war.).

Stay tuned. We may be in for a rocky ride here. Or — and this is what I'm hoping and praying for — a better way up and out of this situation and into the culmination of geulah shlemah for us and for all the good and decent people in the whole world.

***

More reading:

New prayer for the soldiers, translated to English | "I can't believe I'm alive," Rachel Edry told the news site Walla after her release | The "Settler" [Judea-Samaria Jewish Homeland] Heroes Saved Tel Aviv from a Katyusha Holocaust 2.0 | 50 Israeli Supreme Court Decisions...see why Israel needs judicial reform. | Al-Jazeera doesn't want you to see this video about the Temple Mount [Har haBayit]! |