Hamas, an Iranian-backed Palestinian terror group, ended any prospect of a Palestinian state Friday when it launched a massive terror attack against Israeli civilians, killing hundreds and wounding more than 2,000.
There is no way that Israelis will ever accept life alongside a Palestinian state now -- not after terrorists invaded Israeli towns, kibbutzim, and even a trance music festival, killing and kidnapping anyone who could not escape.
The videos and photos that circulated on social media were horrific -- most of all, the videos of women being abducted, and of Palestinians shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great!" ) as they trampled a woman's corpse.
Dozens of Israelis were taken hostage, held at gunpoint in their homes or dragged away to Gaza, to an unknown horror. The scenes of Israelis being loaded into trucks evoked films of Nazis doing the same to Jews in Europe.
There is no way to live alongside that kind of twisted society. And it is not the inevitable destiny of Arab or Islamic nations. Just a few days ago, Jews held holiday prayers inside Saudi Arabia for the first time.
Last month, I visited the United Arab Emirates, where I prayed in a synagogue in Abu Dhabi built as part of a government initiative to promote tolerance. I skied with Arab teenagers in Dubai on an artificial indoor mountain. Peace is indeed possible.
But peace is a choice.
When I entered Bethlehem, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, I was told by my driver to hide my kippah -- a Jewish headcovering -- with my baseball cap. On my first visit to Bethlehem, 16 years before, my Palestinian taxi driver, who spoke Hebrew, warned me against speaking the language in public.
This, in a holy town that is a "city of peace." It was that, for centuries: it was Palestinian misrule that made it otherwise.
In September, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United Nations, he talked about the spread of peace throughout the Middle East. When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the General Assembly, he denounced the existence of Israel and even denied Jews the right to pray at the Western Wall, the holiest site in the Jewish faith for millennia. A few weeks before, he had defended Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Israel is now at war in Gaza. The goal, as Israeli columnist Caroline Glick said, must be to end the Hamas regime there. The vast majority of Israelis will support that mission; already, the reservists are being called to their units.
There are only two questions: whether Israel can maintain calm on its other frontiers, including its new alliances with Arab states; and how much of Gaza will be left standing when Israel has finally removed Hamas from power.
The latter question has additional, morally vexing elements to it. Israel's Army Radio, a popular source of news in the country, fretted Saturday about the desire to avoid Palestinian casualties. And there will be incredible pressure among Israelis not to do anything that will endanger the lives of civilian hostages -- including women and children -- currently held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.
One thing is clear: Israel never wants to be in this position again.
That means all talk of a "two-state solution" is just empty air. If Palestinians truly wanted a state, they would have built one -- not just by making peace with Israel, but by investing in their own future instead of terror and hatred.
A Palestinian state is a non-starter; it cannot be a condition for peace.
Palestinians, and Iran, celebrated the sight of Israelis running for their lives. In doing so, they sealed the fate of the Palestinian national project, such as it was.
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
