On Tuesday — the eve of U.S.-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians — four Israelis driving in the south Hebron hills near the West Bank town of Kiryat Arba were ambushed by terrorists. Their car was sprayed with bullets at close range and all were killed. One of the victims, it was reported, was pregnant. Among the dead are a married couple, Yitzhak and Tali Ames, who left behind six children, including an 18-month-old baby.
A statement released following the attack by the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said that Hamas takes "full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron." One Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, called the attack "a natural response by the Palestinian resistance to the enemy's crimes." In Hamas-ruled Gaza, the mood was jubilant; photos from the area showed crowds celebrating in the streets, and Hamas supporters handing out sweets to occupants of passing cars.
The reality of such an attack — the thought that there are those who would not only perpetrate it but proudly claim responsibility for it and even celebrate it — is almost too horrible to contemplate. And yet we must face up to that reality — in order to try to bring the perpetrators to justice, to ensure against such a thing ever happening again, and, just as important, to come to a full understanding of the nature of Israel's enemies.
The fact is that the hatred Hamas and other radical Islamist groups feel for Jews and Israel is real. Those consumed by such hatred do not seek peaceful coexistence with Israel. Indeed, there are no possible changes in policy, no territorial concessions, no compromises that Israel could make to satisfy them. They seek only one thing: the elimination of the Jewish state.
The terrorists who committed this atrocity undoubtedly were attempting to sabotage peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians currently taking place in Washington. In this, they failed — the talks began as scheduled on Wednesday. Sadly, their attempt cost four innocent Israelis their lives.
The Bible tells us, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18), and promises that God "will keep in perfect peace" those who trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3). May God comfort and give His peace to those who are brokenhearted over the loss of the four men and women murdered in this cowardly attack — and may the peace that only He can give guide the talks in Washington, fill the streets of the Holy Land, and permeate our hearts as we go about His redeeming work in our broken world.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein President
Israel Pursues Peace — Against All Odds
August 26, 2010
Dear Friend of Israel,
Once again, Israel and the Palestinians are headed to the negotiating table. U.S.-brokered peace talks — the first since the end of 2008, when almost year-long talks broke down — are scheduled to take place in Washington on September 2 between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Abbas.
This time, the faces on the Israeli and U.S. side are new, but the issues are not: control of Jerusalem, borders, the status and location of refugees, security, settlements. And there's the continued and formidable challenge of getting the Palestinians — including ruling parties like the terrorist group Hamas, which is not represented at these talks but certainly wields power — to abide by any decisions made.
If there's one thing uniting both sides in this heated debate, it's pessimism. Few seem to believe talks will yield anything more than a rehashing of the issues followed by a reestablishing of the impasse. In an interview, a well-known political columnist in Israel summed it up: "Most Israelis have decided that nothing is going to come out of it, that it will have no bearing on their lives. So why should they care?" A Reuters news article quoted one Palestinian as saying, "It's a failure from the outset," and another, "We have no hope." Netanyahu himself has said he wants to "silence the skeptics" by reaching an agreement with the Palestinians, acknowledging that many are indeed doubtful that anything will come of these talks.
So, why bother? Why, every so many years, gather world leaders in a room to have the same seemingly doomed conversation? Given the history of previous attempts at peace between Israel and the Palestinians, these are good questions to ask.
The answer is that people of faith — Jews and Christians alike — are told to "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6) and, further, to "seek peace and pursue it" (Psalm 34:14). We know that the true path to peace is charted by God Himself — He, and He alone, knows when it will come about, and whether our efforts will help bring it closer. But, still, we are called to be active participants in bringing about peace, and not to allow our discouragement and cynicism to prevent us from always working for it.
None of this involves being unrealistic. Israel — and any nation that wishes to survive — must maintain a realistic and sober view of its adversaries and refuse to make concessions that will needlessly put its people at risk. Clearly, in this case, Prime Minister Netanyahu — a stubborn realist if ever there was one — has evaluated the risks and potential benefits of negotiations, and has decided in favor of pursuing them.
Let us hope and pray that he has judged correctly. And, no matter what happens — or doesn't happen — in the upcoming peace talks, let us continue to pray and work for peace, and to always remember that we can know peace in our hearts. We can be confident that our job is to keep obeying God's command to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to keep working toward peace in our families, our communities, our world, and to keep trusting that our God of peace will make good on his promise in his time.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein President
Answering the Question: Why the Jews?
August 19, 2010
Dear Friend of Israel,
In June, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at a Jewish elder care home in Metz, France. Two months prior to that, in Argentina, swastikas and phrases such as "Morten Juden" (death to Jews) were spray painted near a hotel where more than 200 people were celebrating Passover. Two months prior to that, a synagogue in Boca Raton, Florida, was vandalized and scrawled with anti-Semitic slurs.
These are just three of the latest examples of anti-Semitism in the world today, showing that — contrary to what some maintain — what one author called "the longest and deepest hatred of human history" is alive and well. While incidents like these, and far too many more like them, illustrate that the reality of anti-Semitism is difficult to refute, its continued existence from ancient times into the present day begs one question: Why?
This is the query Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, and Joseph Telushkin, a rabbi and scholar, tackled in their landmark 1983 book, Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism. The book explores the unique reasons behind the hatred of Jews, and explains why this phenomenon is often misunderstood and not taken seriously enough outside the Jewish community.
Seeing an increasing danger to Jews throughout the world in the years after Why the Jews? was first published, Prager and Telushkin revised and updated their book a few years ago. As the authors state in the introduction to the updated version, "Explaining the almost astonishing eruption of international anti-Semitism is one reason for the new edition of this book. The other is the threat that this Jew-hatred, emanating in our time from the Muslim and Arab worlds, and supported by many on the political Left throughout the world, poses to civilization."
Anti-Semitism, the authors argue, is a scourge not just to the Jewish community, but to the world; non-Jews who believe they are not threatened by it are sadly, even tragically, mistaken. "Moral non-Jews who fail to act against anti-Semites inevitably suffer from them. Nothing about Jew-hatred is clearer than this," Prager and Telushkin write. "Jew-haters begin with Jews but never end with them, as anti-Semitism is ultimately a hatred of higher standards" — as Hitler demonstrated by engulfing the entire world in war during the mid-20th century.
Why the Jews? is an insightful and helpful resource for those who want to understand the unique role of the Jews in human history — and for caring friends of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide, like you. Purchase a copy today. Armed with the knowledge within this book, you can better defend the Jewish people and the state of Israel, fight the rising tide of anti-Semitism, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the world.
Five years ago this month the Gaza Strip changed immeasurably.
A plan to remove some 9,000 Israelis from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank — known as the "disengagement" plan — was first announced by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2003. It was a painful plan to implement — in many cases the Israelis uprooted from their homes had lived there for generations — but it was done in the hope of extricating Israel from the human and financial cost of protecting Jewish settlements throughout the region. So, in August 2005, 21 Israeli settlements were removed from the Gaza Strip and four from the northern West Bank.
The world watched to see if this historic move would help ease the longstanding tensions in the Middle East — and to find out what the Palestinians would make of their newfound autonomy. It was an inauspicious beginning. Just hours after Israel's final pullout, mobs of Palestinians began looting and vandalizing. State-of the-art greenhouses left behind by Israeli farmers to help the fledgling Palestinian economy were destroyed. Synagogues were desecrated by Palestinians who burned Israeli flags and replaced them with the flags of terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
What had been an orderly society under Israeli rule — a place where people lived, children went to school, and families worshipped and attempted to maintain ordinary, civilized existence — quickly sunk into chaos. The consequences for Israel have been serious.
After Israel left the region, Gaza became a launching pad for rockets fired at the Jewish state. The relatively moderate Palestinian Fatah party has been forced from power by Hamas terrorists. Disengagement garnered Israel little in the way of international respect. Though the move was meant to facilitate the peace process, Israel finds herself once again navigating the treacherous terrain to direct peace talks with the Palestinians. Israel's civilized approach — her willingness to compromise, her preference for diplomacy, her appeals to reason — have been met only with further demands, increased violence, and harsher international scrutiny.
In hindsight, it is easy to criticize Israel for disengagement, which represented such a painful sacrifice on Israel's part and has seemed to reap so few benefits. But it is a measure of Israel's humanity that she was willing to take such a risk. While being clear-eyed about the true motives of her enemies, she has consistently remained hopeful for peace and refused to give in to cynicism. As always, Israel's light — the light of democracy, liberty, and freedom — shines even brighter because it is surrounded by countries living in the darkness of oppression, and mired in hatred of their own making.
As we look back on five years of disengagement, may we all remember God's people in our prayers. Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for the entire Middle East, trusting in our all-powerful and sovereign God, of whom the Psalmist once wrote, "But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you" (Psalm 5:11).
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein President
Fighting Erupts at Israel's Northern Border
August 5, 2010
Dear Friend of Israel,
I spoke last week of the belief held by many that war between Israel and her neighbors is imminent -- a war that could spill over to involve the entire Middle East, and perhaps countries outside the region as well. That perception was given added credence in the past week, when events heated up between Israel and her neighbors.
On June 30, a terrorist missile landed in a residential area of the Israeli city of Ashkelon, while another hit a children's therapy center in Sderot the following day. Though property was damaged, thankfully there were no injuries. A few days later, rockets fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula by terrorists landed near the Israeli city of Eilat and in Jordan, killing one Jordanian citizen in the coastal town of Aqaba. While Egypt initially denied that terrorists were operating in the Sinai, it later blamed the attacks on Hamas operatives who it claimed snuck into the area.
Then, Tuesday morning, a skirmish erupted between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Lebanese Army along Israel's northern border. One IDF officer, three Lebanese soldiers, and one journalist were killed when IDF troops conducting routine maintenance along the Israeli side of the border fence returned fire after being shot at without provocation by Lebanese troops. The event is notable because the northern border has generally been quiet since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and also because it provided a rare instance of the United Nations siding with Israel – a U.N. investigation corroborated Israel's account of events.
Whether or not these events are precursors to war remains to be seen. At the moment, it appears that the border skirmish may not lead to a larger battle. While the IDF troops responded with force to the outrageous attack by the Lebanese, and Israeli officials issued strong statements following the incident – Prime Minister Netanyahu called it a "violent provocation" and Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that "Israel will not tolerate any attack on its soldiers or its citizens" – Israel, obviously, is not acting rashly. This is a wise tactic in this volatile region of the world, where events like this can rapidly escalate into wider conflict.
As Israel does what she must do to protect her people, we must continue to pray. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and that Israel will be kept safe during these difficult times. Pray for the relatives of IDF Lieutenant Colonel Dov Harari, who lost his life in the fight with the Lebanese army, and for a swift recovery for Captain Ezra Lakia, who was injured. And through this time of change and uncertainty, let us keep our minds fixed on God, Who remains unchanging and Whose love for His creation is certain, remembering the words of the Psalmist: "I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2).
September 2, 2010
August 26, 2010
. Armed with the knowledge within this book, you can better defend the Jewish people and the state of Israel, fight the rising tide of anti-Semitism, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the world.
August 12, 2010
