Ever since the Torah was given to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai, the ability to come and worship at the location of the Tabernacle (in the wilderness) — and later at the site of the Temples (in Jerusalem) — has been a critical part of the Jewish experience. This week’s reading, for example, which talks about the “appointed seasons” or “fixed times for meetings” with God (in Leviticus chapter 23) mentions the so-called Pilgrim Festivals. Three times per year, all the men were commanded to present themselves before God. This commandment is one of those “internal evidences” for the validity and veracity of the Torah. No mere mortal man would write an “instruction” that the men were to leave the women and children behind (undefended) without worrying about their loved ones being attacked while the men were gone on their triennial pilgrimage.
But the validity and veracity of the Torah is exactly what is disputed within the religion of Islam. And, because of this dispute — which is a religious dispute and not a national dispute — Israel is being put into an impossible Catch-22 situation within the Arab world.
On the one hand, voices in the Arab world are calling for the total annihilation of the Jewish State from within their midst. For example, on April 28, 2001, the National and Islamic Forces wrote that “the month of May is the month of the Nakba (Arabic: “the catastrophe,” referring to the formation of the State of Israel in 1948) that was inflicted on our people; this anniversary carries painful memories that should be expressed with activities that continue in the homeland and the Diaspora to reach their peak on May 15th.” More recently, “250 Arab clerics, politicians and activists Wednesday, in a statement, called on the Arab masses to mark the 53rd anniversary of the Jewish occupation of Palestine, or Nakba, by declaring ‘a day of rage’. The anniversary falls on May 15th.”
This doesn’t sound like an Arab world that is willing to co-exist with Israel and live in peace, while having a Palestinian state in over 90% of the West Bank and Gaza. And, in the meantime, other voices in the Arab world are calling for an easing of the restrictions against the Palestinians within the territories, due to the poor economic conditions. In the Jordan Times, recently, there was a quote of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who said, “… ‘the situation will experience a dangerous escalation and violence and terrorism will increase’ because of the bad economic and social situation experienced by the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he added.”
Israelis can see from their recent past that whenever closures are lifted from the territories, there is an increase in violence and murder. This past week, two Israeli teenagers were murdered. On an Internet newsletter from Jerusalem, www.shorashim.net (Editor’s note: currently off-line), I read the following account:
What does it take for a man, or men, to encounter two 8th graders on a nature hike in the hills of Samaria … to pick up stones and sticks and to batter these two to death? What does it take for gunmen to decide to fire mortars and machine gunfire on a civilian settlement from out of the homes of their own unarmed people? What do they think when the other side shoots back in retaliation and wounds and kills innocent people? What does it take to stand in ambush and murder in a hail of bullets a young father of two on his way to fill up on gas?
What it takes is … hatred. Not just any hatred … but a hatred nursed and developed by the Palestinian schools system and the religious establishment. It is a hatred that runs so deep … that nothing stands in its way.
Several days ago, one of the victims of this hatred was asked by an overzealous reporter an inappropriate theological question. Eleven-year-old Dor was asked at the gravesite of his murdered brother …’are you angry at G-d now?’ Dor looked at the reporter with a confused look in his face and said ‘… the Palestinian terrorists killed my brother and father …’ With those simple words, this young boy was able to express a faithful answer to the eternal question of Evil.
So Israel is in an impossible situation. If they tighten up the borders because of the murders of their civilians, then Arab leaders will renounce the State of Israel due to the economic hardships to the Palestinians living in the territories, who cannot get to their jobs in Israel. But, what if the borders are open and free, and the incitement to violence and murder continues within the leadership, the schools and the media (see the controversial Palestinian TV advertisement for children to join the uprising)? Then, Israel will bleed to death (very slowly) as a country and its citizens will rightly renounce their own leaders for allowing that kind of bloodshed. Since there’s been very little pressure applied to the PA leadership to stop this bloody uprising (Arabic: intifada), how can the Arab world claim that they really want the PA to live in peace with Israel?
So what is the answer?
The answer is for the Arab-Moslem world to accept that it’s own moderate (albeit a silent minority) opinion on this religious dispute is correct. Which is to say, that the Koran substantiates this land as belonging to the Jewish people. The Arab world needs to agree to live in peace, wherein everyone is entitled to religious freedom and the holy sites are open to all worshippers! This will have to come from the moderate Arab nation’s leadership — and it will take an enormous amount of strength and courage to make this kind of peace: A kind of peace that will endure and that the innocent civilians on both sides of this unnecessary bloodshed both want and deserve.
