Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Time for Jewish Self-Determination, Again


What I’m about to say is going to be sooo... politically incorrect. Holocaust Memorial Days, Holocaust Museums, and all the crying we, as the Jewish People, go through every year at this time, probably counts for little with God, while staying in the exile.

Now I’m not claiming to have a direct WhatsApp with Him, but I know He took our people out of Egypt, gave us a little oasis time at Mt. Sinai, with earth shattering consequences and commanded us to go to the land of our Forefathers, the Promised Land.

The commandment to make Aliyah - move to Israel - remains on the books for all time.

So when global Judeopathy rears its ugly head, in anti-Semitic and/or anti-Zionist garb, the natural reaction of a historically battered and abused people is to play victim looking for sympathy. It might work with some nice people, but reminding haters what was done to us in the past only whets their appetite. Go look at the message boards of neo-Nazi types, very far Leftist kooks, and Islamic radicals. You’ll see they make fun of the museums, the memorial days, and the crying Jews.

The only response to Jew haters is Jewish self-defense. Our long history of suffering, teaches us to be self-reliant, and not depend on the “kindnesses” of the nations. That use of Jewish power, to protect Jewish communities, can’t really be used while in someone else's country.

Jewish power to protect and advance Jewish interests can most effectively be used only by a sovereign state, Israel.

Sometimes “well meaning’’ people degrade our tragic history, the abuse we suffered from the hands of other nations. For example, Pope Francis recently called refugee and migrant centers in Europe “concentration camps.” “These refugee camps — so many are concentration camps, crowded with people,” the pope said. Others compare the Holocaust, to the slavery suffered by African-Americans, the decimation of Native Americans, Genocides in Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and other places. All examples of man’s inhumanity to man, I might add. Although terrible tragedies in their own right, as a Jew, who knows his own history; to paraphrase Robert S. Wistrich’s book title, anti-Semitism is the longest hatred.

I didn’t intend to start comparing sufferings, but, to shatter the idol of Holocaust remembrance activities.

Honor the past, but build the future. Wouldn’t all the money and effort spent, building Holocaust museums, be better spent on Jewish education with the goal of Aliyah? Wouldn't it be better invested in building the future, a real Jewish future, in Israel.

I have to tell the truth, Holocaust museums are not preventing intermarriage and assimilation.  

Yes, Jews still fast every year on the ninth of Av – Tisha B’Av – mourning the destruction of both the first and second temples. But that’s because we still haven’t built the Third Temple yet. Temples that were on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, temples that Arafat, Abbas, and other “Palestinian leaders and intellectuals” have denied ever existed, I might add.

But, the State of Israel exists today and Jerusalem is united and under Jewish control again. Hebron, city of our forefathers and mothers, first capital of David’s kingdom for nearly seven years, and a thriving Jewish town today, in spite of Muslim, and British attempts to depopulate it, of it’s Jews; in fact, all the biblical heartland, Judea and Samaria, is under Jewish control, and thriving again.

With Israeli independence Day recently and Jerusalem and Hebron Days coming up, how can the Jewish world focus on past tragedies so much? Dare I say, obsess over them?

Yes, we must honor the suffering of our ancestors, but we must also, build a memorial, a State of Israel, they would be proud of. The answer to both assimilation - the silent holocaust – and global Judeopathy, is Aliyah. And once there, to build a truly Jewish State. A State of Israel, with a strong economy, military, and thriving Jewish culture. By moving there, Jews can finally enjoy a secure and true Jewish life.

If you Google “self-determination” you will receive two definitions:

1. the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances and government.

2. the process by which a person controls their own life.

The Jews in Israel as representatives of the Jewish nation, began the first part in 1948. Every Jew in the “Golah” - the exile – including America, must activate the second part, by getting on a plane and moving to “Israel: The Jewish Affirmative Action State,” as I called it, in an earlier article.

As I’ve argued before, in “To Hell With Auschwitz, Give Me Israel,” and “Israel: The Only True Memorial to Auschwitz” the perfidy of the nations and the tepid defense of Jews by Israeli authorities, from Arab murder, inside the Jewish state, demand to be addressed.

Yes, yes, I know your going to say, but Israel listens to America…where’s the independence?

Sometimes; that’s because after nearly 2,000 years of exile and abuse, Jews still haven’t completely digested the concept of true independence, true self-determination.

In 1948 Jews gained political independence, but as the old saying goes, It’s harder to take the Galut (exile mentality) out of the Jew, than to take the Jew out of the Galut (the physical exile). But only in the Jewish homeland, do we have the complete right to try. Maybe that’s why God wants us in Israel.

Israelis must also actuate their right to Jewish self-determination. Only in the Jewish state can Jews as Jews, fully control their individual and national destiny, unfettered by the influences of the nations, and securely build their future.

Jew! Study Torah, learn your history, language (Hebrew) and culture, and participate in the rebirth of your political independence and unique Jewish civilization, by moving to Israel, now. Don’t wait for the next attempted Holocausting to memorialize.

Time for Jewish Self-Determination, Again!

 


Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.
He can be contacted at: ArielNatanPasko@columnist.com

(c) 2017/5777 Pasko

Published at:  Arutz Sheva/IsraelNationalNews.com in shortened version entitled, "Our obsession with the past."