|
[ Back
to "Rabbi's Page" ]
[ Archive of Rabbi Schwartzman's Past Sermons ]
[ UAHC's Torah Portion of the Week
]
Rally for Israel
By Rabbi Joel
R. Schwartzman
July 16, 2006 (Tammuz 20, 5766)
Let it be understood from the outset, and let this be reiterated the
world over, but surely among us here this evening, that Israel did not
ask for what became this no-choice, this ain berayrah, outbreak of
hostilities. We who have gathered in this synagogue, are here
because we love Israel and want, above all else, to express our
solidarity with her and with her ironclad resolve, once again, to assert
her right not only to defend herself, but to continue to exist!
We grieve with her over the losses of her young soldiers, airman and
sailors. We yearn with her for the immediate return of her kidnapped
soldiers. The world had been turning a blind eye, but we were dismayed
and then horrified by the wanton missile attacks on Israel’s southern
region, and now in her northern, population centers. We mourn the loss
of innocent, civilian life…life on all sides that is so precious to us,
the Jewish people. And we are mortified that, once again, Israel has
been forced--- by her neighbors’ brutal assaults-- into what we are
anxiously watching unfold on our TV screens.
For we know that war is never the desirable goal of any civilized
people. War always involves the harming of innocents. We, the Jewish
people, deplore war. We seek peace. We long for peace.
Try as her enemies might to characterize her as…a colonialist entity, an
occupier, a militaristic regime which responds disproportionately to
provocations…, their arguments don’t wash in light of the facts. For,
both in Keren Shalom just above the Gaza Strip, and in the north along
the Lebanese border, the enemy invaded Israeli soil, killed Israeli
soldiers, in their nefarious efforts to kidnap others. If ever there
were a breach of Jewish and international law, and a provocation to war,
these were such acts!
We, who have come here this evening, share the bitterest of
ironies. Those of us who have a sense of historical memory, fully
understand the propagation of propaganda, the attempts to attain
international justification and approbation, the inevitable but critical
diplomatic maneuvers involving timing and cease fires that comprise the
resolution processes of the United Nations.
Israel, in her neighborhood, stands alone in this fight. Thank God the
United States is here to provide diplomatic support for her right to
defend herself. The United States must remain steadfast—and it is our
job to ensure this. Israel must be allowed to secure her borders
and to eliminate the terrorist infrastructures that spawn the masses of
missiles that her enemies are illegally raining down upon her
civilian populations in an attempt to terrorize and demoralize her
citizenry...and, were her enemies to have their way, to destroy her
altogether.
Just for a moment, let us point out a few of the painful realities
that Israel now confronts:
· Ever since her disengagement from Lebanon, Israel has made a valiant
attempt to separate itself from Hizballah, an Iranian and Syrian
sponsored proxy—in the hope that by doing so, Lebanon might find a
way, according to U.N. resolution 1559, to disarm Hassan Nasrallah’s
militia, and, thereby, find a stability which would enable Lebanon to do
what Jordan and Egypt have done… finally make peace with Israel.
· In the south, by courageously disengaging from Gaza, at the
expense of thousands of Israelis who had poured over 35 years of their
lives into their settlements, Israel attempted to give the Palestinians
a leg up toward statehood. What did the Palestinians do? In the face of
wide spread greed, graft and corruption on the part of the PA, they
elected Hamas and put this small band of terrorists in charge of their
future. But did Hamas attempt to bake the first brick to build a state
of their own? Did they begin to craft any kind of life for their people
but the degrading dole, the incessant launching of Kassams into Israeli
territory, the poisoning of their children’s minds with hatred, and the
glorification of martyrdom? No, and …
· Whether the message is generated by Hamas in the South, or Hizballah
in the north or Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Alaqsa Martyr’s brigade, from the
West Bank, or Damascus, Baghdad, or from Teheran, the point is one and
the same: Israel has no right to exist. The Jews, whose claim to the
land goes back to God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have no
claim to their own rightful inheritance. Hamas and Hizballah deny
Israel’s very legitimacy, and, as demonstrated repeatedly by the suicide
bombers, would slaughter the entire Israeli population, regardless of
status, gender or age, if they could.
Point: When Israel dismantles Hamas and Hizballah, the Lebanese
Shiites and the Palestinians will still be able to live where they are
as they had before this war. Were, God forbid, Israel’s defenses to
falter, 6 million Israeli citizens…that awesome number once again!…would
be wiped from the face of the earth.
Point: And I want you to ask this question as missiles are falling in
S’fat, Nahariya, Acco, Kiryat Shimona, (Denver’s own sister city)
Carmiel, Tiberias, and Haifa, when European countries begin to carp
about Israel’s disproportional response to Hizballah’s illegal attacks
on her, would France be concerned with their own disproportional
responses if the Belgics were firing projectiles into Metz or Nancy?
Would the British care a whit what the world body said about the scope
of their retaliation if the French were rocketing Cornwall, Dorset
or Sussex with Ketushas? And, would the United States respond to the
EU’s calls for restraint, were Canada shelling Chicago?
Point: Israel’s will to trade land for peace and stability is seen
by Israel’s enemies as a sign of weakness, a lack of resolve--national
weariness, capitulation and vulnerability. Why must it be that counter
attacks and military might are the only responses that Israel’s enemies
understand?
Point: Though Israel, in her dismantling the terrorist infrastructures
in both Lebanon and Gaza, makes valiant attempts to avoid civilian
casualties, her enemies make it impossible to do so. They house their
missile launchers and arms in civilian homes, schools, mosques and
hospitals. The world ignores the fact that neither Hamas nor Hizballah
acts in accordance with the internationally recognized Laws of Armed
Conflict. They willfully and cruelly use the native population as
shields, and then cry out for and too often receive world condemnation
of Israel when innocents are hit.
Point: We must look to Syria and, especially, Iran for their dastardly
role in loosing this devastation on the region. Iran, feeling heat from
the United States and the EU regarding threatened sanctions over its
attempts to develop nuclear weapons, not only gave Hizballah the green
light to attack Israel…in part, to relieve the pressure on Hamas in
Gaza, but also is reported to have had their troops manning the missile
battery in Lebanon which crippled the Israeli missile ship, killing four
sailors and airmen.
And just with whom do you think Iran would share their second nuclear
device if not one of these rogue militias sworn to Israel’s demise?
Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a modern Haman in the land of
Haman, who just yesterday most cravenly compared the actions of the IDF
to Nazi army operations during World War II, has as much as promised this.
We are here, good people, to show our solidarity with our Israeli
brothers and sisters. It is our role now to respond with strength and
good courage: chazak v’amatz. It is our job to answer the skeptic, to
plead our case with Congress, to help the President stay the course.
Our job is to support Israel with our prayers and with our vigilance,
with our response to those who would defame her and deny her the right
of self-defense. Our role is to answer the false bias that will
inevitably be spewed on our airways, and to support her with our
financial contributions.
It is our job to give, and to give carefully and judiciously through
organizations like our own Allied Jewish Federation--- because we know
for certain that they will put the funds in the right places.
You may watch CNN and Fox for news, but balance what you see there by
logging on to some Jewish sites such as JTA, Haaretz, Debka, and the
Jerusalem Post. While our enemy provokes battles for propaganda
purposes and in order to terrorize, Israel’s every war is a battle for
survival and for life. Once again, I repeat: Israel fights not to defeat
or to destroy, but to rather to defend herself!
I close with this admonition: God has preserved and sustained us over
the centuries. We must maintain our faith that gam zeh ya-avor, that
this crisis, too, will pass. We must face this crisis with the resolute
realization that for Israel and for us, ein berayrah—there is no
choice. Israel did not want this fight, but now that it is here, we
shall stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel, in every way we can. With
God’s help, Israel will emerge from this struggle and be able to lay the
groundwork for a Middle East that allows secure spaces in which all, at
long last, can live side by side in peace.
|
