It is unwise to hurt yourself by watching the murdered and listening to the wailing of people not close to you. Keep yourself sane and secretly happy.
A neighbor of mine said on Shabbat that Jews visiting the Temple Mount on Sukkot provoked them. Two others told him that Chamas never needed a reason. The 'reasons' they volunteer are only pretexts. Clearly, this was meticulously planned for years and not a reaction on anything that recent.
Below many useful links. Those from the Jerusalem Post: Try again later if you get nothing. Their site keeps collapsing under sustained cyber-attacks.
This is what I think encouraged Chamas to try their hand at genocide:
- The leading Antisemites always are convinced till their day of death, may it be soon, that they will succeed in exterminating the Jews.
- Jealousy has always been at the front of Jew hatred. That we have democracy, Shabbat, and Simchat Torah must make them steam.
- Hatred makes the powerless feel powerful and reckless.
- Terrorists plan for shedding blood. They can't count their 'losses' and start planning for peace and prosperity. They think it's their job.
- Putin launched a war on his neighbor, and no one harms him.
- Abbas' Antisemitic tirade at the UN was widely condemned, but that was it. No follow-up. He did get more weapons.
- After 50 years, Israel's archives opened up on the Yom Kippur War showing that many Jews lost their lives because of the surprise.
- Their Gaza and West Bank media are full of lies. So, they assume that Israel's democratic media speak the full truth. They don't know that their sensationalism exaggerates the bad, that all talk of disunity and divisiveness harming the army is exaggerated.
- The Palestinian (terrorist) leadership was again left on the sideline now Morocco and Saudi Arabia are getting closer to Israel. It is their habit to fish for 'relevance' and attention by mass murdering Jews.
- Of course, the terrorists were encouraged by all this fake talk about Biden supposedly being a weaker ally to Israel than Trump.
- PA's 'weak' strongman Abbas cut down any PA competitor and again canceled elections. Chamas and the PA compete for 'popularity.'
- They love death. Death of the Jews, of their own, and of themselves. Self-chosen death is holy martyrdom. And they see people who hate or fear death (Jews) as pathetic. To them, any death is a win-win. They wrongly assume the sadness about our losses will break us. But we're just like eggs. Most food gets soft from boiling; eggs harden.
- Iran, the sponsor of it all, can't use their nuclear weapons yet. They prefer that Chamas and Hezbollah decimate Israel first. However, in the end, like the dictators of Russia, China, and North Korea think big. Just like Hitler, they want to rule the whole world.
- Some very smart people have worked on this assault. That gives self-confidence. Especially if they always told you you're stupid. I wrote before about the dangerous and racist illusion that Arabs are stupid.
We Need to Shape Up
For the future, it may help to find out how our intelligence agencies failed. Only, let's not start a blame game. To blame are Chamas and Antisemitism.
We already know for sure that the military blockade of the Gaza Strip is not working. Maybe, it stopped 90%, but that's insufficient. And Hezbollah has even more rockets on standby. High time to remove them all.
Antisemites get their power from our sins. If they can hate and kill Jews, that's what we have to stop doing: no more slander of Jews, no more self-hatred for nothing. Our problems are interpersonal, not with G^d. Our infighting stems from the stress of living under the threat of genocide.
These terrorists don't want us around, live in peace, celebrate Shabbat, and rejoice in our Festivals. So, let's dance. Living well is the best revenge.
We are on earth to repent, not to say all the time how well we are doing. The time of a calamity is the time to advance emotionally and spiritually.
To understand our imperfections is to improve, not to get depressed or to blame ourselves. To blame are only the ones who dislike Jews. We can change the course of history by repenting. Anger is a cover-up of sadness. We need to cry about our losses. Anger denies the One Who directs it all.
Clearly, the intelligence agencies, the IDF, and the government failed. But also, my synagogue's bosses seemed incapable of assessing the situation. I needed to tell them to keep celebrating until they got it and tell a senior rabbi how to hide when we had a local air raid alarm. I had to propose to say Psalms at Minchah's open Ark and told others not to be angry. Yet, none of them are guilty. The only culprits are those who wish us dead.
At the Festival, I told people: 'Even in Auschwitz, they celebrated Simchat Torah, and this is not Auschwitz.' OK, I made that up. I guessed. Being happy with so many dead and wounded gives the wrong impression, as if we don't care. But keep your sanity, and for now, be secretly happy.
The IDF also called up my son. He's currently at one of the six places where the IDF battles with surviving terrorists. But the real war is in our hearts and minds: to stop groundless hatred and slandering (blaming) of Jews.
I just did some shopping. Not one loaf left. A woman with three times as many groceries as me in her basket said to me: You can go before me. I accepted because this kind of thinking about the other is what helps.
Today, more than 2000 died in an earthquake in Afghanistan. If we want mercy, we need to be merciful (but not to the wicked) and feel their pain.
War is Bad
This is my first war. I came here 30 years ago, just after the Scud War. By the first taste of it, I don't like it. Most Jews don't. In the morning, we greet each other with Shalom. At every turn, we bless each other with Lechaim.
Just imagine some terrorists shooting up a church and holding dozens of hostages. Would you tell the police to scale down the violence? So, why is the international community trying to stop Israel from pursuing Chamas? Right. Old-fashioned Antisemitism. Jews may die; their attackers not.
Some people compare the Simchat Torah War with 9/11. Surely, there are some parallels: proportionally, surprisingly, and by militant Muslims. But 9/11 was against Modernity, while this Simchat Torah War is genocidal.
BTW: Look at the numbers, 1,000 terrorists infiltrated through 29 holes in the security fence. With machine guns, some 700 unarmed Israelis were murdered in a few hours. That is less than one person per terrorist.
The present regime in Egypt will not harm us, though the West does not appreciate it. It's firmly anti-Muslim Brotherhood, from which Chamas is a split-off. Netanyahu asked Biden to warn the King of Jordan not to attack. I don't think any of his palaces (and power) would remain. Syria II. But it is inconceivable that Hezbollah won't chip in from the North. It will.
May some big good news come as quickly and surprisingly as this big evil.
Meanwhile, may we hope that all the thousands of Christians, who came here to spend the Holiday of Tabernacles with the Jews of Israel, are now waiting in line to donate blood. That's the least they should do.
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The Times of Israel refused to publish this post and refused to say why.
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