You Cannot Appease Terror

Once upon a time, a scorpion was standing at the Gaza port, yearning to get out of Gaza and cross the sea. But alas, scorpions don’t swim. Suddenly, the scorpion saw a swan. It asked the swan if it could ride on its back and cross the sea.

The swan refused. “That would be suicidal,” said the swan. “You will give me one bite and I will die,” cried the swan.

“You are dumb,” said the scorpion. “If I bite you, I will drown myself, because I do not swim. If you go down, I go down. So, for my own selfish sake, I will never bite you.”

That logic made sense to the swine. It agreed. The swan took the scorpion on its back, they left the Gaza port, and off they went on their voyage across the sea.

All seemed peaceful and dandy, the swan was singing its favorite melodies, as the scorpion was riding on its back. But suddenly, moments before they reached the other side, the swan felt a sharp sting. The scorpion gave the swine a deadly, venomous bite...

It was a lethal bite. The venom began to spread across the body of the poor swan. It began to drown, as did the scorpion who could not swim. As the swan was going down, it turned to the scorpion and said: Okay, you did it. You bit me, you killed me. But before I go under and die, explain something to me. Why? Why? Why would you bite me when, in fact, this is a death sentence for you, too? Why... Oh why...? The swan cried. Just tell me why!

“Why would you kill me when this means that you are killing yourself?     I understand you want to kill me, but why would you do that at the expense of killing yourself?”

And the scorpion responded: “You foolish swan. This is Gaza... “This is what we do in Gaza.”

I think, friends, this sums up what’s going on today. Hamas does not care how many Gazan civilians and children die, as long as they can murder another Jew. Or as the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said: “Peace will come when the Arabs start loving their children more than they hate ours.”

Today, we need to talk about the land, the soldiers, and the mega Divine miracle that has occurred this week and is really mind-staggering in its magnitude.

First—the land:

It is surely not a coincidence that Jews in Israel and the world over read this Shabbat these timely verses in the weekly portion Matot- Masei:

You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their temples, destroy their molten idols, and demolish their high places. You shall inherit the Land and settle in it, for I have given you the Land to inherit it.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle.

You shall vacate it of its inhabitants, and then you shall “settle in it.” Only then will you be able to survive there, but if you do not do this, you will be unable to survive there.

This is a truth we have too often ignored. The mantra over many years has been that the solution to the conflict between Israel and its neighbors is ultimately a “two-state solution.” That is great in the realm of abstract theory and wishful irrational thinking. Israel left Gaza to begin the process of a two-state solution. But instead of building a state, they constructed a war-launching zone. And got all of Israel is in danger and brought October 7, on us. Imagine what would have happened if Israel had evacuated the West Bank to allow the Arabs to create a State? The West Bank is far closer to Israeli cities than Gaza. The situation would be far more serious.

This message G-d communicated to Israel thousands of years ago in this week’s portion. Moses then warned the Jews against a two-state solution. If you have people who respect you and appreciate you, you can live side by side in tranquility and safety. But if you are dealing with people who believe you are the devil, if they are raising their children with the notion that Jews are Satan and Allah wants them eradicated, then by having them near you, you are in a constant state of war. And when you are in a state of war, you can’t afford to give any control to your enemy, for he will use it to destroy you.

This is the truth we must at last discover. Their objective has never been to establish the twenty-second Arab state, side by side with Israel, but to destroy the only Jewish state. i.e., from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—all of Israel. This hatred was and is at the heart of the conflict. It is not about the Arab desire for more land or for more dignity that drives the continuous strife and bloodshed; it is the feeling that if Israel exists, their existence is somehow worthless.

The Arab terror war against Israel is no more a territorial conflict than was al Qaeda's strike against America, and it can no more be resolved by creating a Palestinian state to the side of Israel than anti-Americanism could be appeased by yielding New Jersey to al Qaeda.

That is why Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, not leaving a single soldier or settler there, allowing the Arabs to create their state without a single Jew around, has not generated even a day a peace. The yearning is not for statehood, but for the destruction of Israel.

At the end of World War II, Winston Churchill quipped, “You can always rely on America to do the right thing, once it has exhausted the alternatives.” Israel, which has far fewer alternatives than the U.S., has long ago exhausted them all. Now it is time to go back to the words Moses told us 3300 years ago. You cannot appease terror; you must destroy it. Completely.

But to do this, Moses says, you must remember that “You shall inherit the Land and settle in it, for I have given you the Land to inherit it.” If we doubt for a moment our full, unequivocal right to settle the Land of Israel, if our resolve is weakened, then the enemy and international pressure—“the spikes and the thorns”—will drive us to make concessions that will only come back to haunt us. Our connection to the land and our sense of moral justice for living and owning the land must be unwavering and non-negotiable. The Creator of the world has given us this country!

David Nesenoff is a webmaster of RabbiLive.com. As some of you surely recall, in May 2010, he interviewed one of the most prominent American journalists and columnists, a member of the White House Press Corps, 91-year-old Helen Thomas, as she was leaving the White House via the North Lawn driveway.

“Any comments on Israel?” he asked her.

“Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine... and go home to Poland and Germany...”

Helen probably never heard the fact that when the Jews were at “home,” in Poland and Germany, six million of them were sent to gas chambers. She was forced to resign her position following these remarks.

The video clip of her words went viral. Within hours, millions watched it.

We are children of Israel, “Benei Yisrael.” Sometimes we are away for a while in exile, and we are away for long periods in the diaspora. But we are still the Children of Israel. Israel and the Children of Israel are one.

“They exist because of each other. The Jew walking on the street in New York, whether he even knows or cares about Israel, exists because of Israel, and Israel is alive because of him.”  

You see, the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel is deeper than the connection between any other nation in the world and its native country. As Americans, we are connected to America because we live here, we are devoted and grateful citizens, law-abiding citizens, part of its culture, and the working force. Yet the relationship is not essential and intrinsic. We could have been born elsewhere and lived elsewhere.

At every wedding and, G-d forbid, at every shiva call, they spoke of Jerusalem. At the end of each Seder and of Yom Kippur, they declared “Next year in Jerusalem!”

Israel is G-d’s chosen land, which He gave to His people as an inheritance to the Jewish people forever. This is stated in the Bible—embraced by billions of Christians and Muslims as the word of G-d—hundreds of times. It is the organic, natural home for the Jewish soul.

That’s why you might notice an unbelievable fact: For 2,000 years, any nation or power that conquered Israel could never do anything with it successfully. The soil wouldn’t produce for them; the streams wouldn’t flow for them. Despite numerous attempts by the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Turks, and Arabs to civilize the land and turn it into a fertile powerhouse, it never worked. It remained for them a place of marshes, swamps, disease, and desolation. A dead country. In blunt words: the Land rejected them. This is a historical fact.

Suddenly, the Jews come back to it and its flourishing. Fertile fields, lush orchards, productive farms, robust vineyards, vibrant cities, flourishing villages, a powerful economy, major inventions, tremendous centers of learning and study. Why is that?

The Torah predicted it 3,000 years ago. In Leviticus, Moses says black and white that when the Jews are exiled from Israel, the earth will remain desolate. And history has proven this most clearly. Do your research, you will not find a single nation that in the last 2000 years has successfully settled the land and made it blossom for them.

Because this land is orphaned without its children; it is “depressed” without its children; ... this land awaits its children...

We now move on to salute our dearest and most precious soldiers—serving on the front lines in the Israeli Defense Forces.

The Talmud presents one of the most haunting images that occurred during the destruction of the First Temple, which we commemorate now, during these Three Weeks: When the first Holy Temple was destroyed, groups of young priests gathered with the keys to the Sanctuary in their hands. They ascended the roof of the Holy Temple and declared: "Master of the World! Since we have not merited to be trustworthy custodians, let the keys be given back to You." They then threw the keys toward Heaven. A hand emerged and received them, and the priests threw themselves into the fire.

The keys to the Holy Temple—the keys to the future of the Jewish world and to ensuring the Divine presence among the people of Israel—lie in the hands of the youth. In the times of the Temple, they were the spiritual IDF of the country. Were they right in giving up the keys? It is unclear. Perhaps had they held on to those keys, they could have rebuilt the Temple? They could have done something. They should not have surrendered and given up on our future? Perhaps they should not have resigned?

Well, today, our youth in Israel—the young holy and precious soldiers of the IDF— are not throwing away those keys! They are holding on to those keys with pride, unwavering commitment, and incredible self-sacrifice. They are standing on the front lines, they are entering into the lethal dens of Hamas, with passion, with complete dedication, and with no hesitation. They refuse to give up those keys—that will ensure the protection of their people and their sacred homeland.

Israel has lost during the past 2 years almost 900 of its finest and sweetest children, battling vicious Islamic killers in Gaza. Our soldiers are our future. They’re the youngsters among us, who have been required because of Israel’s unique geographic peril to place themselves on the front line for years of service before their young lives have begun. No eye remains dry when a mother and father watch the earth cover up their young son who died so that the nation of Israel can live.

All the damage that we are suffering now is nothing compared to what our enemies from Iran to Lebanon and Gaza had been planning. This is a great miracle, and together with all the tears, we must salute the Almighty, the “guardian of Israel” who “neither slumbers nor sleeps.”

Shabbat Shalom and Rosh Chodesh Tov,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky