On Helplessness and the Illegitimacy of the Israeli Government

Last night, before going to bed, my wife was busy "surfing the web" while I was unloading the dishwasher. All of the sudden I heard her gasp, followed by her calling me into the room to look at something. What caught her attention was the following headline:

Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs claims Ma'aleh Adumim stabbing

Sadly, there is nothing really unique about this terror attack. Jews have been on the receiving end of such attacks in the Jewish State at the hands of our enemies for far too long. However, throughout it all, Ma'aleh Adumim (where we live) has been relatively untouched.

After reading the above article, my wife, clearly disturbed, stumbled across the following video that was released by Hamas (in the aftermath of it's rise to the leadership of the the "Palestinian Authority") - courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch, in which a Hamas suicide bomber had (among other things) the following to say before he embarked on a mission to murder as many Jews as possible:

"My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but Allah, we will chase you everywhere! We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood. We will not leave until you leave the Muslim countries."

"In the name of Allah, we will destroy you, blow you up, take revenge against you, purify the land of you, pigs that have defiled our country... This operation is revenge against the sons of monkeys and pigs."

"I dedicate this wedding [i.e. death for Allah] to all of those who have chosen Allah as their goal, the Quran as their constitution and the Prophet [Muhammad] as their role model. Jihad is the only way to liberate Palestine - all of Palestine - from the impurity of the Jews...

This video really had my wife shaken up. She asked me why Hashem was letting this happen; why this was happening at all?

I told her that G-d is not to blame for the threat that Hamas poses to the Jewish People and State.

It is not G-d's fault that the government of the State of Israel chooses to take no concrete actions against the sworn enemy of the Jewish People and State, short of withholding some funding, or that it chooses to ignore the barrage of missiles that has been falling on the Jewish State over the last 4 years, and is now within striking distance of the highly sensitive Ashkelon industrial region.

It is not G-d's fault that the current (and previous government) of the State of Israel have invested the bulk of their energies towards expelling Jews from their homes; towards selectively "upholding the rule of law" only when it furthers their defeatist agenda, and towards incting the general public against those who still believe in the right of the Jewish People to a Jewish State in the Land of Israel.

The most basic obligation that a government takes upon itself- and the very reason that a private individual will accept limitations on his own personal freedom - is because it is understood that the government will provide for his security and wellbeing. Any government that is unable to provide for the security of her citizens is a government that has lost the moral and legal authority to rule.

The current and previous government of Israel has not met this most basic of obligations - of providing security for her citizens.

In addition to the above obligation, the Government of the State of Israel has another central obligation that it must fulfill if it is to be viewed as a legitimate government - and this obligation is unique to the State of Israel.

The State of Israel was founded to exist as a Jewish State; a state where the interests and needs of the Jewish People would come before all others; a state in which the Jew would no longer need to live in fear, worry about what the nations of the world might say or think about him, or need to apologize for living his life as a proud Jew in the Land of Israel.

Any government of the State of Israel that is unable to defend the right of the Jewish People to a Jewish State in the Land of Israel; defend the Jewish People and State against those who threaten their security; defend the rights and interests of the Jewish People above and beyond all others; and defend the right of the Jewish People to live as proud Jews in their Homeland is a government that has lost its legitimacy to rule over the Jewish People and State.

Let's hope (and pray) that the future government of the State of Israel will be one that will be able to meet the most basic of its obligations, and allow the Jewish People to live securely in their land, while holding their heads high, restoring, once again, the sense of Jewish pride and dignity to the hearts of the Jewish People, which the current and previous government have worked so hard to extinguish.

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