POINT OF VIEW - Rabbi Moshe Grylak Mishpacha Issue 243
15 Teves 5769
January 21, 2009
Through an impressive, wide-reaching propaganda campaign, they have succeeded in implanting in the minds of many people around the world the false idea that this land was inhabited for generations by a Palestinian nation, and that one day a band of unidentified refugees from Europe came along and expelled this nation from its ancestral land Dear Mr. President, I would like to begin by congratulating you on your entry into America's highest office. On this great day in your life, you have become not only the president of the greatest of the world powers, the blessed United States of America, but also the leader of the entire free world. This places tremendous responsibility on your shoulders, a fact of which you are surely aware. And I, a simple Jew from Eretz Yisrael, extend my blessing that the Almighty King of the Universe should help protect you from pride and despair, grant you the wisdom to do what is correct and just, and make you an instrument for carrying out His Will —just as you expressed it in the beautiful, wise words you wrote in the note you hid between the stones of the Western Wall on your visit to Jerusalem.
As you enter your position, I would like to draw your attention to an important truth that apparently, with all due respect, you are not aware of. About a week ago, you made an announcement to the world that I would like to discuss — with your permission, of course. You announced, Mr. President, that you will start working to make peace in the Middle East immediately upon beginning your term as president In your opinion, every president of the United States for the past thirty years has failed at this important task for the simple reason that he neglected the Israel-Arab problem in the early days of his presidency. To your way of thinking, all his beautiful plans were dashed upon the rocks of the absurd reality that prevails in the Middle East, merely because there wasn't enough time to implement them. And you have informed the whole world that this is one of the important tasks you intend to deal with right away.
With all due appreciation for your desire to establish absolute peace between the Arabs and us, I am sorry to say you are bound to fail at this task, just like all your predecessors. Therefore it would be better not even to bother with absolute peace, but rather to put all your efforts into lowering the flames of conflict between us and our bitter enemies via interim arrangements, ceasefire agreements, cooling-off periods, and the like. Not absolute peace — that you'll never achieve. I'm no maven in global politics. I don't have your enormous negotiating talents. But I do have a deep understanding of our lot here in Eretz Yisrael and an awareness of the far-reaching roots of this unresolved conflict. And on that basis I can assure you that the peace we all hope for does not depend on any political process whatsoever. Nor does it depend on your sincere determination to do your utmost to achieve this important goal.
Allow me to enumerate my reasons for this categorical statement. First of all, the Arab agenda today is to promote the notion that the "Palestinians" are the ones who were ejected from their homeland. They have rewritten the history of this land in the most astounding way. Through an impressive, wide-reaching propaganda campaign, they have succeeded in implanting in the minds of many people around the world the false idea that this land was inhabited for generations by a Palestinian nation, and that one day a band of unidentified refugees from Europe came along and expelled this nation from its ancestral land.
A year ago, I took part in a conference between a group of Israelis and two Arab-Israeli professors with moderate political views. I asked these professors, "Are you familiar with Jewish history?" and they replied that they had no interest in that topic, because it had nothing to do with our bone of contention, which was this land. Perhaps, they said, there were a few shards of some old synagogue lying about somewhere in the country, but nothing more. This land had always belonged to them, they claimed, and we'd invaded it, just like the Crusaders of medieval times. And these two fellows belong to the "moderate" sector of Israel's Arab population.
And so, Mr. President, as long as the Arabs cling to this version of the "truth," they will never compromise and give up their great dream of casting us into the sea, or giving us all to the US as a present. They may retreat tactically for a little while, knowing our military power, but the whole time they'll be waiting to realize their aspirations. And, Mr. President, there is no difference between moderates and zealots other than in the tactics they use to achieve their desired goal of destroying us, G-d forbid.
Since their propaganda is so effective, and so many people are convinced that it is just as they say — that the State of Israel was born in sin — it is only right that you,as president of a country where the Bible is the Book of Books, should refresh your biblical knowledge a bit and familiarize yourself with the historical facts before you sit down to deal with this painful and convoluted subject. The facts are that the "Palestinian nation" is a fiction, a Muslim fiction whose one and only purpose is the conquest of Eretz Yisrael. Mr. President, when the Palestinian delegates come to the Oval Office, please ask them first off, "What is the origin of your people's name?" The historical fact they would like to conceal is that when the Romans conquered Eretz Yisrael, as part of their act of conquest they gave the land a new name, Provincia Palestina, after the Philistines who lived in the cities along Israel's southern coast. They were a red-haired tribe who came to Eretz Yisrael from Europe and disappeared from the region about 1,600 years before the birth of Mohammed. There is no connection between the Arabs, who originated in the Arabian Peninsula, and the Philistines — no genetic connection, nor a religious one, nor a cultural, historic, or geographical connection. What we have here is Arabs, not Philistines. The Romans might just as well have dubbed this land Provincia Hollandia. Would that turn the Arabs living in this land into Dutchmen?
Before beginning any negotiations, Mr. President, please ask your Palestinian visitors to present some historical documentation — a historical map, or the testimony of an academically recognized historian who will show you where the State of Palestine was located and indicate when in human history this state existed, or when there was ever a country called Palestine. When in human history has there been a "nation" called the Palestinian people? Ask them, please: Who are you? Where do you come from? What is your connection to the land of Israel? Even the Koran refers to this country as the "land of Israel"! There is British documentation from the Mandate period, Turkish documentation from the Ottoman period, documentation from every occupation of Eretz Yisrael, and in none of these historical records is there any mention of a Palestinian people or a Palestinian state.
Mr. President, I could give you a long list of questions that ought to be posed to Mr. Abbas or whoever the delegates might be who come before you. But I must be brief. At any rate, I would suggest that before any negotiations regarding the "legitimate rights" of the Palestinian entity, you at least read a book by Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. In his travel journal, Innocents Abroad, he devotes many chapters to his tour of the Holy Land in 1867. He says not a word about any Palestinians dwelling in flourishing towns or villages. No. He saw nothing but a wasteland, a place of swamps, cholera, malaria, and barren deserts. "We did not see a soul during the entire journey," Twain writes. "Everywhere we went there was no tree or shrub." I would also recommend From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters, in particular the chapter that discusses the Palestinian fiction and its inventors. Ask your "Palestinian" guests about it.
This doesn't mean we have no obligation to allow the masses of Arabs residing in Eretz Yisrael to live respectably. But as long as we're sitting down to talk with them about "legitimate rights" to the land itself, there can be no peace, and no amount of political talent will change that.
However, Mr. President, there is a deeper truth, a more fundamental reason peace will not come to this land through human efforts: The fight over this land is not a struggle for rights on the political or military plane. Perhaps some sort of solution may be found on this plane. But you must understand that what is unfolding in this country is not a war between Israelis and Palestinians, but the continuation of the ancient struggle between Yitzchak and Yishmael. Palestinians and Israelis are merely the facade of something truer and deeper. It is a war that neither you nor anyone else can settle. It is a spiritual, mystical war that depends upon the Redemption of Israel, and through it the Redemption of all humanity. Maybe one of your Jewish advisers has access to the source material and can provide you with the data on this subject: its essence, how it will end, and what can be done to end it.
I will end as I began, with my best wishes that you merit the blessing of the Master of the Universe in themomentous task that Providence has placed on your shoulders.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT Without
HaKadosh Baruch
Hu, one can't
even cross the
threshold of one's
house.
With Him, one
can split the sea
(Rabbi Mordechai
Melchovitz)
