QUIET RETURNS TO YERUSHALAYIM – OR HAS IT?

The time has come for someone to take peace more seriously. For some reason, it has become the exclusive project of the political left, which has fed us the line that we can only achieve peace through undependable agreements based on an approach of submission and capitulation. However, we must now remind them that as long as there has been a state of war on paper – there has actually been peace, and when there have been peaceful relations on paper – there’s actually been a state of war.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

1.  Tranquility has been restored to the Holy City of Yerushalayim – or so it seems. Despite the deep shock over the horrific terrorist attack at the synagogue in the city’s Har Nof neighborhood, the event has passed without any public uproar. No one has demanded any military operation or response that could put an end to the rampaging terror in East Jerusalem, nor has there been a call to interrogate those responsible for our national security over how two terrorists managed to enter a Jewish neighborhood in the heart of Yerushalayim and carry out such an appalling slaughter. It turns out that these two Arabs had a terrorist background, yet no one has revoked their citizenship rights or forbid them to work in Jewish neighborhoods. The minister for internal security, Mr. Aharonovitch, apparently forgot that he bears direct responsibility for dealing with perpetrators of this type, and how this represented a gross breach of security. Even the minister of defense, Mr. Yaalon, hasn’t spoken about taking responsibility. No one is asking the hard questions. Less than two weeks after this cruel massacre, the People of Israel have moved on. They have forgotten far too quickly about how four Jews in Yerushalayim were murdered with axes during their morning prayers wrapped in tallis and t’fillin.

This mad act of carnage at the Har Nof synagogue in less than seven frightful minutes was not an isolated incident. It was merely the result of six difficult months of bloody rioting throughout Yerushalayim. Since the conclusion of Operation “Protective Edge”, peace and tranquility have not returned to the streets of the capital of the Jewish homeland. Almost every week, we bear witness to one terrorist attack after another with ever increasing Jewish casualties. It started with the violent unrest in the city’s eastern sector and the massive damage to the light rail transit. The Arabs conduct weekly pogroms against train passengers with constant rock barrages, causing severe damage to the transport system traveling in the area of East Jerusalem at a cost of millions of shekels.

Rabbi Avraham WallesRabbi Yehuda Glick However, they no longer just talk about property damage or rock throwing in Yerushalayim’s eastern sector. Terrorists running over innocent Jews with cars and tractors have become a routine occurrence in the Holy City. Does anyone today remember Rabbi Avraham Walles (may G-d avenge his blood), who was murdered by an Arab tractor driver two months ago? And what about the attempted assassination of Har HaBayis activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick by an Arab who worked for the Menachem Begin Heritage Center?

2.  While the security problem is not limited to Yerushalayim, it finds far greater expression in the capital city of Eretz Yisroel. We’ve mentioned in recent weeks the clear Halacha in Shulchan Aruch, Sec. 329, that when confronted by enemies threatening Jewish border cities, even if they’re coming – ostensibly – to take straw and stubble, we must desecrate the Shabbos and go out against them with weapons of war. The Halacha states that it is permissible to desecrate the Shabbos, even in matters of property, “lest you open the land before them.” And this is exactly what’s happening in Yerushalayim. Those who made less of the violence in East Jerusalem against the light rail passengers or Jewish homes and property are now forced to deal with an onslaught of cruel terrorism that makes no distinction between infants and adults. Maybe if this madness would have been stopped at the unrest six months in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood, there would be no need today for concrete barricades at all the train depots. 

In recent weeks, the frightened residents of Yerushalayim have been introduced each morning to armed security guards standing watch at numerous synagogues. It’s no longer possible to expect that you can come to shul in Yerushalayim without being checked at the entrance. Today’s security situation is that there’s no security.

Now they’re even talking about security guards at kindergartens, restaurants, and other locations, and this is after we’ve already become accustomed to the sight of armed guards at schools and shopping centers. In practical terms, we live in a country where it’s impossible to leave one’s home without a bodyguard… At train depots and bus stops, we have to protect ourselves behind cement blocks, kindergartens need roving cameras. Are there any warning signs we still have to erect for people to understand that this is not the way to bring peace or security?

The problem with security in Eretz Yisroel in general, and Yerushalayim in particular, is not some technical difficulty with preventing terrorist attacks or gathering intelligence data on one terrorist or another. What we have here is a serious problem with our overall way of thinking, and as long as our sense of awareness does not change, there will never be true and lasting peace for the People of Israel in the Land of Israel. To eradicate the terrorist threat once and for all, we have to understand that war must be waged here without the High Court of Justice and without the “B’Tselem” human rights organization. How can it be that the High Court of Justice conducts a full judicial review every time the Israel Defense Forces tear down a terrorist’s home to determine whether the action is ethical or not? We’re not even talking about the actual destruction of a house, rather just the symbolic dismantling of a couple of walls. In any case, the family immediately returns and rebuilds the house with complete funding from the Palestinian Authority. What could possibly be more moral than totally destroying the home of a murderer as a means of deterring future killers?

Just six months ago, following the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish high school boys in Gush Etzion, the government of Israel initiated Operation “Return, Brothers”, when the IDF rooted out numerous terror cells in Yehuda and Shomron. During the first days after the military campaign commenced, there was a remarkable surge of momentum and a demonstration of Jewish unity among the population at-large, including considerable public pressure for effective action to instill fear within the terrorist organizations. Yet, after ten Jews have been slain in Yerushalayim over the past several weeks, the government still sits with its hands folded?

The time has come for someone to take peace more seriously. For some reason, it has become the exclusive project of the political left, which has fed us the line that we can only achieve peace through undependable agreements based on an approach of submission and capitulation. However, we must now remind them that as long as there has been a state of war on paper – there has actually been peace, and when there have been peaceful relations on paper – there’s actually been a state of war.

Thus, for the sake of true peace, the time has come to wage war on terrorism and bring about its total destruction. Until then, the country will be compelled to keep using the taxpayers’ hard-earned money to pay for tens of thousands of security guards in every possible corner.