By Tamar Adelstein, co-ordinator
Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel
In the wake of the Poway Chabad House shooting, r”l, Crown Hts. Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel has initiated Shabbat gatherings to study the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s directives for bringing true peace and security to C’lal Yisroel, particularly in Eretz Yisroel.
The study program is dedicated to the memory of Lori Kaye, z”l and is in solidarity with our fellow Jews throughout Southern Israel, Judea and Samaria who have been relentlessly subjected to Palestinian terrorism and war.
We are using Rabbi Binyomin Schlanger’s excellent anthology entitled Security for the Land of Israel, Talks by the Lubavitcher Rebbe as a guide coupled with Zehut chairman Moshe Feiglin’s Peace Plan (https://www.zehutinternational.com/part-7-the-one-state-solution) that relays the Rebbe’s directives into a feasible and fair formula for governance. We invite the Jewish community at large to join this worthy endeavor.
The lie that Land for Peace and Goodwill Gestures will turn the hearts of avowed enemies into partners for peace has been perpetuated for so long, that our natural instincts and inherent Gaon Yaakov, wisdom, finds itself floating adrift in a sea of capitulation and confusion. The Rebbe’s words bring us back to solid ground and able thinking.
In view of the recent major escalation of hostilities by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Southern Israel May 4th and 5th subsequently followed by a “cease-fire”, we looked at an interview from 1970 the Rebbe gave sometime after the US Secretary of State Williams Rogers and UN chief U. Thant brokered between Israel and Egypt on August 8th that summer.
Despite Israel’s miraculous victory and liberation of vast Biblical territory in the Six Day War, Israel’s enemies Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan did not surrender. Instead they signed cease-fire arrangements saving them from being wiped out altogether. Egyptian leader Nasser quickly reneged, determined to regain the Sinai and Gaza.
Over the next three years, Egypt repeatedly attacked Israel until the US and the UN stepped in once again, brokering the above-mentioned truce. Below is a synopsis of the Rebbe’s opinion about this cease-fire – as relevant today as it was back then.
“Why have Israeli politicians not yet learned the lesson? The retreats in 1948 and 1956 were disasters that enabled Israel’s enemies to rearm and prepare for the next war!” How much so today when the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and now, Islamic Jihad in tandem with Iran openly proclaim they intend to wage war this summer, G-d forbid!
As to International Guarantees: “No intelligent person would agree to rely on Gentiles, certainly not the assurances of Egypt or Russia who are solely concerned with their own interests”.
And, “Once Israeli politicians recognized the truth of those guarantors’ unreliability “did G-d come to their assistance, bringing about the miraculous victory in the Six Day War”.
The Rebbe drew attention to the fact that Israel’s military chiefs were thoroughly opposed to the truce’s terms obligating Israel to withdraw from the Sinai and Gaza in return for Egypt’s “commitment to peace” mentioning their being prevented from expressing their opinion to “the rest of the political echelon” not to mention the public who would most certainly raise objections.
Indeed, before the ink was even dry, Egypt began moving anti-aircraft missiles into truce’s neutral zone. Disinterested in the evidence, the US and the UN instead began mounting even greater pressure on Israel to negotiate final terms. So much for friends in high places.
Unperturbed by the State of Israel opening an investigation against him for publicizing his opposition to the cease-fire, the Rebbe said, “One who knows of the great danger to life, is forbidden to remain silent. The danger created by Israel’s agreement to a cease-fire is an extreme danger which will G-d forbid lead to war.”
Egypt’s abrogation of the cease-fire continued to escalate erupting into the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which also ended inconclusively with a cease-fire. Not surprisingly Israel came under renewed pressure to cede the lands it liberated in the Six Day War.
From The Camp David Accords’ foolish slogans of “Land for Peace” and “Autonomy” to the even worse Oslo Accords creating a Palestinian State that endangers every Jew in Israel and beyond, G-d Forbid, Israeli politicians have completely lost site of what they were elected to do: defend and protect their Jewish citizens, first and foremost.
Concluding the interview in a voice choked with tears and tinged with bitterness, the Rebbe quoted the Prophet Yeshayhu, saying: “Why have I come (to give you warning) and there is no man (listening)? I have cried out and there is no response.”
“If they (the Israeli leaders) are so unsure of themselves to stand up against the Nations, let them go home and leave the task to others, but not melt the hearts of their brothers.”
Sincerely, Mrs. Tamar Adelstein, co-ordinator
Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel
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