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The Villa in the Jungle | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Vic Rosenthal | 22 Av 5784 – Monday, August 26, 2024


The Villa in the Jungle | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Vic Rosenthal | 22 Av 5784 – Monday, August 26, 2024

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The Villa in the Jungle | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Vic Rosenthal | 22 Av 5784 – Monday, August 26, 2024The Villa in the Jungle | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Vic Rosenthal | 22 Av 5784 – Monday, August 26, 2024
Who is the real problem?

Western elites would like to live in a society based on some variation of Christian morality, even though most of them have left Christianity behind. They believe that all people should be entitled to the same basic rights simply because they are human. They hate violence, but believe it should be treated with understanding, and that criminal behavior should be punished with rehabilitation at best and isolation at worst. For them, revenge is an atavistic act that has no place in a civilized society. Honor is something to which one pays lip service, but gaining or losing it has no real consequences. Religion is a private matter that must be subordinate to secular authority. Government is based on consent. They aspire to a world run according to these principles, governed by impartial international law and democratic institutions that enforce it. They believe that these values ​​are so obviously superior that social evolution will eventually bring them into the world, and that opposing ideologies are bound to disappear.

Until October 7, 2023, many Israelis shared this view. They understood that their neighbors did not, but believed that over time they would realize that peace was preferable to war and beneficial to both sides if Israel showed restraint and was willing to compromise.

But the idea of ​​global social progress towards Western norms is and always has been a myth. October 7 was a massive shock for Israelis, even more so than the terror after Oslo and the Second Intifada. And finally, a change in consciousness seems to be taking place. The “Concepts“ that it was possible to buy off our enemies with promises of economic prosperity (a great insult to them, by the way) has finally lost its validity. The idea that only the ideologues of Hamas or the PLO want to destroy us, while the majority of “ordinary Palestinians” only want economic and physical security, has exploded like their rockets and anti-tank guns. Israelis are finally beginning to understand that defending a villa in the jungle requires a different mindset than defending a cottage in Switzerland.

Even before the founding of the state, the Jews knew that they lived in the Middle East and not in the Alps. Military readiness was a given. But now the average Israeli is beginning to understand that a psychological or spiritual change is also necessary. A post-Christian European morality is harmful to survive here.

A single example should make this clear. Israel holds thousands of Palestinian terrorists in its prisons, many of them murderers and even mass murderers. Some of them are serving multiple life sentences. But our prisons try to meet international (i.e. post-Christian European) standards, and the prisoners are treated relatively well, are able to manage themselves, get enough to eat, and so on. Their families receive regular stipends from the Palestinian Authority, money that flows to the PA from various international donors, especially the US (in violation of US law).

Most importantly, the “life sentences” only last until the next “prisoner exchange,” or rather, until the next time Israel is blackmailed into exchanging terrorists for hostages. Both Ahlam Tamimi, the mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro Pizza bombing that killed 15 Jews, and Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attack, were released from prison in 2011, two of 1027 Prisoners in exchange for one The Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Any day now, we can expect a similar, and probably even larger, release of prisoners to be announced in exchange for some of the hostages held by Hamas. Like a bursting tumor spreading its cancer cells throughout the body, these creatures will flock to re-establish Hamas and other terror groups across the country, undoing the sacrifices of our soldiers and policemen they have captured.

To survive in the Middle East, we have to be Middle Eastern in some way. And people in the Middle East will not tolerate terrorist murderers staying alive, let alone treat them kindly and release masses of them every few years.

Most ordinary Israelis have now understood this, and even some of our politicians and generals. But most of the media, the legal and academic institutions, and a hard core of fanatics who care more about the removal of the prime minister than the survival of the state are still attending the moral garden party at the villa. The Israeli media in particular are guilty of demanding a de facto surrender to Hamas in return for a handful of their hostages.

Most of the world, including probably the Western leaders who publicly call for this, know that this is foolish. In fact, the world does not operate according to the post-Christian moral system; the majority of UN members do not even begin to profess it. And yet Israel, with a population of a third of a billion and protected from invasion by two oceans, is expected to be a “light to the nations” according to an alien moral conception espoused by countries like the United States.

Our approach must change. We cannot continue to be a “villa”, an isolated outpost of the West, but we must become part of the Middle East. I am not saying that we should become like the Arabs, but there is a Jewish tradition that predates Hellenism and the Diaspora and can serve as a model.

The ancient Hebrews fought the Canaanites mercilessly. A two-state solution was not possible; for one tribe to live here, the others had to leave. When Amalek attacked the people of Israel on the way to their land, bribing them to stop murdering us was out of the question. I would not argue that Israel should follow the Torah as a guide to action. It would not convince those who do not believe, and those who do already agree with me.

But you could do worse if you were looking for advice on how to take possession of and occupy the Land of Israel and how to deal with implacable enemies.
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But because of its adherence to these values, it is being destroyed from within.

{Reposted by author Blog}

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