Carolyne explains the sad situation in Israel post Pesach
Tears of blood stained the face of Israel this Passover holiday. The country was left reeling in grief over the death of two beautiful sisters and their beloved mother together with the carnage, caused by a car ramming along the Tel Aviv promenade that took the life of an Italian tourist and injured 8 others.
The Dee family were just driving to a place to go hiking when attacked by a barrage of bullets. The tourists were only enjoying the wonderful walk along the seafront when a car, with the sole purpose of murder rammed into them.
The courage shown by the decimated Dee family ,who had lost both Maia and Rina and their Mother Rebbetzin Lucy Dee was enough to bring tears to the whole nation and to thousands around the London and Hertfordshire communities that had known the family for many years.
The Islamic holiday of Ramadan always brings with it tensions. This year those tensions were cynically multiplied by a staged riot within the Al Aqsa Mosque, which led to the Israeli army entering the premises. Predictably, this gave those crazed by religious ideology the encouragement and motivation to go out and kill Jews. Any Jews, are to their twisted minds fair game and thus the tragic days unfolded, once against marring what should have been a joyful holiday for families celebrating freedom.
Their justification is the storming of the mosque, but right minded people know full well there is no, absolutely zero, justification for these bloodthirsty random acts of terror that have rained down on Israel last week.
The reaction of the UK media to these events was predictably luke warm, which adds fuel to the fire of those whose minds have been so cruelly manipulated to even think that killing innocents is justified.
Being outside of Israel at this time, it is quite scary to see how much anti Israel feeling is being sprouted in the streets with demonstrations, and how the media are choosing language that puts the actions of Israel on the same grid as the actions of blood thirsty terrorists.
One of Israel’s mistakes after the 1967 liberation of Jerusalem, was the granting of custodianship to the Jordanian ‘Waqf’ over the mosque and Temple Mount ( the holiest Jewish site) . Israel retains security control due to its proximity to all the holy sites. A once neglected area has become a symbol of liberation and jihad for the Palestinians and it’s status is repeatedly used as a call to arms against Israel.
Muslim clerics around the world, consistently rally the believers into thinking the mosque is under threat by Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is of course, not new and clearly not a fight for liberation as even before the re-establishment of the State of Israel, while the British controlled the area, the Arabs were rioting as the Jews wanted access to the Wailing Wall. The result in 1929 was a massacre with 133 dead and the Jews fleeing the Old City and the ancient Jewish city of Hebron in fear of their lives. Over one hundred years later, the Arabs find the same inflammatory fabrications yield the same results.
Sadly, as the Nazi Goebbels said, “If you repeat a lie often enough , people will believe it”. This is the modus operandi of much of the Muslim World and is now openly and proudly adopted by the “anti Israel left” in countries that are supposedly allies of Israel.
Israel and the Jewish people are no strangers to unprovoked atrocities, but we are also no strangers to overcoming the most difficult situations and Israel is a country of survivors and victors. Even in death, the slain Lucy Dee, continued her legacy of good deeds when her healthy organs were donated to save the lives of five others.
The anti government demonstrations have continued once the holidays finished and they seem to be as strong as ever. In the words of Abraham Lincoln “ A house divided against itself cannot stand”. Therefore, it is past time for all parties to come to the negotiating table and find an acceptable middle road to resolve their differences.
The argument that has brought tens of thousands onto the streets are basically :
- The Knesset want the right to overrule all decisions made by the Supreme Court. Of course this is unacceptable in a democracy as the Supreme Court’s role is to check that the decisions made by government are lawful .
- The government do not want the Supreme Court to have the last word on who can serve in government . In a democracy the people should decide who represents them in government not a panel of judges. A law needs to be passed by the government that does not allow convicted criminals to be ministers and then the Supreme Court would have no need to intervene and make a ruling.
- The government wants a say in the election of the Judges as presently the Judges elect themselves from a very small pool within the elected judiciary . A form of cronyism at the top of the state, so here the government has a point. In most democracies the members of the upper chamber are elected as and when governments change.
Perhaps some sort of mixed system would satisfy both sides as the ongoing demonstrations are harming only Israel, both internally and externally, while give strength to the enemies of Israel .
During all the above there were rockets raining down on Israel from both the north and the south. Iran who usually say they will destroy Israel within 25 years, actually threatened tomorrow !
Clearly, the country needs to rapidly resolve its internal issues so it can concentrate on the real threats. The booming economy is now slowing down with Moodys downgrading Israel’s credit rating from positive to stable, citing deterioration in government .
The country will come together in unity this week on Yom HaShoah. It is a sombre and sobering day that directs the mind towards the dangers that lurk when a society loses sight of rationality and turns against others in their midst. Tolerance, kindness and understanding can so easily be lost and we must all be vigilant to guard against hatred and strive to defeat those who peddle hate, violence and prejudice.