Appeasing the World

Daniel Gordis’s latest dispatch, in which he argued the Gaza disengagement was a “horrifying” mistake that Israel nevertheless “needed to make” — in order to “prove once and for all” that Israel’s enemies had no interest in a state of their own — elicited an eloquent response from Anne Lieberman, beginning with her observation that it did not prove anything to anyone:

The expulsion of 10,000 Jews from Gaza didn’t convince the international community that Israel wants peace and it didn’t convince them that the Arabs don’t. . . . And still "the world" demands more concessions — more "proof," if you will — from Israel every day. Take down the roadblocks, open the borders, send more money, send more aid, food and gasoline, release more prisoners, tear down the outposts, stop building homes for Jews, stop defending yourselves.

Daniel, the world watched the Palestinians burn our synagogues in Gush Katif and didn’t so much as blink; in fact, they proceeded to shower the Palestinians with more and more hundreds of millions of dollars each year. . . .

What deadly hoop will we be expected to jump through next to prove "once and for all" that we Jews are good people, that we’re well-intentioned, that we want peace?  And what further atrocity could the Palestinians possibly commit to prove that they are unworthy of a state? . . .

All Israel should be proving is the one thing not being considered:  that she can and will defend her people and her land from aggression. . . .

Dear Daniel and all my Jewish family, everything that needs to be proven has already been shown. We have already demonstrated to the world — for nearly four thousand years — what kind of people the Jewish people are. And the Muslims have shown themselves for the last 1,300. Russia? Germany? France? Why should anyone listen to them. . . . [Quoting Jabotinsky] Nobody, absolutely nobody, is old enough [or good enough] to call on us to answer.

The only one we have to answer to is the One who gives us Life, the One Who gave us The Land as our inheritance and brought us there from around the world. With Him we have a sacred covenant and to Him we are obliged. His hoops we had better jump through, but theirs? For what?

Trying to summarize or even excerpt an Anne Lieberman post runs the risk of robbing it of its full moral force.  As we head into Shabbat, read the whole thing.