CUTTING DOWN CAIRO

President Obama’s speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009 evoked this simple reaction “Today for the first time in my life I am ashamed to be an American”

Whatever the reasoning the President of the United States and thereby, the executive branch of the government and even the Democratic Party has adopted the Arab narrative. Israel’s establishment was not as the President asserts, a haven for Europe’s displaced Jews. Jews pray several times daily to return from exile home to Israel. Even the casual scholar would recognize the city’s residents during the Second Temple period lead a Torah /Jewish Law based lifestyle. David and son Solomon who ruled in Jerusalem were not Shia or Baptists, they were more than Jews they are either my ancestors or the Kings to whom my ancestors were loyal to. To ignore or even deny a connection going back to antiquity between Jewry and Eretz Yisrael denies truth and embraces a falsehood so harmful that it approaches holocaust denial.

When modern Israel’s roots are presented as being out of the ashes of Auschwitz and the other factories of death the Arab experience can be examined in comparison. After all if one relies primarily on a recent default connection to the land, how does that in a world that rejects racism create moral authority for a superior claim to the land?

Consequently, how can there be any moral authority to occupy lands not sanctioned by the international community especially those places with populations that claim prior residency? Therefore following this reasoning a Jewish presence in Yehudah, Shomron and Jerusalem would indeed be illegitimate.

The Arab claims of a distinct national identity or a connection with the Canaanites or Philistines , Temple denial and so become secondary arguments that merely provide a basis to justify rejection of even an ancient Jewish claim to the land and weaken a claim resting on the authority of British Home Office or the UN. Therefore, struggle to liberate the land from this third party allocation has moral justification that defies serious scrutiny.

Condemnation of Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Terrorist violence can be articulated but does not dislodge the line of reasoning stated above. Righteous indignation over these Arab excesses justifies the silencing of strident assertion of Jewish claims to the land. Thus a comparison can be made between installing a swing set in a Beit El or Efrat backyard and grad missles being fired in to Ashdod or Sederot.

The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of history and fact. The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of how much of the Arabs’ present situation is self inflicted. If there were no security concerns regarding the Arab population would Arabs living under the PA have to endure check points or border closure? If were it not because of rampant corruption both under Hamas and Fatah spheres of influence would the PA area economy be in shambles or would there be wide spread poverty or unemployment?

Lastly, by embracing the Arab narrative leaves open the question “what compromise
would satisfy the Arabs? The question presumes there is a possible point of compromise. This is not a mere rhetorical straw man as each offer of territory for a 23rd Muslim state was rebuffed in 1947, 2000 or during the waning days of President Bush (43) Prime Minister Olmert’s terms of office, not to mention the inaction by Jordan and Egypt between 1948-1967 on behalf of their brethren in creating a State as contemplated presently. The concern that tolerance of a Jewish State within the borders of Eretz Yisrael maybe an act of heresy offensive to Islam is ignored . In which case can anything short of complete capitulation i.e. the removal of Israel and Jewish presence in the land be acceptable?

Frankly it is doubt Prime Minister Netanyahu has any greater fortitude or backbone than his predecessors including his own first go round as Prime Minister so rejecting Mr. Obama’s dictates underscores how totally absurd and how nationally suicidal accepting then would be. Denying settlement growth including natural growth taken literally would ban people from having children or keeping generations together, positions that offend any notions of human rights and calls upon the Jewish State to adopt a racially restrictive policy against its own population. Adopting the Zero tolerance to growth and declaring the settlements as illegitimate is more than discriminatory if creates the absurd result that America has endorsed a policy the excludes the Biblical people from Biblical lands.

Remember this analysis has not begun to include the nod to Iran’s right to develop nuclear power.

Any expectation that the President’s Hoiff Yidden (Court Jews) do not agree or fully support their boss is a redefinition of naïve.

Quite simply Israel’s survival and that of all Jewry rests with our faith and the nation’s embrace of its history and heritage. The call from Cairo can be turned to a mere footnote let Jewish Hearts and all who are devoted to G-D meet the Present ‘s call with prayer , principle and persistence.