THE POGROMS OF 5775

Last week made it crystal clear: Those who avoided doing something about the rampaging intifada in Yerushalayim, stubbornly classifying the situation as minor incidents of disorderly conduct, got a horrifying slaughter equal to the pogroms in Europe that remain emblazoned in Jewish memory. This time, however, the massacre didn’t take place in Warsaw or Berlin, rather in the Holy City of Yerushalayim, the capital city of Eretz Yisroel.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

1.

Immediately after Israel’s minister for internal security learned of last week’s horrific terrorist attack in a synagogue in Yerushalayim’s Har Nof neighborhood, it would seem that he should have declared a new policy of placing reinforced concrete barricades at the entrance to every shul or perhaps forbidding Jews from going to shul altogether. If the conclusion drawn from last summer’s kidnapping and murder of the three teenage hitchhikers in Gush Etzion was that the boys were to blame for what occurred, and if the response to a terrorist running over people waiting for the light rail transport was to place more concrete barriers – what can we expect to happen when Jews davening Shacharis in a synagogue in the heart of Yerushalayim are murdered in cold blood?

Last week made it crystal clear: Those who avoided doing something about the rampaging intifada in Yerushalayim, stubbornly classifying the situation as minor incidents of disorderly conduct, got a horrifying slaughter equal to the pogroms in Europe that remain emblazoned in Jewish memory. This time, however, the massacre didn’t take place in Warsaw or Berlin, rather in the Holy City of Yerushalayim, the capital city of Eretz Yisroel. Essentially, we can say that these wanton acts of violence are a direct and unwavering continuation of the pogroms of 1929 – a raging massacre long remembered in the annals of the Jewish settlement movement in the Holy Land. These are Arabs with the same hatred and lust for murder – nothing has changed. The only reason that the pogroms of 1929 haven’t continued to this day was the Arabs’ fear and apprehension. When we were strong, they were terrified and frightened to continue their murderous riots. As soon as the threat of Jewish reprisals was lifted, they went back to their rampage. From their viewpoint, this was merely a resumption of the previous bloodshed against the Jews.

This slaughter has put an end to all the rosy stories of those envisioning the dawn of a “new Middle East.” They have told us over the years that if we would just give the Arabs economic prosperity and proper employment, if we would just give them blue identity cards and full equal rights under the law, they would become loyal citizens and cast aside the weapons of hatred. The bloodthirsty terrorists who burst into the synagogue in Har Nof were the “icing on the cake” for the dreamers on the political left. Here are Arab workers with blue identity cards from the Israel Ministry of the Interior making a living in a Jewish neighborhood. They were full-fledged Israeli citizens who were granted everything that a citizen is entitled to receive in an enlightened country. However, the stipends from the National Insurance Institute failed to convince them to refrain from murdering Jews. On the contrary, they took advantage of the freedom of movement that enabled them to walk freely along the streets of Yerushalayim and murder Jews in the heart of the city, in a neighborhood where even Secretary of State John Kerry couldn’t accuse the local residents of harassing the Arabs.

They once explained to us that Arabs murdered Jews because of the “occupation” in Yehuda and Shomron, because they irritated the Arabs by building in inappropriate places throughout Yerushalayim, or because of Jewish settlements in the city’s eastern sector. Anyone who was looking to rationalize the murder of Jews found it at every opportunity. Not this time – all the excuses have run out. Even the frightful terrorist attacks that took place in the heart of Tel Aviv always seemed to bring out the self-justification of the peace camp. They claimed that the terrorists came from Yehuda and Shomron, and therefore, they acted in protest of the “oppression” there. The recent slaughter has revealed once again that such excuses are meaningless; this was simply murder for the sake of murder. This massacre has exploded in the face of those still clinging to their hallucinatory dream of peace.

2.

In recent weeks, the writing wasn’t on the wall, as it had already been saturated with Jewish blood. Just two weeks ago, a young Jewish woman was stabbed to death at a hitchhiking stop in Gush Etzion and a Jewish soldier was murdered in Tel Aviv. All this occurred two weeks after a Jewish girl and infant child were run over by an Arab terrorist in the heart of Yerushalayim. What has to happen before the government of Israel finally wakes up? Do they really think that after decades of riots and murder, the Arabs will learn on their own that it’s forbidden to commit murder and they must abandon the use of terror? Hasn’t it already been made quite clear that weakness and submission paves the way to the next act of carnage?

What’s most absurd is that we have a prime minister and defense minister from the so-called right-of-center party, and a minister of internal security from an even more right-wing party. Yet, they pursue a left-wing agenda, perhaps even extreme left-wing. There’s no real response to the abandonment of Jewish blood, no response to terrorist attacks, and no security in the streets of Yerushalayim. The intifada is running wild, and they’re busy chasing after settlers spraying “price tag” graffiti, as if this was the only form of terrorism that justified a response.

Even the economics minister and Cabinet member who represents the most “right-wing” elements within the government of Israel has been more occupied with his next political campaign than taking effective action. It won’t matter how many government ministers declare again and again the standard formula of “destroying terrorists’ homes”; this method is simply a cruel joke. They come to the terrorist’s home, after the family receives a warning to vacate the premises and remove their possessions. They set off some dynamite that might knock down a wall of two, and then they let the family come back to the house and live there again. What about expelling them into Gaza? How about arresting their parents? Maybe they should exact some real revenge that would frighten potential terrorists?

There were times when even the Israeli left realized that the murder of Jews cannot pass quietly and demands vengeance. After an Arab terrorist attack in the Haifa refineries, resulting in the murder of thirty-nine Jews (may G-d avenge their blood), the Haganah command sent out six divisions totaling 120 fighters for a retaliatory response in the Arab villages of Balad al-Sheikh and Havasa, where most of the Arabs who participated in the slaughter lived. The operational command ordered its forces “to kill the maximum number of adult men, destroy furniture, etc.” (while refraining from killing women and children). During this act of retribution, nearly eighty Arabs were killed, thereby restoring tranquility and the power of deterrence to the area.

3.

As always in such situations, here too we must act with vengeance: the vengeance of light, an increase of good in the world in response to the doubled and redoubled atmosphere of darkness. It’s impossible to ignore such acts of murder, especially when we have this responsibility placed upon our doorstep. During the week when the International Shluchim Conference reaches its climax, we have an obligation to avenge the spilled blood of Your servants, as we offer our most sincere prayer for the fulfillment of “And Hashem, your G-d, shall wipe the tears off every face.” Now is the time to encourage, strengthen, and arouse the Jewish People. We must bring the announcement of the Redemption and the Redeemer to every Jew, with a genuine demand to prepare the whole world to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu and then “nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

The people of Eretz Yisroel are now waiting for us to give the word. The heart bleeds as we all stand shocked by this ghastly act of murder. The atmosphere of gloom engulfing the Jewish People in general and the residents of Yerushalayim in particular cannot continue. The Rebbe taught us that in these times, we must be a source of spiritual encouragement and awakening. On the one hand, we must awaken the Jewish spirit and underscore the Divine promise that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place in the world, as “the eyes of Hashem, your G-d, are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” On the other hand, we must encourage the Jewish People to increase their fulfillment of mitzvos and other good deeds as a means of hastening the Redemption and kindling more light, the light of Torah, in memory of the victims of this slaughter.