Gary Cooperberg, November 4, 2004

And the following verse warns us: "But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those whom you allow to remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall harass you in the land where you live."

Now there may be some who consider the Bible nothing more than a story book, but how do such people explain the fact that the stories are all coming true? We are commanded, by G-d to dispossess those who were living in the land. Why then do all of our leaders insist upon allowing them to remain. . . even after these people have announced their intention to take our country from us and backed up that threat with human bombs?

Instead of destroying and removing our enemies we insist upon negotiating with them in the futile hope that they will agree to stop murdering us. All of this was predicted in our Torah. We have found a new G-d which we choose to call "peace." We have never come close to achieving this illusive utopia, yet all of our leaders have chosen to sacrifice their principles for a futile and irresponsible hope. We have traded our G-d, the Creator of the Universe, for a false god, a misshapen illusion which doesn't remotely resemble peace. In turn, our G-d has vexed us with a false people, causing the whole world, and even our confused leaders, to recognize legitimacy of an entity which was manufactured for the sole purpose of destroying the Jewish State.

This was predicted in Deuteronomy 32: 21, 25 and 28;

"They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation."

This is clearly the PLO. And further:

"The sword outside, and terror inside, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs."

Who can deny the fulfillment of this prophesy?

"For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them."

Even as Arafat lies on his deathbed, our leaders are vainly searching for someone else with whom to negotiate our inheritance. It is one thing to ignore the words of our Torah taken in a vacuum. But we have been given horrible and graphic demonstrations resulting from our refusal to remove our enemies from our midst. Why then do we insist upon continuing upon the road to madness?

If the evil which has been predicted has come upon us as a result of failure to obey G-d's Commandments, why is it so hard to assume that it is in our power to bring the good by simply obeying G-d's Commandments? All I am saying, to paraphrase a famous "peace" advocate, is to give G-d a chance. Instead of evacuating Jews from Gaza, let us evacuate the Arabs and build up the Land with Jews. Let us continue to turn the desert into a garden. . . as it is destined to become. Why do we insist upon participating in the perpetuation of terror and war when we can bring genuine peace, simply by being good Jews?

And for those Jews who still live outside the Land, remember that it is the Will of G-d that we all live in the Land. It is only in the Land of Israel that the Commandments of the Torah were designed to be fulfilled. We only practice them outside of the Land so that we will not forget them when we come home. But the real function of those Commandments can only be fulfilled in Israel. Our only future is in Israel. The USA is still a great nation, but it too will eventually fall. It too is likely to turn upon the Jew as did every great nation in history. If we defy our destiny, our destiny will find us anyway. If we choose to remain in Exile, that Exile will eventually vomit us out. Don't wait for that to happen. Plan your homecoming right now, when you can come on your terms rather than be thrown out...or worse.

Gary Cooperberg is a resident of the Jewish community in Hebron, Israel.

Copyright © 2004 Gary Cooperberg