Anti-semitism is the hate of Jews for being Jews.
Being Jewish includes the belief that the Land of Israel is the covenanted homeland of the Jewish nation.
It is the land where the nation, as a federation of the Twelve Tribes, settled in under the leadership of Joshua after Moshe brought the Israelites out of Egypt back into the land of the Forefathers.
It is the land in which the Monarchy ruled.
It is the land which first withstood and then was defeated when the Assyrian Empire invaded.
It is the land which revolted against the Greek-Selecuid occupiers.
The land that stood up to the Roman occupiers.
The land in which the entire ancient religious and cultural heritage of the Jewish People, in its unique Hebrew language, was formulated and fashioned.
The land to which Jews constantly and continually returned over the 18 centuries of foreign rule including the Byzantines, the Persians, the Muslim Arabs, the Crusaders, the Mamlukes, Ottomans, British and Jordanians and the loss of political indendence.
It is the land where the Two Temples stood and served as sacred sites of worship.
It is the land in which special commandments can be exclusively fulfilled and no where else.
It is the land that, ever since Talmudic times of the second Babylonian exile, Jews felt obligated to support those living in it, especially the scholars, sending charity funds from across 70 countries of the Diaspora.
It is the land towards which Jews pray, no matter wher they may be - north, south, east, west.
It is the land mentioned in our daily prayers, our Shabbat and Festival prayers, in the Passover Haggada, Tisha B'Av elegies and more.
Anyone who seeks to sever the connection between Jews and the Land of Israel, anyone who claims there is no Torah-based directive to return to it and reside in it and make it bloom, who declares him or herself an anti-Zionist, is being anti-Jewish.
They may love Jews but to dislike and disregard the Land of Israel, ideologically, economcially, politically or security-wise, to reject the right of the Jews to establish a state in their historic homeland, is being anti-semitic.
^

No comments:
Post a Comment