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I’ll keep my reservations with Netanyahu’s speech for another post - but first, look at the important history lesson Bibi gave Obama:

Netanyahu’s Speech

But let me first say that the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has lasted for more than 3500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Solomon, and Isaiah and Jeremiah lived, are not alien to us. This is the land of our forefathers.

The right of the Jewish people to a state in the land of Israel does not derive from the catastrophes that have plagued our people. True, for 2000 years the Jewish people suffered expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, and massacres which culminated in a Holocaust - a suffering which has no parallel in human history. There are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the state of Israel would never have been established. But I say that if the state of Israel would have been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have occured.

This tragic history of powerlessness explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defense. But our right to build our sovereign state here, in the land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: this is the homeland of the Jewish people, this is where our identity was forged.

As Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence: “The Jewish people arose in the land of Israel and it was here that its spiritual, religious and political character was shaped. Here they attained their sovereignty, and here they bequeathed to the world their national and cultural treasures, and the most eternal of books.”

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This evening I witnessed a political rally. Prime Minister Netanyahu was scheduled to give a much-anticipated address at Bar Ilan university, and just outside the campus stood a few groups of people. On one side of the road, on the pavement, stood groups of people who align themselves with the political right. And on the opposite side of the road stood a number of people who have taken a very adamant opposing stance, and who find themselves on the political left.

The demonstrators were relating to one of the hottest topics in Netanyahu’s, and in Israel’s, policy today, which is what to do with international pressure — specifically from USA — to create ‘peace’ with the Arabs, specifically with the steps demanded to create the much-touted “Two-State Solution.” There are many issues at play here, and the situation is complex.

Both groups of people waved signs and banners, and shouted slogans and chants. There was plenty media coverage, which meant that effectively the eyes of millions of people around the world were focused on the signs, the chants, and the general atmosphere at the demonstrations.

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In the first chapter of the Bible, the Torah teaches us that God decided to create a human which will be “in his image”. 

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heaven and over the animals and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.” 

The Sforno comments on this verse, explaining that one of the unique features of humans, which differentiates them from both animals and angels, is their ability to have free choice. Only two beings have free choice: God and Humans. The Sforno goes on to explain that while God’s choices are always the right ones, humans can make both good and wrong choices. 

Maimonides, commenting on the idea of free choice (in both Hilchot Tshouva of the Mishnei Torah and in Shmona Perakim), writes that the recognition of free choice is the basis for justice in this world. If there was no free choice, how could God punish someone for his wrongdoing? How could someone be rewarded for acting positively? Only with free choice can justice exist. Now, once free choice exists, justice dictates that one be punished for his wrongdoing and rewarded for his good actions.

Over the past few years, I have notices liberals, who claim to be fighting for universal human rights, remove all humanity from Palestinians. In the name of human rights, humanism, etc.. these individuals support a world view which clearly sets a double standard between the way Palestinians are treated and the way the rest of the world is treated. This double standard can be explained by many different factors, including contempt at the enemies of the Palestinians, but is also shows a deep discrimination towards the Palestinians which can only be explained by a warped and twisted form of racism. What is truly worrying is that this worldview has now reached the White House with President Obama continuously pressuring Israel towards racist policies towards the Palestinians.

Did I say racist policies? Yes. Let me explain myself.
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I started getting involved with an absolutely incredible organization called Im Tirtzu. I encourage you all to join the facebook group of the organization and also to visit the website to learn of ways to support the organization.

‎Im Tirtzu is an extra-parliamentary movement that engages in on and off campus Zionist advocacy, in an effort to strengthen the values of Zionism in Israel, with the aim of securing the future of the Jewish people and the State of Israel and advancing Israeli society in its struggle to overcome the challenges it is currently facing.

Regrettably, in recent years, anti-Zionist trends have been proliferating in Israeli universities, which have gradually displaced, marginalized and excluded the Zionist discourse, preventing the Zionist majority from making its voice heard. For the past two years, Im Tirtzu has been the only entity that has provided a response to the spread of post-Zionist and anti-Zionist currents among the faculty and student body in Israeli universities.

Im Tirtzu believes in the capacity of every person to influence his environment. We believe that a return to Zionism and an ethical Zionist renewal is the solution to the problems and crises Israeli society is currently facing. Once we regain our belief in the validity and justice of the Zionist cause and in our ability to make a difference in steering our reality we shall be able to deal successfully with the challenges that confront us.

In the words of Herzl:

“If you will it is no dream … and if you do not will then everything I have told you is only a dream and will continue to remain a dream”. If we only dare to do so, we can transform the dream that is the State of Israel into a more just, more modern, more democratic and more Jewish place.

On university campuses, in the media, and in the general population, there is an warped undertone, even amongst some who support Israel’s right to defend itself, that Israel still has a lot to apologize for, mainly because of the wide gap in numbers of civilian deaths from each of the sides in the conflict.

However, here is a list of 5 things which Israel should never apologize for, all of them being root causes for the unequal number of civilians killed on each side of the conflict:

Israel should never apologize for building bomb shelters for its citizens, while its enemies use their money on weapons to attack Israel. Yes, it is thanks to those bomb shelters that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for creating a “Red Color” warning system to warn its citizens of incoming rocket attacks so they can hide, in 15 seconds,  in the closest bomb shelters, whiles its enemies often force their own citizens to stay in areas which Israel warned it would bomb.  Yes, it is thanks to this warning system that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for doing its outmost to protect its civilians, whiles its enemies use their very own civilians as human shields.  Yes, it is thanks to this willingness to put its civilians out of harms way that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for discharging its most basic moral obligation of protecting its own citizens by defending itself militarily, even as it is trying to spare as many civilians on the other side as humanly possible, while its enemies specifically target civilians for death.  Yes, it is thanks to this willingness to protect its citizens that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for holding an ideology which values life, whiles its enemies in Hamas hold an ideology which encourages death and martyrdom.  Yes, it is thanks to this life-loving ideology that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.