Sultan Knish

The Walls of Yerushalayim Have Been Breached

It is a singular characteristic of men to stand on the edge of catastrophe and still not see it.

Today is Shiva Asar B'Tammuz. Twice on this day the walls of Yerushalayim were breached by the enemy leading to the destruction of two temples, the massacre of large numbers of Jews and the loss of Israel. Up until the last days infighting continued between the leadership and the Jews who should have stood together in defense of their land.

A commemoration or a remembrance of history is meaningless in the abstract. It must be felt. That is why some stride around the table on Pesach with sacks thrown over their shoulders. We should feel today as if the walls of Yerushalaim have been breached.

It should not be too difficult to feel that way. Israel is now in danger as it has not been in a generation. Thanks to the suicidal and destructive peace agreements, Israeli towns are subject to shelling and even Haifa itself came under attack. This was a state of affairs that would have been considered impossible not that long ago. It is now a reality and it will get worse. Israel's enemies sense its weakness and gather like predators and there are no leaders in power to stand against them.

The government is approaching the point where it will be nearly as un-Jewish as that of the Idumean Herodian dynasty. Barak's victory in the previous election was already the work of the Clinton Administration. Sharon who was responsible for the Disengagement had a non-Jewish mother. The Oslo Accords were made possible by defections from Tzomet, Rafik Eitan's party. His mother too was non-Jewish.

Do we really need a better overlap with the closing period of the Hasmonean Dynasty?

The accelerating importation and mechanical conversion of Non-Jewish Russians is creating aNeo-Idumean presence within the nation and the government. Anti-Semitic attacks, nationalist parties and neo-nazi groups have already been spawned from their numbers and as the government is determined to streamline the conversion process.

Today Israel spends far more time fighting itself than fightings its enemies. One weak corrupt government is replaced by another. The politicians cling to power and whether they wear medals or long beards, for most of them the endgame is the same. Personal power, power for their personal institutions and communities and the rest can go to hell. That is the mantra of the so-called religious parties like Shas and UTJ, much as their followers can turn blue in the face trying to deny it. It is the mantra of the immigrant parties fighting for the chance to be the ones doling out favors and plum jobs. Others like NRP and much of the Likud and Labor exist for no reason except to cling to power and are willing to go along with anything.

Take a look at two pictures. The first is Nicolas Poussin's The Destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. The second is a news photograph from Amona. See any similarities?

The hour is later than you think. The hour is later than you are prepared to accept. The dream and heritage of thousands of years is about to be lost and millions will die again in fire.

The Temple did not fall and the walls of Yerushalayim were not breached because they were incapable of being defended or because the soldiers of Israel lacked courage or because people spent too little time sitting in Kollel. They fell because the Jewish people were divided into splinter groups furiously fighting each other. They fell because there was no unity and no shortage of hatred and they had permitted foreigners to rule over them and finally sold themselves into the bondage of Rome in order to triumph in their power struggles while their enemies carved up their land.

It is happening again. Now. Not tomorrow. Not in a hundred years. Today.

Complacency and apathy are easy. They are learned reactions to a dangerous and unpredictable world filled with suffering in which joys are fleeting and oblivion seems inevitable. The human animal sinks into pursuing the pleasures of the moment and gorges on the bowl in front of his face while ignoring the footsteps thundering on the horizon.

The walls are breached. The final phase of the siege is beginning.