Tuesday, 8th of Tishrei 5786
The Trump Plan – Things Seen from Here Aren’t Seen from There…
The Middle East holds its breath awaiting Hamas’s response to the Trump Plan to end the war. From his perspective, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can chalk up additional significant political points to his already rich resume. He has succeeded in advancing a plan supported by the Arab world, backed by an American president, which includes numerous achievements for Israel. As he detailed in his press conference, “Our five objectives have been achieved: the return of the hostages, a security perimeter, the demilitarization of Gaza, and a government that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.” Indeed, to the extent that these were Israel’s objectives, this may well be considered an achievement. However, the great tragedy here is that after two years of fighting, we still have not grasped what is truly happening. For two years, anyone with open eyes could have recognized the reality: the struggle over this land is not a territorial conflict over living space but a spiritual, ideological, and religious battle. Netanyahu himself defined it as a struggle of civilization against barbarism. Had he delved deeper and possessed a higher level of Torah-based awareness, he would have defined it as a battle between the G-d of Israel—G-d of justice, integrity, morality, and the absolute truth given at Sinai—and the god of evil, cruelty, dark impulses, and the animalistic corruption of Islam.
If Netanyahu had this understanding—which any child studying Chumash and Nevi’im with minimal attention should arrive at—he would not have defined the war’s objectives in such a cold, technical, and disconnected manner from the true reality of the Jewish people, Hashem’s nation.
Much has already been written and said about the return of the hostages. When facing an existential war against a cruel enemy thirsting for our blood, making this issue a primary goal plays into the enemy’s hands. Those who truly care about the hostages should have raised heaven and earth over the fact that thousands of terrorists are held in Israeli prisons. It could have been threatened that they would be executed within three hours if all hostages were not returned safe and sound. Not only would the hostages have been returned, but this would have put an end to future abductions. Instead, we allowed the enemy to toy with us, ensuring their continued resistance, trampling our dignity, abusing our hostages, and planning future abductions—all because of the warped morality of the hypocritical West.
The other objectives Netanyahu mentioned—a security perimeter, demilitarization of Gaza, and a government that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority—are a clear expression of the ideological failure of Netanyahu, his government, and secular Zionism as a whole. A nation in its homeland does not speak of a “security perimeter” against an enemy seeking its destruction. A nation in its homeland ensures the enemy is no longer present. A nation that understands Gaza as an inseparable part of the Land of Israel does not speak of “demilitarizing the Strip” or concern itself with the identity of the foreign government ruling it. It certainly does not see it as an “achievement” to have a foreign government there that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. A nation in its homeland conquers, expels, settles, and turns the foreign presence in Gaza into a chapter of historical ruin.
Instead, we hear the following words from the Prime Minister of Israel—the leader of the so-called “full-right” government: “In the process of promoting rehabilitation plans for Gaza, and after the faithful implementation of the Palestinian Authority’s reform plan, it may be that, for the first time, conditions will ripen for a reliable path toward realizing the right to self-determination and a Palestinian state—which is recognized as an aspiration of the Palestinian people.”
Anyone who does not understand the desecration of Hashem’s name inherent in this wretched statement should go back to studying Genesis in first grade! Anyone who does not grasp the deep ideological chasm underlying these words lacks a basic understanding of the catastrophic process that began in the early days of the Zionist movement, when attempts were made to sever Jewish nationalism from its true source—the covenant with the Creator of the world regarding the inheritance of the land and the acceptance of the Torah and its commandments as an essential condition for it. And anyone who thinks Netanyahu “only said these things to appease Trump” or “because he knows the other side won’t agree” does not understand what desecration of Hashem’s name is, what sanctification of Hashem’s name is, how the Jewish people conduct themselves on the stage of history, or what distinguishes us from all other nations.
The humiliating apology to the Qatari emir, the patron of murderers and Trump’s ally, is merely a byproduct of this ideological fracture. Benjamin Netanyahu may be a great statesman when treating the Jewish people as just another nation and the State of Israel as just another country. But when one understands who we truly are and what our purpose is on this earth, it becomes clear that the Jewish people need a different leader—not because Netanyahu is unsuccessful, but because he simply does not operate on the wavelength of the Creator of the world. When we learn and know who we are and what our purpose is, everything looks different. As a former prime minister once said in a different context, “Things seen from here aren’t seen from there…”
We stand on the eve of Yom Kippur, a day of forgiveness and atonement for Israel’s sins. Beyond the individual sins, transgressions, and crimes of each person, we should all beat our chests for the terrible national sin of denying our purpose as Hashem’s people, for ignoring the divine guidance in creation, and for thinking that Trump runs the world rather than the G-d of Israel. Who knows, perhaps we will merit Hashem’s mercy, and Hamas will save us from ourselves by rejecting the deal, granting us another reprieve from the Creator to fully repent before Him, to understand what this struggle is about, to defeat the enemy with an understanding of the value of a mitzvah war to sanctify His blessed name, and to stop treating our ancestral inheritance as a “perimeter,” as various English letters, or as a bargaining chip in a real estate deal.
Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, our King, for we have transgressed, for You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon You!
The author is Rabbi Yehuda Epstein, Chairman of the Kedushat Zion Association