For us as American Jews, we have been hit with a double whammy. First, there was the terror attack at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv, killing four people. I have been to the Sarona Market … it’s new and it’s beautiful and just the right atmosphere to enjoy a leisurely evening. But the terrorists didn’t see it that way.

And then, just a few days later all of us as Americans were crushed and devastated by the terrorist attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It is a place where people can go and be themselves and enjoy themselves. But the terrorist did not see it that way.

The terrorists, separated by thousands of miles, did see everything the same way … through the eyes of Radical Islam. President Obama seems to be the only one unable to say it, but everyone knows it.

More than a quarter of a century ago, Bernard Lewis, the great scholar of Islam, wrote an article in the Atlantic Monthly entitled, “The Roots of Muslim Rage” in which he says, “It should now be clear that we are facing a mood and a movement far transcending the levels of issues and policies and the governments that pursue them. This is no less than a clash of civilizations – the perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present and the worldwide expansion of both.” Yes, Sarona, Orlando, Madrid, Paris, London, Brussels … victims of ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Boko Harem … call it what you want, but know that it is a clash of civilizations that we are witnessing and experiencing.

But it is being experienced differently in Israel than in the West. I can tell you now: the Pulse nightclub in Orlando will not reopen for months. Neither did the kosher butcher shop in Paris, or the Madrid train station or the Brussels museum. But the Sarona Market reopened the next day. There are lots of reasons why, but let me tell you just one: We Americans can count on our fingers the locations of Islamic terror in our country. There is Fort Hood, San Bernardino, Boston, Orlando and of course there is Manhattan. In Israel, it has happened in Afula, Hadera, Netzarim, Kfar Darom, Beit El, Or Yehudah, Kfar Saba, Nahariya, Talpiot, Beit Li, Erez Crossing, Neve Dekalim, Haifa, Nablus, Tzrifin, French Hill, Kerem Shalom, Gilo, Maale Adumim, Beit Shean, Modiin, Hebron … and that just scratches the surface! Last October there were 620 terror attacks in Israel; 620 in one month! If they close down every location where a terror attack took place, the country could just pack up and go out of business. There is a difference – a big difference – between Sarona and Orlando.

Let me tell you something else … something more painful to consider. There is a difference – a big difference – between how the world feels about what happened in Orlando, and how the world feels about what happened in Sarona. Don’t get me wrong … Israel always gets some sympathy after terror attacks. The world is always sympathetic when Jews are killed. But here is the difference: No one – no one I know of – can find any justification for what happened in Orlando. But the same cannot be said about what happened in Tel Aviv. When the attacks take place around the world, it is immediately labeled “terror.” But when it happens in Israel? Well, consider some of this:

- In July, 2008 when running for President, then Senator Obama called for the need to “dismantle the terrorist networks that have struck in Madrid and Aman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York.” How come he left out Israel?

- In 2012 our Secretary of State traveled to Istanbul to convene a new worldwide forum of countries to share information and help integrate efforts to fight terrorism. The Secretary mentioned that terrorism is a challenge in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, the Maghreb, Turkey and Europe. She didn’t mention Israel. Although 29 countries and the European Union were invited to be founding members, Israel was not. Why not?

- One Sunday in January, 2015 world leaders gathered in Paris to show support and solidarity and defiance after terrorist attacks in the French capital. Leaders from around the world were invited and attended. Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu, was not invited. He came nonetheless. Why was he left out?

- November, 2015 President Obama gave a press conference in Malaysia paying tribute to the tragic losses of two Americans who had just lost their lives in terrorist attacks. He said, “Today families in too many nations are grieving the senseless loss of their loved ones in the attacks in France and Mali.” He went on to remember Nohemi Gonzalez and Anita Datar – the two American citizens. At the same time, Ezra Schwartz, an 18 year old U.S. citizen who was gunned down in a car in Gush Etzion, was having his body escorted out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. Why didn’t our President mention him?

- And why recently, when the U.N. listed countries that have experienced terrorism, they listed Afghanistan, Burkina, Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. Can you think of the name of a country that was left off this terror list?

Do you see a pattern developing here? Why do you think it is this way? Well, for some it is anti-Zionism. For others it’s anti-Semitism. For many, it is simple prostitution … selling their souls for Arab oil. But there is another reason. You see, unlike the terror that takes place all around the world, what happens in Israel is attributed, in part, to Israel’s own actions … the Palestinian murderers are not really terrorists; they are acting out of frustration. They are acting out of a loss of hope. They are acting because their land was taken from them. We’ve got to understand: they don’t mean to be terrorists! It’s just that Israel is giving them no choice!

And the world buys it! Why shouldn’t they? After all, the Jews killed Jesus, Jews poisoned the wells, created the Black Plague, killed Christian children to bake matzah. So why not believe this?

As bad as this is, there is one thing worse. There are Jews who believe it! You know how I feel about J Street and Jewish critics of Israel. Believe me, when you come to shul on Rosh Hashana you will find out how I feel about Bernie Sanders and his ilk. But nothing – nothing – prepared me for the words that came out of the mouth of the Mayor of Tel Aviv just hours after the massacre in his city. Ron Huldai is highly respected as Mayor of Israel’s largest city. He was a fighter pilot in the Six Day War, he has served his country with distinction. Yet, these are the words he spoke on Israel’s Army radio a day after the attack, before the victims had been buried. Huldai said that Israel was “maybe the only country in which another people is under occupation and in which these people have no rights … we keep these people in a reality in which they are occupied and expect them to reach the conclusion that everything is all right and that they can continue living this way.” I couldn’t believe he said that! It’s all our fault … we brought it on ourselves. If there was no occupation, they wouldn’t be doing this. I thought to myself: this is an intelligent man … how can he be saying this? First, in Jewish law we are told not to offer comfort to a mourner until his deceased is buried. We understood that so strong is that immediate grief and sense of loss that all words are meaningless. So, Jewish law says not to offer comfort at the time of death. And Mayor Huldai is offering criticism? And what of his criticism, when he says that Israel may be the only country in which another people is under occupation, and in which these people have no rights? Palestinians have no rights? They have more rights than Arabs living in any other country. And Israel is the only country occupying another people? Has he heard of Turkey in Cypress and China in Burma, and Morocco in the Western Sahara? And a lot of other people and places in this world that are “occupied” and the inhabitants don’t go around shooting people and blowing up buses!

You tell me … what made Mayor Huldai speak as he did? Maybe it finds its explanation in a law found in this morning’s Torah portion. In English it is referred to as the “Ordeal of Jealousy.” In Hebrew it is one word: Sotah. The Torah tells us: Ish ki sishteh ishto – if any man’s wife goes aside and her husband suspects her of infidelity, such a woman had to submit to an ordeal of drinking a special bitter water to establish her innocence.

Our sages in the Talmud were bothered by this descriptive terminology: “Ish ki sishteh ishto – a wife who goes aside.” What’s this sishteh – goes aside? Why doesn’t it simply say, as it does in so many other places, ki sechteh – a woman who sins. Our sages, in a remarkable commentary, tell us that this word “sishteh” comes from the word “shoteh” which means “insanity” … which led our sages to say: “Ein adam oveir aveirah elah im kein nichnas bo ruach shtus” – any time a person sins it is because there entered into him a temporary spirit of insanity. Our sages, in their attempt to protect a nice Jewish girl from the shame of adultery, say that the only reason she did it was because she was temporarily insane. Mayor Huldai, I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that your words after Sarona were because you had lost your mind!

But what shall we say about so many of us? It hurts me to say it but the reality is, there is a bit of Huldai’s thinking in the hearts of so many of us, and not just the ones from J Street. How many of us, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, are uncomfortable with Israel’s right-wing government … as if peace would come with a different government? How many of us were uncomfortable when hawkish Avigdor Leiberman was made Defense Minister? How many of us feel it would be in Israel’s best interests if they froze settlement building, because after all, everyone says they are “obstacles to peace.” Tell the truth … isn’t there a little bit of Huldai in so many of us … lovers and supporters of Israel?

You know, the Torah offers an antidote to the temporary insanity of the Sotah. The law of the Sotah is followed by the law of the Nazir – the Nazarite who vows to stop drinking wine. Our sages link these two laws by stating: if you don’t want to act foolish and be temporarily insane and give in to your wildest thoughts, it might be necessary to stop drinking wine. For us as Jews, if we want to think clearly about Israel, we’ve got to stop drinking the Kool Aid that the world provides us because it is having a devastating effect on our thinking.

Let me show you what I mean. Let me ask you a question. When I say the word “settlers” what picture immediately comes to mind? I think I can answer for most. There is a new Israeli movie which recently had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival entitled “The Settlers.” And who does it depict? The Israeli youth commonly referred to as the “Noar Ha-Givaot” - “Hilltop Youth” – the ones with the long hair, peyos and large knitted yarmulkes with tsitsis hanging out, who defy authority, seize land … the ones who scream; “Death to the Arabs” and deface Muslim mosques, burn down olive trees. You know the type! But did you know that it is estimated that there are about 1000 of them out of something like half a million settlers … a half million who don’t act like them and who look nothing like them. You know who some of those settlers are? You know, the ones who everyone says are the obstacles to peace? My nephew is a settler. Sandy Vogel’s daughter and her family are settlers. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is a settler. Rivka and Rabbi Adler are settlers. And we all know what a threat to peace he is! Do you know who is a settler? One of the most criticized and controversial people in Israel – the present Defense Minister, Avigdor Leiberman, the right wing nationalist who is quoted as saying that for the sake of peace he would give up his home and move!

Oh, you don’t believe him? You don’t believe Prime Minister Netanyahu when he says he is committed to a two state solution? You don’t believe them, but you believe Hamas and Fatah when they say all they want is peace? You have drunk the Kool Aid! The fact is in Gaza, Israelis did give up their homes and in return Israel got rockets. So, who are you going to believe?

And who are you going to believe when the West Bank of Judea and Samaria is called “occupied” and “obstacles to peace.” Let me tell you about the first settlement there, one that is still in the news today. It’s a group of settlements – called the Kfar Etzion Bloc. Many of the knife attacks by Palestinians have taken place in this area filled with settlers. But what does it really mean to be a settler? Frequently it’s used in the same way as a colonist sent by one country to seize land from native people. You can’t say that about Kfar Etzion! The Six Day War was fought in June and by September Kfar Etzion was established. That, according to the world, was when the obstacles to peace first started, the settlers had seized Arab land. That’s the Kool Aid version … but it’s not the true story. Who were these settlers? They were not stealing property, they were returning home. These settlers had been children when the War of Independence was fought in 1948. Do you know that when that war was fought, Kfar Etzion was a Jewish settlement – a Jewish settlement defended by the Haganah, and the day before Israel’s declaration of independence, 129 kibbutzniks and Haganah fighters died in defense of the settlement … 15 of whom were murdered after they had surrendered? After the surrender the kibbutz was looted and razed to the ground, survivors surrendered and were taken as POWs to Jordan. The bodies of the victims were left unburied for a year and a half. Their children are the settlers who are the “obstacles to peace.”

Just recently, Kfar Etzion voted to expand and our State Dept. spokesman immediately pounced on that decision and declared it “illegitimate and counter-productive to the cause of peace.” He went on to say “continued settlement activity and expansion raises honest questions about Israel’s long term intentions and will only make achieving a two state solution that more difficult.”

Do you know what the State Dept. spokesman failed to point out? The expansion the Etzion council had approved included all of eight stone buildings owned by the U.S. Presbyterian Church where it used to run a tuberculosis hospital. That is the expansion that makes Israel’s intentions questionable. That’s the expansion that is an “obstacle to peace.”

You see this vest? You cannot imagine how heavy it is. It’s made in Israel … not for Israeli soldiers, but for Israeli citizens who are part of the security apparatus that is the first line of defense at West Bank settlements. It is quite costly and it is provided by the One Israel Fund, of which Eli Burman – the father of our Bar Mitzvah – is a major supporter. This vest is the only line the civil defense has against the knifers and shooters who try to kill them. But do you understand … in the eyes of the world, it is the ones who wear the vest – not the ones who carry the knives – who are the obstacles to peace. It’s not the Palestinian leaders who declare these murderers to be martyrs and name streets after them; and it’s not the cousins who drank a cup of coffee and then shot and killed the four Jews in the Sarona Market. They are not the problem … we are! That’s what the world believes. And some of us, suffering from temporary insanity, continue to drink the Kool Aid.

Please understand … you know I am not a fan of Bibi Netanyahu and I do believe that Bogie Yaalon was better suited to be Defense Minister than Avigdor Lieberman. I believe that the Hilltop Youth should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I do believe in a two state solution. But I equally believe that all of greater Israel – yes, from the river to the sea – is part of our sacred heritage; only to be divided for the sake of peace. And I firmly believe that today if it were to be divided, it would bring not peace but rockets to Ben Gurion Airport. I’m sure some have good reason to see it differently, but for the most part I believe it’s because they have drunk the Kool Aid.

Does that mean that there is no hope for peace … not between the Israelis and Palestinians and the Islamic civilization and Western civilization? Well, I would point out that the most oft-used verse we Jews recite comes at the end of the grace after meals and comes at the end of Kaddish and it comes at the end of the Silent Devotion: “Oseh shalom bimromov – may He who makes peace in the Heavens above, make peace for us and for all Israel.” What’s the peace made in heaven? In the heavens, we have fire and water. And when God created them, they saw each other as an enemy. The fire claimed that the water was going to extinguish it, and the water feared that the fire would cause it to evaporate. But God was able to make peace in the heavens above by showing fire and water – the two opposites – that ultimately they were both needed and they needed each other. And we must believe that someday the Israelis and Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews will do the same. Until then let us not lose our minds. Let us not fall for the group-think that comes with the Kool Aid. As Americans and Jews, let us remain firm in our resolve - Hashem oz l’amo yetain Hashem yevoreich et amo bashalom – the Lord hath given strength to His people, may He now bless us with peace.” Amen.

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© copyright 2016 by Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg. All rights reserved.