“I am Yahweh. I do not change. I am why Jacob’s descendants are not destroyed.” (Malachi 3: 6)
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Daniel Sugarman—I said Israel should be ashamed – now I am the one who is ashamed:
It’s never easy to say you’re sorry.
To admit you’re wrong. To announce publicly, “I made a mistake”.
But to apologise when that apology comes bound up with what is, perhaps, the most intractable conflict on earth, makes it a thousand times harder.
But that is what I am. Sorry.
A few days ago I wrote a column about the latest round of violence on the border with Gaza.
It was a cry from the heart. I love Israel. I have always loved it, and cannot envision a time when I will not love it.
But in my office, I sit near a television set. And on Monday, I saw the following, side by side.
On the left, in Jerusalem, I saw happy faces. Self-congratulatory faces. I saw the Prime Minister of Israel talking about how the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem was a big step towards peace.
And on the right, simultaneously, in Gaza, I saw tear gas, and smoke, and bullets.
And it was in this context that I wrote my piece, which was an extremely personal one. I wrote it in anguish. I wrote it making clear that I despised Hamas and all it stood for. But I also wrote the following:
“Every bullet Israel fires, every life Israel takes, makes this situation worse. There are ways to disperse crowds which do not include live fire. But the IDF has made an active choice to fire live rounds and kill scores of people. You cannot tell me that Israel, a land of technological miracles which have to be seen to be truly believed, is incapable of coming up with a way of incapacitating protestors that does not include gunning dozens of them down. But no. In front of the entire world, Israel keeps shooting, and protestors, including very young protestors, keep dying. You may tell me that Hamas wants these deaths, wants to create martyrs, wants to fill the hearts of the people of Gaza with rage against Israel because the alternative is for people to look at their lives in Gaza and rage against Hamas. But if you tell me that, why are you not asking yourselves why Israel is so willingly giving Hamas exactly what it wishes?”
I received a lot of praise for my piece, from people I admire greatly, as well as from a great many unexpected sources, including from within the Jewish community.
I also received a lot of criticism. I got called a traitor, and that most vile of all insults a Jew can bestow or receive, a “Kapo”.
People also wrote pieces in response. I was told that, as a Jew not currently living in Israel, my greatest worry was whether Starbucks would have almond-soya milk for my latte.
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To continue reading, click here.
SnyderTalk Comment:
I’m glad that Sugarman was willing to accept the truth and change his mind, but it concerns me that so many Jewish people in the world today take sides against Israel while they live in safety. They have no idea what the Israeli people face every single day. Most of them have never even visited Israel.
Since they are Jewish, they seem to think they have a right, maybe a duty, to speak against Israel. I liken what they are doing to trying to win Gentile acceptance by joining the chorus against their politically incorrect family members.
There is a word for that: BETRAYAL.
If you are Jewish and my conclusion offends you, great. It should.
If you are Jewish and you are taking sides against Israel, you should know that you are making a terrible mistake.
This is what Sugarman said:
I failed to acknowledge that, either way, Israel would be giving Hamas what it wanted. Shoot at those charging at you and Hamas would have its martyrs. Fail to shoot and Hamas would break through the barrier and bring suffering and death – its stated aim – to Israelis living only a few hundred metres away from that barrier. The march may have originally been, as it was declared to be, about Palestinians returning to the homes they had to leave 70 years before. But Hamas’s aim was far more straightforward – “We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”
Israel is the victim. Hamas and Fatah are the criminals. The Israeli people have thrived in the most hostile region in the world. There is only one way that could have happened.
Israel has a Protector. If you take sides against Israel, you are declaring that Israel’s Protector is your enemy.
Israel’s Protector has a Name: Yahweh. You don’t want to be Yahweh’s enemy. If you are Jewish, you should know that.
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SnyderTalk Comment:
I have talked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency workers in Israel. What they tell me supports the allegations made in this video.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is anti-Israel. Hamas stores weapons and munitions and fires rockets at Israel from United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools. Those are facts, not allegations.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
