Menachem Begin Still Speaks to Us - We Just Have to Listen

 In this book, The Revolt, Menachem Begin wrote:

The seeds of Jewish destruction lie in passively enabling the enemy to humiliate us. Only when the enemy succeeds in turning the spirit of the Jew into dust and ashes in life, can he turn the Jew into dust and ashes in death.

During the Holocaust it was after the enemy had humiliated the Jews, trampled them underfoot, divided them, deceived them, afflicted them, drove brother against brother, only then could he lead them, almost without resistance, to the gates of Auschwitz. Therefore, at all times and whatever the cost, safeguard the dignity and honor of the Jewish people.

Stand united in face of the enemy. We Jews love life, for life is holy. But there are things in life more precious than life itself. There are times when one must risk life for the sake of rescuing the lives of others. And when the few risk their own lives for the sake of the many, then they, too, stand the chance of saving themselves.

So, yes, we have come full circle, and with God’s help, with the rebirth of sovereign Israel we have finally broken the historic cycle: no more destruction and no more defeats, and no more oppression – only Jewish liberty, with dignity and honor.

There are things more precious than life and more horrible than death, Menachem Begin wrote in his book, The Revolt. That phrase has stayed with my all of my life since the time I first read them as a young teenager dreaming of living in this land. Yes, there are things more precious than life - because in protecting them, ultimately, we are indeed protecting life itself. This concept is reaffirmed in the Torah. There are three things that Jews are commanded to avoid, even at the cost of death. 

Today, Israel's soldiers are breaking the historic cycle yet again. Jewish liberty. Jewish dignity. Jewish honor. And most important, Jewish lives are at stake.

October 7 was very much an attempt to humiliate Israel and Israelis. First, by catching us off guard and in this they succeeded. Second, in hurting us so deeply that the pain would be unbearable and yes, in this too, they succeeded. We who love life were decimated by the inhumanity, the barbarity of the attacks. What human being does what they did? What kind of "man" is so filled with depravity that he could torture innocent children, desecrate lives and bodies as they did?

To contemplate what they did for any length of time brings only pain and madness, so I choose to focus on now and our response. Ultimately, their goal was to destroy us and claim for themselves that which is and always has been, ours. And in this, they will fail.

In our long annals as a nation, we rise, we fall, we return, we are exiled, we are enslaved, we rebel, we liberate ourselves, we are oppressed once more, we rebuild, and again we suffer destruction, climaxing in our own lifetime in the calamity of calamities, the Holocaust, followed by the rebirth of the Jewish State.

That was the cycle of which Menachem Begin wrote. That is the cycle broken on May 14, 1948 and we will not return to that cycle, just as we will not be exiled again. We will not return to the ghettoes of Europe or the gas chambers built for us.

The world clamors for a "ceasefire" and because we were the ones who did not start firing, we alone are the ones to choose when we stop.  So we have sent our sons and daughters to battle the devil that lives in the hearts and souls of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and every Palestinian, European, or American who sides with those who butchered 1,200 men, women and children on October 7 and kidnapped 240 people. Or side with those who have fired over 10,000 rockets at our cities, our families, our homes.

It is long past time for the Jewish people to accept that we have no moral or legal or historical obligation to be better than anyone else, except before God. We don’t have to convince the United Nations, we don’t have to cater to Biden the EU or the UN. 

We are a thriving, creating, caring, democratic, open and fair nation, more moral than most, more justified in calling this our land than almost any other people can call their country home. We don’t have to convince the world; we owe no one an explanation.