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“...The ghetto has been struck a hard blow. They
demand what is most dear to it—children and old people. I was not
privileged to have a child of my own and therefore devoted my best years
to children. I lived and breathed together with children. I never imagined
that my own hands would be forced to make this sacrifice on the altar. In
my old age I am forced to stretch out my hands and to beg: “Brothers and
sisters, give them to me!—Fathers and mothers, give me your children…
Yesterday, in the course of the day, I was given the order to send away
more than 20,000 Jews from the ghetto, and if I did not “we will do it
ourselves.” The question arose: “Should we have accepted this and carried
it out ourselves, or left it to others?” But as we were guided not by the
thought: “how many will be lost?” but “how many can be saved?” we arrived
at the conclusion—those closest to me at work, that is, and myself—that
however difficult it was going to be, we must take upon ourselves the
carrying out of this decree. I must carry out this difficult and bloody
operation, I must cut off limbs in order to save the body! I must take
away children, and if I do not, others too will be taken, God forbid...”
The above words were spoken on September 4, 1942, to
the Jews of Lodz, by Mordecai Chaim Rumkowski, the Nazi-appointed ghetto
administrator. According to Rumkowski’s self-delusional reasoning, he was
“saving” the remaining Jews by turning over a minimum number to be killed
by the Nazis. But all that he did was keep the ghetto residents docile and
cooperative during the process of their systematic extermination.
In the end, Rumkowski’s treachery accomplished
nothing and saved no one. The Lodz ghetto was liquidated in 1944 and all
of its inmates, including Rumkowski himself, were transported to
Auschwitz. For some reason, Holocaust historians are reluctant to describe
Rumkowski as the traitor and collaborator that he was, preferring instead
to whitewash his perfidy by calling him “a controversial figure” or
“tragic.” But there is nothing “controversial” or “tragic” about a man who
deliberately and coldly sent tens of thousands of his fellow Jews to their
deaths. Had Rumkowski believed in G-d, and observed G-d’s commandments, he
would have known what the Jerusalem Talmud says about such a situation:
tractate Terumot, chapter 8: If a group of Jews are surrounded
by bandits, who demand, “Give over one of you for us to kill, or we will
murder you all,” they should all allow themselves to be killed rather than
to give up even one Jewish soul.” To their credit, the Lodz Council of
Rabbis would not be a partner in Rumkowski’s evil deeds—they refused to
cooperate with him in any way.
Today the State of Israel has become like the Lodz
ghetto, and the part of Chaim Rumkowski is being played by delusional
appeasers like Shimon Peres, who still believe that peace can be achieved
through concessions. In eight years since the Oslo Accords, in which the
Israelis promised to give “Land” and the Arabs promised to give “Peace,”
more Jews have been murdered in terror attacks than during the preceding
fifteen years. Since former Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered all of Gaza
and 97% of the West Bank for a “Palestinian State” two years ago, more
Jews have been murdered in terror attacks than during the preceding six
years of the Oslo Accords.
Quite obviously and undeniably, the theory of “Land
for Peace” has been proven a massive failure. The “Peace Process” has come
to a crashing halt, and instead of being pacified and ready to live
side-by-side with the Israelis, the Arab masses have become whipped up
into a lather of triumphalism, proclaiming that they will settle for
nothing less than the destruction of all Israel and the expulsion or
extermination of all its Jews. The Israeli Chaim Rumkowskis, the
self-described “Peace camp,” who do not even have Rumkowski’s feeble
excuse of trying to save his own miserable life, persist in reenacting
Rumkowski’s delusional and treacherous folly.
Far from bringing “peace,” the liquidation of the
Jewish communities (otherwise called “dismantling the settlements”) in the
West Bank, which is an article of faith to the “peace” activists, will
merely whet the appetite of the jihadist murderers for more Jewish
land and blood. It is useless to expect that “world opinion” (as
represented by the resolutions adopted by the U. N.) can be purchased by
the unnecessary shedding of innocent Jewish blood. We should realize by
now that “the world” does not love us, and that no matter how many of our
own people we may sacrifice in order to keep from harming a hair on the
head of a known terrorist’s “human shield,” there is only One on whom we
can rely for our protection. We show G-d that we trust in Him by observing
His commandments.
The Rabbis teach, in Midrash Kohelet Rabba,
“those who are merciful to the cruel, will ultimately be cruel to the
merciful.” King Saul failed to destroy the nation of Amalek when he was
commanded by G-d to do so. Of all the mitzvot in the Torah, the
commandment to destroy Amalek (Deuteronomy 25:19) is without doubt
the most difficult one to fulfill. How could a G-d of mercy and kindness
order his people to commit genocide? What nation can be so obscenely evil
to deserve to be wiped out?
Fortunately, modern Jews are not obligated to
exterminate another nation. Maimonides, in the thirteenth century,
declared that it is impossible nowadays to know who is a pure descendant
of Amalek, because of all the mass migrations and intermarriage that have
gone on over the millennia. But that begs the second question: how evil
must the Amalekites have been, to have earned such a divine condemnation?
We can get an idea of the level of Amalekite
depravity by looking at the behavior of Israel’s current enemies. This is
a society which glorifies bloodshed, a society which rejoices in the death
of innocents, a society whose own children are taught from birth
that the “greatest” thing any one of them can do is to die while murdering
others. This is a society whose crimes of mass murder have never been
condemned by “the world” whose gracious opinion the Israelis crave. These
are the “people” (I use the term with extreme generosity) with whom Israel
is expected to negotiate.
The only result that can be expected from such
“negotiations” is a timetable for the removal of all Jews from the Holy
Land. This is the same “Peace Process” achieved by Chaim Rumkowski, the
“Elder of the Jews” who personally supervised the destruction of his
brethren in Lodz.
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