Rabbi's Blog

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Dear OZ family,

The news today is calling 1923-2023 the Kissinger Century. He was born into an observant German family that lived in the Breuer’s community of Washington Heights, where he sat Shiva, not too long ago for his mother. Kissinger is credited with a realistic approach to peace negotiations, and relations with foreign adversaries such as Russia and China. The realism he engineered, spread to the Middle East, as he writes in his own memoirs, that he felt the need to prop up Egypt in the wake of the humiliation of 1967, in order for them to realistically face the possibility of peace with Israel. This included warning Israel against a pre-emptive strike against Egyptian belligerency in early October, 1973. Moshe Dayan, who ignored State Department warnings to ignore Egyptian belligerency in early June, 1967, this time advised compliance to disastrous results as we all know, from the Yom Kippur War.

Israel faced an existential threat during that war, and Golda Meir convinced Kissinger to convince Nixon to arm Israel, and we survived. Kissinger spent the next years preparing for a peace treaty that won Nobel Prizes. As always, Israel was called upon to relinquish lands it conquered in a defensive war, in return for recognition of her existence by the nation receiving the land, but not from other belligerent Arab countries.

This strategy, of propping up an enemy of Israel, in the hopes of charming them into recognizing and coming to grips with the fact that Israel is here to stay, seems to be the strategy with Iran, over some of the last 15 years. One has to wonder what the extent of Iran’s belligerency and destructive influence over world order has to be, before we realize that Iran, like Chamas, will never be resolved to live side by side with a Jewish State. To clamor, at such a time for a Two-State Solution as the only resolution to Israel’s current problem, is absurd. Much of the Arab world has come to the realization that the Palestinian problem has nothing to do with their own interests in making peace with Israel, and gaining form her scientific and technological prowess, not to mention, the security that Israel offers them from the menace of Iran and her proxies.

If Henry Kissinger is credited with being a realist, then he would realize that Iran today is not Egypt of 1979, and The Mullahs today are not Anwar Sadat. If the Jewish people are realists, then we believe in the miracle of Israel’s continued existence, and that we will thrive again, when we remove the threats posed by her enemies, sworn to her destruction, if only the world would let us. This is a scenario reproduced again and again. The other side always knows that the world will soon ignore any aggression, provocation, or even atrocity, and only concentrate on Israel’s measured response. The useful idiots on college campuses, in the media, and in politics only prolong the suffering.

I have included some very moving footage from very early on, in the events of Oct. 7^th.

Stay safe and healthy

Rabbi Allen Schwartz  

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Congregation Ohab Zedek

118 West 95^th Street

New York, NY  10025-6604

Phone 212.749-5150, ext 200

E-mail ras@ozny.org

Website:  www.ozny.org

FORWARD MESSAGE:

1. As the fighting again begins, the Hamas propaganda machine will again be working to convince the world that they are not the monsters. Concerning their body counts I recommend this article from the JCPA - The Casualty Figures in Gaza Are a Scam - https://jcpa.org/article/the-casualty-figures-in-gaza-are-a-scam/

2. And this: Palestinian UN exhibit of Gaza suffering uses photo of Israeli kid killed by Hamas.
   https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-775725

Let’s pray for better days.