Gaza-Egypt border now open

On Saturday the border between Egypt and Gaza opened permanently. Some facts:

1. Women and men under the age of 18 and over the age of 40 can leave Gaza for Egypt without a special permit, while others will require a visa.

2. The agreement between Egypt and Hamas to open the border is in violation to the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, which maintains that Israel must be party to such decisions.

3. Some Israeli military and academic experts are claiming an open border between Gaza and Egypt will potentially take the pressure off Israel to sustain Gaza's needs, and allow emigration from Gaza, relieving the overpopulation there. Most, however, see the move as a clear advancement in Hamas-Egypt relations and the success of Hamas pressure on the Egyptian government. Hamas needs more sophisticated weapons for its crusade against Israel, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is eager to help now that Mubarak is out the way. In fact, in 2007, George Friedman of STRATFOR predicted that Hamas' deadlock in its struggle with Israel requires it to reach out to radical forces in Egypt.

4. Zvika Fogel, the chief of staff of the Southern Command of the IDF during the Second Intifada, has warned that the opening of the Rafah border with Egypt in a dangerous development and that Israel must remain involved in this border. Unchecked, this border could mean free passage for members of groups hostile to Israel such as Al Qaeda and Hezbollah to use Gaza as a launching pad, turning Gaza into a real terrorist state (r"l). Fogel even warned that the opening of the border could enable Hamas to smuggle Gilad Shalit into Sinai (h"v).

5. Meanwhile, the PA is planning to renew a subway line from Northern to Southern Gaza which has been inactive since the 1970's. (Last 2 links are in Hebrew)

A new kind of ba'al teshuva

Personally, I believe Mashiach has not arrived yet because Hashem is waiting for a new kind of ba'al teshuva.

I have had these thoughts for some time now, mostly inspired by the Hebrew writings of Rabbi Yiztchak Ginsburg, specifically those written by his student Yisrael Ariel, such as Rucho Shel Mashiach, Muda'ut Tiv'it (Natural Consciousness), Tom Va'Daat (Innocence and Knowledge), and more.

When I learned about Franz Rosenzweig in class last week, my thinking crystallized one step further. Franz Rosenzweig was born to an assimilated German family. He was on the verge of abandoning Judaism entirely, and had a conversation one evening with his Christian theologian friend in which he resolved to once and for all make the jump and convert to Christianity. Several members of his family and many German Jews had already chosen this route. He informed his mother of his decision, and although she in no way supported a traditional Jewish lifestyle, she was infuriated. On Yom Kippur Rosenzweig sought once more to attend synagogue in order to bid farewell to his born faith. However, his mother refused to let him set foot in their temple as a result of his recent decision. And so, Rosenzweig resolved to spend what he conceived of his last Yom Kippur as Jew in Berlin, alone.

On Erev Yom Kippur, Rosenzweig found his way to a shteibl of Eastern European Jews (possibly Hasidim), and there experienced a profound transformation. The experience of prayer amidst a traditional community produced an experience for him which penetrated his soul deeper than any logical, rational theological discussion. After this Yom Kippur, Rosenzweig resolved to remain a Jew, and dedicated the rest of his life to contemplating Jewish texts and attempting to salvage Judaism from the misconceptions which plagued it as a result of its conflation with Christianity as a result of assimilation.

Rosenzweig is the first modern ba'al teshuva. Prior to this, ba'al teshuva was a term for a person who grew up in a traditional lifestyle, who sinned or abandoned the path, and then returned. The experience however of growing up in a secular, scientific world foreign to authentic Judaism, and then discovering a kernel of truth on the background of a godless lifestyle, was a uniquely modern phenomenon. On the deepest level of reality (even though it is also because of our avonoteinu harabim), I believe Hashem orchestrated world history out of a desire for this discovery anew, and the uniting of opposites that it can produce. Judaism had become so tainted by millenia of exile, that in order to grasp its essence, one needed to come from something completely foreign and embrace it anew, from a place of choice.

When asked if he donned tefillin, Rosenzweig would answer "not yet". He was not a Reform Jew, in the sense that he was not about to create an alternative lifestyle based on his inability to don tefillin, on the fact that at this particular point and time in his lifetime, as a result of his particular circumstances, he could not bring himself to fulfill this daily obligation. Halakhah was real; he was what needed to evolve, adapt and change. Rosenzweig gave the following metaphor: Halakhah is like a house in which he wants to dwell; for the time being, he is in a tent, which he is continuously re-pitching closer and closer to the house. However, he is not willing to leave the tent, and enter the house immediately.

In the way I understand it, bringing the tent ever closer to the house, rather than abandoning one's tent and jumping into the house all at once, represents the path of a ba'al teshuva to authentically enter the world of Torah and mitzvot in a genuine way that does not deny the depth of one's own personality. As precious as a victory on this path can be, it also means living in an ever-precarious state of imperfection; if a person is truly honest with oneself along this path, he or she is one is almost but not quite living with the ultimate truth as he or she knows it deep inside. This can be an incredibly difficult stance to maintain psychologically. For this reason, many slide one way or the other: On the one hand, many decide to do away with the house, and reason that if it's so difficult to draw one's tent close to the house, it must mean that the house is not real, and that whatever I can do in my own tent must be ultimate. On the other hand, many flee their tent so rapidly that they enter the house with everything but their own inner voice.

Every thought of teshuva is infinitely holy in Hashem's eyes, and no yearning for holiness should be disregarded, as it comes from the highest worlds, the world that preceded this world. At the same time, there is something if not equally compelling about a person like Rosenzweig's commitment to his own inner integrity, and the belief behind this commitment that his own inner integrity and halakhah are intimately connected, even if it might take a lifetime (or more) to discover.

If every ba'al teshuva that is confronted with the undeniable, world-shattering experience of Hashem's reality and the call of Torah and mitzvot, if every such individual stayed exactly in the place that he or she is, and attempted to explain to others around them in the most human and genuine of terms what one is experiencing, what ripples could be made? Of course, Hashem is in charge, and anyone who feels called to dive into the furthest reaches of teshuva, Hashem will surely do His part in repaying this individual and inspiring others around him. We need not make plans for Hashem. However, looking at the state of the world today, and the eerie silence that stands between seas of baaley teshuva and seas of secular bubbles, I have to ask, are there not people who have the courage to have one foot in each world?

Do others have experiences or insights relating to the question of how to do teshuva at such a pace that it remains authentic? Is remaining authentic to one's inner voice simply a modern concept, or is this a reasonable guideline from within Torah? I seek those who question, not only those who answer.

Pressure mounts on Obama to ditch the illusion of 1967 stability

According to The Hill, Democratic senators are likely to support a new resolution which would show broad, bipartisan consensus within Congress that the 1967 Israeli-Palestinian borders are not only "indefensible", but also contrary to U.S. national security interests.

Senators Joe Lieberman (Conn., Independent), and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are behind the current resolution. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) voiced support, claiming there is “total agreement” in Congress that “the ’67 lines will not work." Other rebukes of Obama's reckless Israel policy include speeches delivered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) speech at AIPAC on Monday and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) at the AIPAC conference on Sunday and Monday. Both offered harsh criticism of Obama's hubris of determining borders of a sovereign nation on a podium rather than on the negotiation table.

On the absurdity of transferring populations and redrawing borders as a mechanism for solving problems of national security, George Berkin at NJ Voices makes the following analogy:

How’s this prescription for solving our conflict (illegal immigrants and drugs) with Mexico: Renegotiate the border, starting with where the line stood in 1844 (i.e. before we acquired a large chunk of territory in the Mexican War).

Or here’s a suggestion for resolving problems between Washington and Paris: renegotiate the western U.S. border based on geographic lines in effect in 1802, before the Louisiana Purchase.

While we’re at it, let’s return to the geography of July 1861, just after the Confederate states declared their independence but before the Civil War set things back to right.

Hey, why not? Overturning established borders to return to a previous line of demarcation sounds like a good idea, especially for those unhappy with the status quo.

...The U.S. would never agree to go back to previous borders, no matter how much other parties might promise that doing so would bring peace to the Southwest or improve relations with France or South Carolina.

But the analogy breaks down for other reasons – instructive reasons as we think about how the Palestinians are determined to destroy Israel.

First, none of the examples at the beginning of this post asks the U.S. to surrender part of Washington, D.C., the political (and emotional) seat of our government. But the “pre-1967” borders that President Obama wants Israel to return to would require the Jewish state to hand over part of Jerusalem, the political, emotional and spiritual heart of Israel.

Second, Americans would certainly feel bad about handing over part of the Southwest to Mexico. But no one can credibly claim that doing so would make it nearly impossible to defend what remained of our nation.

Not so were Israel to give up the territories it won – in a defensive war – against its assembled enemies nearly a half-century ago. Some commentators have pointed to Israel’s success in defending itself in 1967 as “proof” that Israel could repeat that military success, if worse came to worse. But having succeeded once before, under remarkable circumstances, is not a solid security strategy.

Third, none of my examples of territorial “givebacks” would be a first step to an ultimate goal of destroying the United States. Again, we would regret losing Texas and part of California, but the U.S. would remain standing. Mexico accepts the U.S.’s right to exist.

...It seems clear that demanding that negotiations start from Israel’s pre-1967 borders will not bring peace. Instead, Palestinian leaders, flush with a “pre-1967” victory, would establish a Palestinian state, and then make their next demand. They would demand a return to the area’s pre-1948 borders – that is, a return to the days before Israel became a new nation.

Fayyad suffers heart attack in US

May 12, 2011: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad declares Palestinians have created all conditions for establishing a Palestinian state.

“The mission has been accomplished."

"We presented our plan in August 2009 to enable setting up a state in September 2011. But already on April 13, at the donor states’ meeting in Brussels, the UN, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund stated that we crossed the statehood line. Our vision had become a reality."

“I imagine myself celebrating our Independence Day in Jerusalem, in the east of the city, in the heart of the Old City."

Palestinian independence day, in the heart of the Old City?

Ten days later...

May 22, 2011 (Lag Ba'Omer): Palestinian PM suffers heart attack

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad suffered a heart attack while visiting the U.S. and is recovering at a Texas hospital, a spokesman said Monday.

...Fayyad has developed close ties with Western leaders, who would like him to stay on as prime minister. The Palestinians receive hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid every year, and Fayyad has won praise for his efforts to build a Palestinian state from the ground up.

A Palestinian state side-by-side Israel is a mirage in the desert. Israel was not under control of the territory in question in 1967, and yet it was nonetheless drawn into a war. A Palestinian state - and all the more so a unilaterally declared one -- is an existential threat to Israel. David Frum from CNN writes today:

It's not just the geography. It's the topography.

When you look at maps of the Middle East, you see at once that pre-1967 Israel was very narrow -- just nine miles across. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport stretches wider than that.

But what you do not so easily see is that pre-1967 Israel was low as well as narrow. Israel emerged from the 1948-49 Arab invasions holding the coastal plain along the Mediterranean. The invaders grabbed and held the highlands between the plain and the Jordan River Valley.

Those highlands rise almost 3,000 feet above the coastal plain. Whoever controls them can shower missiles and rockets upon Israel's cities and factories -- with much greater accuracy and lethality and much less vulnerability to retaliation from ground forces than a rocket fired from level ground.

Israel experienced such a barrage in the three years leading up to the 2008 Gaza war. Thousands of rockets were fired from Gaza into southwestern Israel. Southwestern Israel is relatively lightly settled, so most of the rockets exploded without killing anyone. Even so, Israel suffered 16 killed and dozens wounded by rocket fire between 2005 and 2008. Had those rockets been fired into central Tel Aviv -- or against the runways of Ben Gurion Airport -- they would have inflicted horrific human and economic damage.

Holding the highlands matters for external as well as internal security. The West Bank boundary with Jordan extends for almost 100 kilometers (more than 60 miles). Yet in all that length, Israeli military experts assess that there only three routes across which an armed force can travel. Whoever holds those controls land access to Israel from the east.

Joplin, MO hit by massive twister, 116 dead

At 1 a.m. Israel time Motzei Lag Baomer, just as the speakers turned off in Meron after a million people made pilgrimage to the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and precisely the day after the world was supposed to end and "believers" were meant to be saved, a mile-wide tornado with a rank of EF4 (attributed to less than 1% of all tornadoes) ripped through the town of Joplin, Missouri, a major commercial, medical and cultural hub of the Southerastern United States, killing at least 116 people and leaving entire neighborhoods flattened and 30% of the town destroyed, including the town's hospital, where patients had to be evacuated. Many are reported as still trapped in destroyed homes.

Meanwhile, I saw this on the Seven Universal Laws blog:

However, keep in mind: rainbows are not a good thing. A rainbow is a sign that the world is deserving of a flood in the proportions of the flood in the time of Noach, but because of God's promise that He would not again destroy the world, we are spared the flood and given the rainbow as a sign of our situation. In fact, it is said that because of his righteousness, in the days of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the world did not see a rainbow. (Perhaps that's why Hashem waited until the end of the Hilula.)

Lag BaOmer and the Zechus of Rashbi

Lag BaOmer is a day of salvation for everything. (Shaar Yisaschor)

Lag BaOmer is Saturday night and Sunday. See Zchus Avos for segulas for Lag BaOmer, here for the story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and here to send a prayer to Meron and to donate food and mashke to the chassidim who will be praying, dancing and celebrating throughout the weekend Rabbi Shimon's kever. 

US deems Syria 'national security threat', announces sanctions

On Wednesday the US announced sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad and six other Syrian government officials, after over 800 people have been killed in the regime's repression of democratic protests.

In a letter to Congress declaring the sanctions, Obama wrote that he has:

found the actions of the Government of Syria constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.

Extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States? Declaration of a national emergency? Couple that with the National Defense Authorization act, and it sounds like someone's clearing the way for another war.

The harsh prophecy concerning Damascus
Behold, Damascus shall be removed from being a city, it shall be depth of ruins

On that day, man shall turn to his Maker, 
and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel

- Isaiah 17