WHY YOU SHOULD RALLY FOR ISRAEL AND WHAT ABRAHAM HAS TO DO WITH THAT

On Tuesday, almost 300.000 Jews rallied in Washington DC in support of Israel. They were Jews from every stripe, from the Democratic Left (some of them even Socialist) like the Reconstructionists to the avowed Right-wingers of the Zionist Organisation of America. If the news has escaped your attention, this is understandable; the BBC did not make a great fuss about these Zionist Jews. They prefer another kind of Jews. More of this later.

American Jewry has found a remarkable unity around Israel. For years -more, for decades- the know-it-all from the liberal media have spoken of a division, if not of a divorce, between the Jewish State and the largest community of the Diaspora, the American Jews, whose liberal values were (allegedly) not in synchrony anymore with backward Israel.

That was -now it has been proven- a lie, factually incorrect. American Jews understand how serious is the current threat. They oppose any appeasement towards Hamas. They care for Israel regardless of what they think of Netanyahu.

Until now, the largest Jewish rally ever held in Washington was the “March for Freedom of Soviet Jewry” in December 1967; there were 200.000 demonstrators. Last Tuesday they were 300.000. That’s history.

Another historical event: the Satmar Rebbe, spiritual leader of the largest ultra-Orthodox denomination, has vehemently condemned the anti-Israel demonstrations of the previous weeks. That’s remarkable. The Satmar Rebbe, like many spiritual authorities of the Chareidi world, is not a Zionist. Israel, for the ultra-Orthodox, is a problem: the recognition of same-sex marriages, the buses that travel on Shabbat, the pop music in Hebrew… all of this conflicts with their understanding of Jewish tradition.

But even if they dislike the Jewish State, they now support its existence. Their highest authorities have excommunicated the few hundreds of anti-Zionists among them.

The Satmar Hassidim are more than 150.000. It’s the largest ultra-Orthodox group in the world. So this is a massive shift: more than 150.000 Jews have now become Israel supporters. Not to mention other ultra-Orthodox groups: over the last decades, they have also softened the opposition to Zionism, which was a trademark of these movements.

So, nowadays, the Jews who oppose Zionism are those on the Far Left. Those who ask for a ceasefire — to give Hamas time to reorganise and begin again to murder and to kidnap (this is not a warmonger’s fantasy; this is what the Hamas leaders declare they want to do). Those who spend Saturday mornings marching alongside friends of Hamas like Jeremy Corbyn. Those who take part in sit-ins and demonstrations and -to prevent being evicted by the police- pretend to pray.

How? This is hilarious. They call for Shacharit, the morning service, at 11:30 (which time zone do they live in?). They lay tefillin over their sleeves. They blow the shofar from the wrong side, etc.

It’s easy to have fun at such a pathetic use of Jewish symbols to encourage harming Israel, the largest Jewish community in the world. It’s infuriating that this small fringe of extremists is regarded as “representative of Jewish values” and is given so much space in the major newspapers.

Possibly because their former schoolmates now work as journalists (they all come from the same very expensive schools, did you notice?). Editorialists who don’t care about the majority of the Jews believe and do not even report the spike in antisemitic crimes; they only talk about a generic “rise of hate crimes”.

It’s dishonest, deeply dishonest, that complacent academics hail this clumsy use of Jewish symbols to advance an anti-Zionist agenda as the davening of a new era in Jewish activism.

But I want to take these extremists seriously. They make a big deal of a passage from Genesis 18 (parashah Vayera, two weeks ago, but still relevant). It is the dialogue of Abraham with God on behalf of the people of Sodom.

Let me remind you of the passage. God has decided to destroy the city of Sodom because its inhabitants are so evil that they do not deserve to live. They are cruel, hypocritical -the Rabbis explain. They torture the stranger with the pretension of being welcoming. They set a horrible example to other cities. For this, the inhabitants of Sodom do not deserve to live.

Famously, Abraham tries to change God’s mind. He pleads on behalf of the life of the inhabitants of Sodom because -he says- even if the majority of the Sodomites are evil, there is a chance that there are fifty righteous people in their midst — and God agreed not to destroy Sodom if these fifty people are found.

And Abraham replies. But what if there are 45 righteous Sodomites?. And God replies. “If I can find 45 righteous individuals in Sodom, I will spare the city”. Then Abraham asks, “And if there are only thirty?” and receives the same answer. And so on and on.

Abraham lowers the number of righteous individuals who may be in the midst of the evil population of Sodom. And every time, God agrees to spare the city. Even if there are only ten, only ten, just inhabitants in that highly populated city (there were 150.000 inhabitants in Sodom, according to some scholars).

The anti-Israel folk make a big deal of a passage of Abraham’s peroration: “Will the God of Justice sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”. They point at the collateral damages and excommunicate the Army of the Jewish State (they do it all the time; finding moral flaws in the Jewish State is the favourite pastime on the Far Left). Look, they claim, “Israel is doing precisely that, sweeping away the (Palestinian) righteous with the (Hamas) wicked. This is not an ethical behaviour. This is not Jewish. NOT IN MY NAME! (do you hear the sound of the stomping foot?)

It is an often quoted passage, but those who read it in such a way miss a significant point. God knows everything. The number of righteous people living in Sodom (less than ten) was already known to God. God has already decided to destroy the city (as God will indeed do).

The point of this conversation was not to allow Abraham to bring one new fact to the attention of God. God is not the CEO of some corporation who needs to read the report of the Justice Department, signed by this new manager, Abraham, before deciding what to do with that waste of resource called Sodom. Informing God is not the point of this conversation.

The point of this conversation was to teach Abraham how to pray. God does not change during the dialogue with God. Somewhat, Abraham changes. He starts hypothesising that there may be fifty righteous people. Then consider that there are maybe forty-five. Or maybe thirty and so on until 10. Prayer makes Abraham less judgemental, less sanctimonious, and more understanding.

Abraham learned not only how to pray but also to be tolerant and patient. At the beginning of the conversation, Abraham thought that 50 people were required to ensure the city’s survival. In the end, he has understood that ten is enough. But these ten righteous individuals are not there.

Now, let’s look at the context because the peroration of the people of Sodom is not an isolated event. It’s part of Abraham’s life. More: it’s part of Abraham’s journey to parenthood. The Pirkei Avot mentions indeed that Abraham has endured ten tests in his life. And this dialogue with God is one of these tests. Once Abraham has learnt how to pray and become less judgemental and sanctimonious, he is ready to become a father.

I find this reading, whose focus is education, much more convincing than the mainstream liberal reading, with its badly hidden obsession with Israel’s alleged moral flaws.

Those Jews who refused to demonstrate for Israel but instead harassed the HQ of the Democratic Party tried to tear down the fence around the White House (like the Trumpian crowd on January 6, 2021) and vandalise the New York Times building … definitively need to learn one thing or two about kindness as the opposite of sanctimoniously.

But let’s read the dialogue between God and Abraham focusing on education. We will learn something about the tragedy going on in Gaza.

So, let’s talk about education.

Let’s talk about that young man, a militant of Hamas, who slaughtered a Jewish family on October 7 and then called home with the phone of one of the victims. He told his parents: “Mum and Dad, Open WhatsApp, look what I have done; I murdered ten Jews, ten Jews, may God be blessed! I murdered ten Jews with my own hands, can you believe it?” And Mummy and Daddy lovingly and proudly encouraged him to continue the massacre and to finish a woman (probably pregnant).

What sort of education has that militant received? Do we teach our children anything similar? Do we want any child to learn this? Don’t you see the difference between us and them?

On October 7, the Hamas militants kidnapped Jewish kids from neighbouring villages. They were brought to Gaza and paraded in front of the crowd. Everything was filmed and put on TikTok so that anyone in the world could see Palestinian children, 6 or 7 years old, cruelly mocking the Israeli kid, less than four. They teased him with a mock Hebrew accent, “Oh call Ima, call Ima now, poor little yahud…”

Have we ever wondered what a monstrous educational system produces such an outcome? Children take pleasure in torturing other children! And encouraged in this by teachers and parents.

Yes, there are Jews who demand a ceasefire so that Hamas can reorganise and kidnap again, as Hamas claim they will. Those Jews, how strange, prefer not to talk of the Palestinian educational system, of the horrible antisemitic hate that is taught in Gaza, night and day, in every school at every level.

After this war, the Palestinians’ education must change. Their textbooks full of antisemitism must be replaced by a different kind of material (yeah, call me a racist and Islamophobic because I demand this basic decency). Palestinians must not be fed with the dream of “return” and of re-enacting another “liberating” October 7. I hope that Israel and the USA will work at that, much like the Allies after WWII worked at the school curricula in Germany and Italy.

I have opened this sermon -longer than usual, I know- talking about the Tuesday demonstration in Washington, DC. 300.000 Jews of all denominations, united by their love for Israel. That was so inspiring.

A similar demonstration is planned next Sunday in London. We must show the public opinion, even those who still have faith in the Guardian and in the BBC, that the absolute majority of Jews in this Country passionately support Israel. We do not support politicians who appease Hamas or want us to ignore that Palestinian kids are educated to hate the Jews -not the Israelis, the Jews. We must make clear to the public opinion that the problem is not “the Occupation”. The problem is called antisemitism.

Go to the Sunday demonstration if you can. Do whatever you can to join. God has taken time to teach Abraham how to be the progenitor of the Jewish people. We humans can spend half a Sunday in defence of the Jewish State and our brothers and sisters who live there.