Wash, rinse, repeat. Never Forget! Never Again! We forgot and it is again.
The Ramban, a leading medieval Jewish scholar, often stressed that exile is punishment for trying to be like the nations; redemption comes when Jews live distinctly.
We, the Jews, taught to question, must come together to answer the question of Israel. I have been reading “To Win or Die A Personal Portrait of Menachem Begin” by Ned Temko, and I see, perhaps am reminded, that we, the Jews, are not as one when we answer that most important question.
One would have thought that October 7 would have brought ALL Jews together: left/right; Israel/Diaspora. But it didn’t. We have been at odds since forever.
Following the brutal attack on Israel, CIJA gave us this piece of wisdom.
Our Love is Greater Than Their Hate.
Really? That’s the answer? The barbaric Muslims will just stop murdering Jews if we love them enough despite the fact that their god, Allah, calls on them to kill all the Jews, everywhere.
Or how about “Live and let live.” Muslims do not assimilate, acculturate or accommodate. They just dominate wherever they live.
The third day of the month of Tishrei ( September/October)commemorates the murder of the Jewish Governor of Jerusalem, Gedalyah Ben Achikam, by another Jew, Yishmael Ben Netanyah (586 BCE).
This is why we fast on Tzom Gedaliah (the fast of Gedaliah) on the day after Rosh Hashanah. It’s not just mourning for one man, however righteous. And it’s not only mourning a missed opportunity—a chance to maintain some Jewish foothold in the land. It is grief over internal betrayal and division at the very moment when unity was most desperately needed. The fast reminds us of a bitter truth: sometimes our greatest enemies aren’t the foreign armies at our gates, but the divisions and hatred within our own ranks. Gedaliah set up his administration in Mizpah, just north of Jerusalem. He encouraged the scattered survivors to return and rebuild. “Do not be afraid to serve the Babylonians,” he urged them. “Settle in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you” (Jeremiah 40:9). Under his leadership, there was a brief renaissance. People began to cultivate the land again, gathering wine and summer fruit in abundance, and those who had fled to neighboring lands returned.
But not everyone was pleased with this arrangement. Ishmael ben Netaniah, a member of the royal family, had fled to the neighboring kingdom of Ammon during the Babylonian conquest. As a descendant of King David’s line, Ishmael felt that he—not Gedaliah—should be leading the Jewish remnant. His royal pride was wounded by seeing a commoner appointed to rule over what he considered his birthright. The Ammonite king, Baalis, saw an opportunity to eliminate any Jewish presence from the region entirely and played on Ishmael’s resentment, convincing him to assassinate Gedaliah.
And he did.
Fast forward to“modern times. Since WWII and the discussion between Ben Gurion and Menachem Begin about the partition of Israel, we have had Jews fighting Jews instead of fighting our enemies.
Menachem Begin was PM of Israel from 1977 to 1983. In September, 1938 he spoke to Jews in Warsaw at Betar Third World Congress on September 12, 1938: He said that for years young Jews had believed “moral pressure” would secure their homeland. No longer, he said. “But everything has changed — both in Israel, in the Jewish community and in the world. We must draw conclusions. Most of all, the conscience of the world ceased to respond. We regret this. But it is a fact. It cannot be denied. He accused the British, our ‘partner’, of sending “the best of our young men to the prison and to the gallows. We must face the truth: They must first and foremost consider the Arabs.” Begin said that this was because Arabs were not afraid to fight and be killed, while Jews mainly talked. “We have enough of surrender!” he shouted. “We want to fight — either to win, or to die!…” In response to a question by Jabotinsky “Have you taken note, sir, of the proportion between Hebrew forces and Arabs in Israel?” Begin replied. “We will win with moral force!… Even if we are to fall in battle, we will fight. The time has come for war. Without war Zionism is being destroyed.
That was 1938.
In 1974 Begin said:
“The fighting Jew does not want to harm any Arab. He wants peace between us and all Arabs. But if you ever raise a hand against his people, know this: the fighting Jew is fearless, his heart is of steel, his hands are trained for war and his fingers for battle. He will strike the enemy, disperse him, repulse him and destroy him, and ensure that his people shall have life, freedom and human respect in the Land of its Fathers for all eternity.”
Then we were told peace would come with Oslo 1993 and then by withdrawing from Gaza. 2005. How did that go?
It is 2025.
Today, the enemy continues to be the enemy within: the “as a Jew” Jews. We will not win if we are not all together, united as one; one people, one nation, fighting for the one and only Jewish state in the world – a state created by God within which His Chosen People are meant to live – eternally.
These “Jews” forget:
Deuteronomy Chapter 32
The deeds of the [Mighty] Rock are perfect, for all His ways are just; a faithful God, without injustice He is righteous and upright.
Destruction is not His; it is His children’s defect you crooked and twisted generation
Is this how you repay the Lord, you disgraceful, unwise people?! Is He not your Father, your Master? He has made you and established you.
We have “As a Jew”..Jews – in the movie business who signed up to boycott Jews/Israel because the Jewish state is an apartheid state like South Africa! What’s worse is the deafening silence from Hollywood’s elite, particularly the Jewish elite .”Many of you built careers, and fortunes, on stories of courage, identity, and overcoming oppression. Yet when your own people are under attack — when antisemitism is exploding on campuses, in the streets, and now in the arts — too many of you remain on the sidelines, or worse, join the chorus of condemnation.”
Not to worry:
A representative of the Israeli film and television industry, another “as a Jew” Jew called the boycott “misguided.”
“We are the industry that (has been) struggling for years, making efforts for decades to promote discussion,” working with Palestinians and Israelis to tell the story of the conflict from all sides, said Tzvika Gottlieb, CEO of the Israeli Film & TV Producers Association, in an interview.
Gottlieb said his industry “has consistently maintained a critical stance toward government policies, and is very vocal in criticism of this administration’s current actions. We urgently call for an immediate end to the violence, an end to the suffering, and the release of all hostages right now.”
The irony, the hypocrisy, the stupidity – Hollywood exists because Jews were shut out from the movie business in NY and moved out to California to create a new industry.
I read an opinion piece in the Forward, a Jewish Independent media outlet. This German word “Führerprinzip” explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power. Terrence Petty, July 12, 2025 explained that Trump, the dearest friend of Israel, the only world leader to protect and defend Israel and the Jews of America, is really hitler. Jews don’t need enemies – they are within the walls and have been since the beginning of Judaism. And God warned us. And warned us. And we didn’t listen. And we are still deaf.
‘I’m a Jew and I’m British, not Israeli. I have no association with Israel.’ In the wake of the Manchester synagogue attack, caller John pleads for people to understand: ‘Not all Jews are Zionists, and assuming otherwise puts us at risk’.
Isaiah 6-
“Go and say to this people, ‘Indeed you hear, but you do not understand; indeed you see, but you do not know.’
This people’s heart is becoming fat, and his ears are becoming heavy, and his eyes are becoming sealed, lest he see with his eyes, and hear with his ears, and his heart understand, and he repent and be healed.”
And I said, “Until when, O Lord?” And He said, “Until cities be desolate without inhabitant and houses without people, and the ground lies waste and desolate.
Wash, rinse, repeat. That is the cycle in which we Jews live. We never learn. Ever. After the destruction of the Two Temples, the exiles before the Common Era, then the exile for 2000 years by the Romans, and then, by the grace of God we are back on our legal, historical Biblical land and what happens? We are always at war with those who refuse to allow us to exist and don’t you know, Jews stand with them. We are a house divided and a house divided will fall. There is only one way to ensure the existence of Israel in her legal, historical and biblical land- we must all unite together; in Israel and the diaspora, and stand with God who made us, the Jews, His Chosen people – not to fight amongst ourselves. He chose us to be a beacon in the dark to be a light unto the nations and exist together.
Sadly, it never ends. Korach Jews. Jews who know better than our sages. Than our leaders. Who know if they just appease a little bit, just overlook barbarianism a little; explain it, apologize for fighting back because we know good Jews don’t do that, especially in a time promoting DEI, WOKE, CRT ideologies, then all will be well.
Maybe when the day comes when all Jews unite as one people, one nation, under one God. When we stop bickering amongst ourselves. When we all stand together against true evil, when we get the courage to declare Israel from the River to the Sea, maybe then God will send the Messiah.
Post Script: I strongly recommend reading To Win Or Die A Personal Portrait of Menachem Begin by Ned Temko. See and feel the pressure the world exerts only on Israel to bend the knee to a false god. This pressure has not changed. It will not change until, we, the Jews, change by uniting with God.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky said: “Whether you like us or not, we don’t care. We were here before you. And we will be here after you.”
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
Diane Weber Bederman
