{"id":841,"date":"2018-01-02T13:57:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T17:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/?p=841"},"modified":"2018-01-02T13:57:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T17:57:10","slug":"one-sin-i-wont-be-striking-my-chest-for-and-neither-should-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/02\/one-sin-i-wont-be-striking-my-chest-for-and-neither-should-you\/","title":{"rendered":"One Sin I Won’t Be Striking My Chest For (and neither should you)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0<\/span>One Sin I Won\u2019t Be Striking My Chest For (<\/span><\/b>and neither should you<\/span><\/b>)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 by Gerald A. Honigman<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the High Holidays, like many other folks, I have many things to give thanks\u00a0and to try to atone for.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the former is my ability to even write this perpetually timely message now.\u00a0Having been seriously ill from late 2013 until late 2016, I surely was not able to do so then. Hence my abrupt exit from assorted worldwide media outlets and such.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, before I begin, I must praise G_d for allowing me to once again share these both old and new thoughts with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Jews began the \u201cTen Days of Awe\u201d (<\/span>Yamim Noraim<\/span><\/i>)\u00a0<\/span>this year on Wednesday evening, September 20th (days are counted biblically, a la ‘\u00a0the evening and the morning were the first day\u00a0<\/i>‘). Due to the lunar nature of the Hebrew calendar, the dates fall out differently each year, unlike the Gregorian calendar.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nThe High Holy Days start with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur, with a confession of sins,\u00a0Al Chait Shechatanu,<\/i>\u00a0committed in the eyes of G_d. Additionally, it is required that transgressions committed against fellow human beings be addressed separately. Without a true turning of the heart in attempts to rectify both (t’shuvah<\/i>), the confessions and fasts associated with the\u00a0<\/span>Yamim Noraim\u00a0<\/span>remain meaningless.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nIn terms of Arab-Israeli politics, Jews are continuously accused of countless sins by much of the rest of the world. Yet, as is noted in terms of another major Jewish holiday\u2013Passover\u2013Jews consider it regrettable that any hardship at all has to be suffered by anyone\u2013even enemies sworn to their own destruction.<\/span>
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\nStill, even as they symbolically remove drops of wine from their cups at the Passover Seder dinner to diminish\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the joy of deliverance from bondage, they must take care not to offer apologies for wanting to put an end to their two thousand year-old nightmare. Pathetically, too many Jews indeed so indulge\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The rebirth of Israel represents the wish to finally put an end to the horrors of massacres, demonization, forced conversions, expulsions, ghettoization, pogroms, dehumanization, inquisitions, dhimmitude, and so forth–culminating in the Holocaust.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Jews became weary of being labeled either “killers of G_d” by the Christian West or\u00a0kilab yahud<\/i>\u00a0(Jew Dogs) and “killers of Prophets” in the Muslim East–and treated accordingly. History finally forced them to do what was necessary for their own survival in their quest for a small slice of the\u00a0relative<\/i>justice pie\u2026working, with G_d\u2019s help, for the prophetic resurrection of the Jewish State.<\/span><\/p>\n

When discussing the Jews\u2019 sometimes flawed struggles to rid themselves of their perpetual scapegoat, victim, and whipping post par exellence status, there is no shortage of critics pointing out such Hebrew imperfections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Yet, Arabs and their supporters elsewhere offer no confessions, do not seek to atone for, nor\u00a0ask for forgiveness from G_d nor man for blowing up buses, restaurants, schools, and such\u2013nor beheading infants, slitting the throats of other children and parents in their sleep, etc. and so forth. On the contrary, they are proclaimed heroes and are given financial and other awards and commendations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the same Arab and other Muslim folks who loudly proclaim Israel\u2019s \u201coriginal sin\u201d show no signs of remorse for deliberately targeting innocents, conquering, subjugating, enslaving, and\/or massacring literally millions of other native peoples\u2013still going on to this very day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Furthermore, too often the world at large has generally granted them a free pass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>When is the last time, for example, that you read a\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/i>editorial demanding support for a state for some thirty-five to forty million\u00a0truly\u00a0<\/i>stateless Kurds–those same folks who repeatedly demand a\u00a022nd<\/i>\u00a0Arab state be born at Israel’s great imperilment? When is the last time students heard a university professor speak out this way in between frequently placing Israel and Zionism under the high power lens of moral scrutiny?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Jews, on the other hand, can honestly say that they have repeatedly tried to reach an honorable and just solution to their problems with Arabs.<\/span><\/p>\n

While wanting to put an end to their own perpetual\u00a0nakba<\/i>\u00a0(as Arabs refer to the rebirth of Israel\u2013\u201cthe catastrophe\u201d), Jews nevertheless agreed to one compromise after another over the past century so that Arabs could gain their additional state (and\u00a0second<\/i>, not first, in \u201cPalestine\u201d…since 1922, Jordan sits on about 78% of the original 1920 Mandate). That Arabs want their new, additional state to exist in place of Israel, not along side of it, has always been the problem. Fatah’s and the PA’s Mahmoud Abbas–Israel’s “peace partners”–recently told Hamas not to worry about recognizing a state of the Jews as their neighbor because he and his buddies have no intention to ever do so.\u00a0<\/span>
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\nThe issue has always involved Arabs not granting\u00a0anyone\u00a0<\/i>else (i.e., not only Jews) but themselves political and national rights in the region–with the possible exception of some of those whom they Arabized and\/or Islamized in centuries past. While this holds true for Turks, Afghanis,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Pakistanis and Iranians, for example, this is not the case with Kurds, Black African (Muslim and non-Muslim) Sudanese, and Imazighen\/”Berbers.” For the latter peoples, the issue becomes more of a clash of nationalisms than of religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ongoing forced Arabization process is thus still under way centuries after Arabs burst out of the Arabian Peninsula and spread out in numerous directions in their imperial conquests of the region. And while they demand that Jews confess and address all of their alleged transgressions, Arabs see their own subjugation, enslavement, colonization, and settlement of other peoples and lands (including in the Mandate of Palestine, where most Arabs were newcomers themselves) simply in terms of their own alleged just dues.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, as Rosh Hashanah, the New Year 5778, begins, Jews, like all other peoples, have a lot\u2013both individually and collectively\u2013to work on and to deal with in terms of both G_d and man. The latter will include continuing to try to find an honorable solution to problems involving Arabs. But to do this, they must have true partners for peace\u2013ones who recognize the rights of Jews as well as their own, and understand that others besides Arabs are also entitled to a share of justice in the region.\u00a0<\/span>
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\nUnfortunately, such an improvement in behavior and actions is not how Arabs are used to dealing with any of their own competitors. Furthermore, everything that Arabs say, write, teach and preach to their own people works against this ever happening. Under such circumstances, no amount of Israeli concessions will ever be enough.<\/span>
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\nUntil such a day arrives, however, Israel must do what it must do to thrive, not just survive. And one of the demands of this requires Israel to stand up firmly for its own just demands. It was promised, after the attempt on its life in June 1967, that it would never have to return to the suicidal armistice lines–not\u00a0<\/i>borders–imposed upon it in 1949\u2026regardless of what any American President,\u00a0perpetually hostile State Department, or others may threaten.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Before the United Nations decides to act to create that 22nd Arab state,\u00a0Israel must insist on the UN honoring its own earlier Security Council Resolution (242) from 1967 which promised Israel secure, defensible,\u00a0and real borders to replace those fragile lines. A territorial compromise in the disputed territories–as Lord Caradon and all the other architects of 242 testify to–is thus a must, regardless of what Arabs and their supporters demand.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not to say that all hope must be given up regarding a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israel conflict. But it is to say that deceiving ourselves will only lead to even more serious problems ahead.<\/span>
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\nOf all of the real sins that Jews must strike their chests and seek forgiveness for during this Holy season, they must remind themselves that the rebirth of the Jewish State and their struggle to survive and live in dignity are not to be counted among them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By any reasonable, objective standard, any fair comparison of the Jews\u2019 own imperfections in these regards with those of the very Arabs, Turks, and Iranians who take them to task on such issues is nauseatingly laughable, indeed.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nMay we all be blessed with a New Year in which all peoples will reach out to find better, more equitable ways to live with each other\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

L’shanah tovah…<\/span> http:\/\/q4j-middle-east.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0One Sin I Won\u2019t Be Striking My Chest For (and neither should you) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 by Gerald A. Honigman Regarding the High Holidays, like many other folks, I have many things to give thanks\u00a0and to try to atone for. One of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldahonigman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}