The shocking murder of an officer and a civilian last Friday by Arab rioters brought to the surface a murky and unimaginable wave of burning hatred toward Jews who inhabit the regions of our country.
It is impossible to understand how Jews side with the murderers and pour out torrents of slurs against their brothers. And if this seemed like a marginal and unusual phenomenon, the accumulation of these expressions indicates that there is a very serious problem here.
Certain groups, who consider themselves a cultural elite (woe to that culture), have been cultivating hatred for settlers for years. They paint the residents of Judea and Samaria in a negative and monstrous light. They turn marginal phenomena into 'settler violence' and conduct a worldwide smear campaign against Jews, men, women and children, who deal daily with stone-throwing on highways and with incessant terrorist attacks.
Blackening techniques
The Haredim also receive the same level of hatred and the same smear techniques. There is no attempt here to have a discussion or debate, but rather to deliberately stoke hostility and disgust.
Things are done through all means - statements by politicians, articles in the media, sketches on satire programs, plays, films.
And these are the same people who see themselves as lovers of humanity, full of 'respect for others,' very sensitive to the various cultural differences of others - provided that they are Arabs or infiltrators. But if they are Jews who study Torah and observe the commandments or settle the regions of the Land of Israel - all these lofty values vanish as if they were nothing.
And this is also reflected in the reference to the Land of Israel itself. Throughout the generations, the concept of 'the Land of Israel' has been a source of longing, longing, and prayer. Jews made great efforts to come to it, to kiss Ofra, to breathe its atmosphere. Old people wandered the roads for weeks and months, in order to be able to end their lives in the Land of Israel and be buried in its holy land.
Listen to the Torah reading on Shabbat and you will hear a song of praise for the Land of Israel: "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of flowing water, springs and cisterns gushing out in the valley and in the sea.. A land of wheat and barley and vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil olives and mead.... a land whose stones are iron and out of whose mountains you can dig bronze.".
Where is the love of the country?
The Sages often speak of the excellence of the land, 'a king's palace,' which the Holy One, the Blessed One, chose from all the lands to give to the people He chose from all the nations. This is "a land on which... the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.".
But in the eyes of those circles, the 'Land of Israel' has become 'land', and instead of feeling love for it, they despise it and call the lovers of the land a collection of derogatory epithets. Even when they sacrifice their lives for the defense of the people and the land, with extraordinary self-sacrifice, they turn even this miraculous sacrifice into a negative one, as if they prefer death to life.
It's hard to see how this sick hatred can be cured, but at least they shouldn't dare to portray themselves as those who strive to bring a message of unity and bringing hearts closer together. The Sages have already stated that "whatever is rejected by the mother is rejected." They would do better to look in the mirror a little, take stock of themselves, and realize that we are, first and foremost, one people.
