So South Africa which has one of the highest murder and corruption rates in the world, and which includes almost 30,000 murdered victims just in the last twelve months, is the claimant against Israel, accusing it of Genocide.
Indeed the age old tactic of diverting your own problems with hatred against Jews....
As far as the actual accusation is concerned, Richard Kemp the former NATO commander in Afghanistan and so many others have said, there is no country in the world who fights as humanely as Israel, and who puts in so much effort and risk to avoid harming civilians, even when dealing with such an evil and despicable situation.
Every innocent life lost is a tragedy, but Israel has been left with no choice but to get rid of the genocidal Hamas terrorists and their many supporters, who have said clearly, that if they can, they will repeat the events of Oct 7th, again and again, and also to do everything they can to free the many innocent men, women and children who are still being held hostage.
Israel is facing a genocidal threat, against groups and people and alliances, who would like nothing better than to see it completely wiped off the map. They don't just mean in print, they mean its Jewish inhabitants too, and while they are at it, they don't just mean Jews who live in Israel, they mean Jews everywhere.
Ironically, the only country who has said on their own that they will help Israel so far in its arguments in the International Court, is Germany, the country that fully recognizes what genocide is really about, and who is really the victim here.
The war in Gaza and the hundreds of attacks from Lebanon, the missile attacks from Yemen and elsewhere, and antisemitism wherever it originates, will never ever break the will of the Jewish people. We are thank G-d an eternal people, who have been endowed and tasked with a mission to better the world, and despite the stress, pain and many challenges we have endured through the ages, we know we must keep trucking forward, and together we will succeed.
Pharoah and the exile in Egypt is the topic of the current Torah portions which of course has many points that relate to the hear and now. Nachmonidies one of the famous commentaries from the Middle Ages, writes an interesting point in Pharoah's first message to his people when he began the persecution.
Pharoah said "let us deal wisely with the Jewish people" who are quickly becoming far too powerful. Nachmonidies explains, that Pharoah knew that by asking his own people to commit genocide against the Jewish people, it wouldn't work, as even they had some morals. He knew that the only way for him to succeed with this evil plan, was to slowly make the Jews become detested in the eyes of the Egyptians so that gradually they would be okay with upping the persecution and eventually doing the cruel and evil things that they did to the Jews.
We have seen this happen time and time again over the course of history....
Yet in this week's portion which we read tomorrow, G-d responds to Moses's challenge to G-d who after seeing the upping of the intensity of the suffering of the Jewish people, exclaimed "how can you do bad to this people"? In the response, G-d says that they will now be saved and goes on to describe how they will be redeemed and come out even stronger than before.
The commentaries point out, that G-d was conveying to Moses, that while he wouldn't explain him the deeper underlying dynamics of the big picture, he wants Moses to know, that is through overcoming the challenges and staying strong and true to certain principles, even in the face of the cruelty and the unfairness, that the Jews grew and became a much stronger spiritual and moral nation and one that was ready to be tasked with an eternal mission in this world.
So while we know that we cannot overcome every word of hate, and every act of bigotry, whether it be in the media, the ICJ, the hallways of the UN and elsewhere, and we know that is is unfair and upsetting that this is happening. We also know, that it is the way we continue to handle this challenge, that will shape the future of the Jewish people, our children and their sentiments towards being Jewish, as well as our overarching goal of bettering the world to be a world that reflects the Divine values of goodness, kindness and faith.
Let us remember that the more light and goodness that we add to the world, the less darkness and evil will have a space to express itself and create influence.
So while the haters keep hating and finding new ways to express their bigotry, we will keep doing the opposite and increase in good and focus on more ways that will help us continue to accomplish the next good thing in this world, for our children, community and society at large. It starts, by not letting the hate and evil impact and fill our inner space of our mind, home and soul, and it continues with us making sure that our inner space, mind and emotions, are guided towards doing more Mitzvos, acts of kindness, and meaningful and productive pursuits.
Collectively, this will help us become stronger, more resilient and stay focused on our mission of making the world be a beautiful world for all.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel