The Bond Between Judaism and Israel
The connection between Judaism and Israel has long, deep, historic roots. The holy Torah clearly shows, that the land
of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and that the great fathers of the Jewish nation – Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov –
lived in "Kenaan" land (which is Israel of nowadays). The modern claim of Arab leaders, that Israel (or, as they call it,
"Palestine") belongs historically to the Palestinians, is absolutely false and historians specializing in the Middle east
proves that the Jewish people lived in that area much earlier. Further than that, the Muslim religion was founded only
1400 years ago, while historic evidences shows that Judaism was rooted in the land of Israel much earlier than that.
However, the connection between Judaism and Israel is not just historical, and is not similar at all to the connection
between other nations and their lands. The importance of Israel to the Jewish people is mainly religious. For over 2000
years, when Jews were not allowed in Israel, they kept praying for their return. Israel has many sites that are holy to the
Jewish people, such as the Western Wall (a wall in Jerusalem which was a part of the original Temple), the tombs of the
Jewish biblical characters Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Leah, Rachel, Yosef, David, as well as other biblical
sites and important Rabbis from the Jewish history.
Although the connection between the Jewish people to the land of Israel is clear and obvious, there are some nations
and states that refuse to recognize the existence of the Jewish state of Israel (such as Iran, whose president recently
said that Israel should be "wiped off the map", Syria, the Palestinian authority etc.). Actually, the question of the Israeli
state is often discussed within international forums (UN, Security Council) and raised in the diplomatic ties between
countries in the international community.
The legitimacy of Israel to exist is obvious and well-agreed, but the extremist arab countries are trying to narrow the Israeli
government ability to fight terror and to defend itself and its citizens from threats by hostile countries (such as Iran, who develops
an Atomic program) and terrorist organizations (such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah etc.).
For this reason, the support of the Jewish communities across the world in the state of Israel is so important. Most
Jewish people, wherever they live, hold the Jewish faith and the Jewish heritage, and they are faithful to the state of
Israel and the idea of Zionism.
But being faithful is not enough, especially in the current situation when extremist Arab
countries are trying to harm Israel and to influence other countries to do so as well. Jewish people must be active
(and proactive) in helping Israel to survive, and can do so in several ways: They can influence the representatives in
whatever country they live in to defend the interests of Israel in their parliament and in bilateral connections with other
countrys; They can contribute directly to Israel and to their institutes (for example, Jewishop – an online Judaica store,
that all of its products are made in Israel and helping strengthening the Israeli industry); They can write articles to their
local media and convince their friends and family to do so as well, etc.
But the most important thing, and the bottom line of my editorial, is not to be silent. The current situation in the
international community is similar to the biblical story of David vs. Goliath: Israel is David – a young, vibrant country
with high moral values – and the extremist Arab countries are Goliath – corrupt and despicable, with the oil weapon
on its side. But this time we must not leave David alone in the battlefield. We must help David, We must help Israel,
for the sake of the free world and the western societies.