Op-Ed Gives Free Pass to Left …

Essay: Brooklyn’s Not-One-Inch Crowd

Commentary;

Had Ehud Olmert not had such a zealous desire to “rub the noses of religious Jews in it” on the very day of the expulsion from Gush katif, had he said the same thing at another time, in a different context, in a more couched, diplomatic way, his words about Aliyah in large numbers might well have been taken on a more positive context.

Instead, as this author wrote shortly after the expulsion, in an article which was not posted to the internet owing to time, in a personal apology to the Nefesh b’Nefesh people who arrived on 17 August and who were subjected to Ehud Olmert’s humiliating comments, “We followed in the news and heard how you were immediately subjected, right at the airport upon landing in Eretz Yisrael, to the aggresiveness and gross arrogance and chutzpah of one Ehud Olmert. All of us owe you our deepest apologies for his disgraceful words and actions, that he dared to agitate and provoke you, that he dared come-on to you with his wretched attempt at righteous superiority, particularly with his comments about the timing of your Aliyah. We too, amidst our agony at the expulsion, share your emotions at having your first day of Aliyah marred by this despicable being.”

“But those who Ehud Olmert and his ilk represent are diametrically opposed to us, to Torah and yiddshkeit and to our brethren, these beautiful people of both Gush Katif and of the Shomron towns. Those who oppose and oppress us: the descendants of the so-called ‘new Jews’ whose disdain Torah and the old ways, the ‘new Jew’ who is so shallow and devoid of meaning and principle that they no longer have heart for what is their’s/ours.”

“So my dear brothers, new Olim, please remember and hold on to your emotions upon landing in Eretz Yisrael on the day of your Aliyah. But also, please hold on to the first visions that you saw, those of Ehud Olmert and his spectacle of blind hatred. Please hold on to the recollection of your thoughts, feelings, emotions at his despicable display. If he got your back up, hold on to that emotion too. Please hold on to the entire picture, for in the future you/we may well need to tap these reserves in order to do battle l’Sham Shemayim against those who seek to eradicate Torah and Yiddishkeit from Israel. We must knife through the apathy, the indifference, the “business as usual” and the fear of the regime.”

While one can agree, to an extent, with Halkin’s comments regarding the “Brooklyn Right-Wing”, essentially Halkin gives a free pass to the left. He writes;

“All American Jews who claim the privilege, as Jews, of telling Israel what to do while disclaiming the responsibility, as Jews, to be living here are in the same position, whether they support Peace Now or the settlers.”

“There is one big difference, though. The left-wing American Jew, in urging Israel to withdraw from all the territories, is counseling it to take a course of action that would alleviate its demographic problem. While he himself is not willing to immigrate here, or to call upon others Jews to do so, he at least is saying to Israelis: ‘Take my advice and you will not need immigrants, because by withdrawing to the 1967 borders you will have struck a viable population balance between Jews and Arabs and will be able to do without me.’“

But why does Halkin overlook the distasteful shenanigans of the left in America? Why does he overlook their efforts to hurt and cripple Israeli through their advocacy of disconnection of US/Israel commerce? Why does he overlook left’s efforts to step into the void left in the fertile minds of Jewish college students, Rav Kahane’s “Bernies” who arrive at the Universities with little, if any Jewish knowledge, tradition, homelife, upbringing — Yiddishkiet?

Further, Halkin promulgates the Big Demographics Lie yet again.

Halkin’s attack on the “Brooklyn Right” is not without some merit, but is pitifully, desperately out of balance and blatantly leftist-agendized. MB