"The first photo shows my grandchildren hiding from Russian terrorists' missiles... we evacuated them to Israel... In the second photo, the same people are hiding from Hamas terrorists' missiles."
Chief rabbi of Ukraine @RabbiUkraine writes on his Facebook page:
"The first photo shows my grandchildren hiding from Russian terrorists' missiles in Kyiv region in the first days of the terrible invasion of Ukraine.
Later, together with thousands of people, we evacuated them to Israel and Europe.
In the second photo, the same people are hiding from Hamas terrorists' missiles.
Two different parts of the world, but such a common pain and struggle... My heart breaks to see these faces, but I believe that the light of truth and faith will help us to go through these challenges
I pray to the Almighty to bring down his anger and fury on all those involved in the terror of civilians!"
While yes this is sad, you had to have known and expected that Israel was a potentially dangerous place. This just happens to be the largest attack in recent times
Nobody is saying it's his fault for being a rocket magnet. But come on, Israel hasn't exactly been the most peaceful place on earth for the last, oh, 3000 years or so.
I'm full of compassion for him and his family. But as an important religious figure, publicly saying that you pray for the fury and anger of your God to go down on your enemies is awful. I understand the sentiment. I understand the anger, I do. But praying for something negative to happen - especially when you are supposed to lead other people - cannot be the right way to go.
Pray for the war to end. Pray for peace. Pray for Hamas to understand their wrongdoings. Pray for the terrorists to realize what they are doing. Pray for them to stop and beg forgiveness. If you want, pray for God to judge them. But praying for violence isn't what prayer should be used for.
I know what you mean. But that should be the distinction between religious extremists and "mainstream" religious leaders, shouldn't it? Extremists tend/can promote the negative, brutal, violent parts of their scripture. The modern-moderate mainstream approach is usually to focus on the unifying, loving, connecting, forgiving aspect. And this is why his statement pisses me off so much. Being the representative of the Jewish community in Ukraine, speaking for/to this community, advocating the violent aspects of your religion's scripture is an awful move.
You mean the book where Israel frequently gets attacked by outside forces as a means of punishment from God? The book where God exiles the Israelites to a foreign land because of their extreme sin?
Jewish fundamentalists are radical extremists. This sort of rhetoric isn't rare coming out from this community, nor is it ever frowned upon. They get away with it for obvious reasons.
It’s my understanding the British put these two peoples in
It was more the Americans - factions within Britain warned that this would be an untenable situation.
an impossible situation
And there's the rub. There are no considerations where land appropriated by the west from a (non-Russian, non-German) current population for a long-since displaced population as some sort of reparation for Russian and German aggression will somehow come to a stable peace.
All that said, the actions of Israel in isolating Palestinians into a ghetto where control is by fiat and without any consideration for self-determination and independence is not just ironic but also a source of constant and mounting friction and discontent within the repressed population. There may not be a way to resolve the condition, but the current attitude by Israel is actively aggravating it.
Note: I'm a second generation descendent of Russian Jews. I still see the entire Israeli/Palestinian condition as untenable.
Two States is the only real solution, and Israel has increasingly been making that solution impossible by continuing to support and expand settlements in West Bank and elsewhere.
Frankly, settlements in the West Bank have to be entirely destroyed. Hamas has to be destroyed, too.
But Israel isn't sincere about peace, and its continual encroachment on Palestinian lands proves it.
Let go of your delusion. Israel owns the land now. Russia is occupying and will be kicked out. Even Ukraine agrees with Israels actions. This isn't a marvel movie.
It's land, and Israel has no greater claim than Palestine does.
If they can't live together in that area I don't think we should let them have governments. Maybe they should just become a vassal state and maybe in a hundred years after every one of the people who are alive and part of this conflict are dead they can be permitted to start electing their own leadership again.
Israel has proven that it can't self-govern without genocide, and Palestine doesn't have a government because it's literally a nation of children who weren't born when the government was elected.
Terrible and tragic. No one should have to endure such terror and trauma, especially children. I wish humans could stop being sadistic, petty, violent animals and work together to solve disagreements and compromise in nonviolent ways. I know it's a naive ideal, but surely it's a better goal to work towards than... well, this.
I remember pleading to my friend not to move to Israel due to the danger of living there. This was 14 years ago. This man has no excuse, he has decades of precedent to go off.