An Engineered Tragedy

Folks, listen to me. The ongoing intifadah is remarkable for one reason and this singular reason is fascinating:

This ongoing war has caused over 2,200 deaths so far; and yet, the most significant aspect Palestinian cruelty seems to be the struggle for international public opinion rather than any effort at gaining a military victory.

If this analysis defines anything, it is the fact that the Palestinians want the world to put pressure on Israel in order to ensure that the Palestinians are given everything they want. And what they want is the destruction of Israel so that they can steal the land without having tilled it and worked it themselves.

God's unconditional promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is that their children will inherit the Land of Israel as an eternal inheritance. That means that it will always belong to us, and will never belong to any other nation, even if they conquer it, claim it, and rule it.

Thus, God's promise of the Land of Israel to the Jews has two parts:

1) The promise that we will inherit the Land is unconditional.
2) The promise that we will get to actually reside in the Land is conditional.

In the Torah, God clearly and repeatedly lays out the singular condition for getting to live in the Land: the fulfillment of the mitzvot. As it says in the second paragraph of the Shema: "If you continually obey My commandments that I command you today, to love God, your God, and to serve Him, with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will [enable you to remain in the Land, but if not] . . . you will swiftly be banished from the good land which God gives you." [Deut. 11:13-18]

However brutal the Arab terrorists are, our survival in Israel depends on one factor only: whether or not we Jews are fulfilling our end of the Covenant.