“If you do not let my people go,” says Moses to Pharaoh, “I will turn all your water into blood.”

“Nonsense!” Pharaoh retorts, claps his hands and his magicians also turn the water to blood.

“If you do not let my people go,” Moses continues, “all of Egypt will be filled with frogs.”

“Nonsense!” Pharaoh snorts, claps his hand and his wizards add their own frogs to Moses’ croaking chorus.

It sounds strange, doesn’t it? It is like if in reaction to Kassams on Sderot, Israel would also bomb the town.

What we must understand is that the plagues did not threaten Pharaoh. What threatened his regime was the concept. The entire Pharaonic regime was based on idol worship. It was the power source of the regime and the foundation of Egypt’s societal order. According to Pharaoh’s logic, as long as his wizards could perform the same wonders as Moses, everything was under control. The plagues were just a technical difficulty that he would somehow deal with.

When we see Olmert hell-bent on dividing Jerusalem, surrendering the Golan,   expelling the Jews and doing more and more of what has already caused us so much anguish, we can see that Pharaoh still lives; the current regime is not at all interested in the nation that it is supposed to be leading. It is interested in just one thing; its own survival – even if that comes at the expense of the nation’s survival.

Has anybody seen, for example, our government halting arms distribution to the Arabs just because they use those guns to kill Jews? Does anybody think that Israel will stop supplying the Arabs in Gaza with armored personnel carriers after the Arabs used a shiny new carrier in a recent terror attack?

We all understand that the madness will continue – for the same reason that Pharaoh remained stubborn in face of the plagues. An entire tyrannical elite has built itself on the Oslo rationale. What did we think? That after the first bus exploded Peres, Beilin and all the journalists, professors, army officers, secret service agents and Yossi Ginosars with fat profits from the new order would  say, “Sorry, we made a mistake,” bury their faces in shame, apologize and resign?

It is difficult for the average citizen to accept the fact that his fate does not really interest his leaders. But that is the reality. The art of good governance is to create a situation in which the leadership and the citizens share the same interest. But here in Israel – at least since the Oslo Accords were signed, the interests of the two sides have become diametrically opposed. That is why the people of Israel absorb blow after blow while the Accords continue to provide well for a very particular group of personalities. The most prominent among them is President Peres. It is just what Sharon’s former assistant from the 101 unit, Shlomo Baum of blessed memory once told me: “Shimon Peres doesn’t care if the entire country turns into a heap of ashes – as long as he is standing at the top of the heap."

This week we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. We all feel that the state is rapidly turning into a heap of ashes. Somehow, all the modern traffic interchanges, all the high-tech, economy and glitter do not cajole the nation out of its chronic state of depression. Everyone more or less feels the pervading despair; that everything in Israel is temporary and that we are living here on borrowed time. Israel’s leaders will do whatever they must to retain their own interests – even if those interests contradict the nation’s interests.

An elderly man once told me how on the Shabbat of his bar-mitzvah in Hungary a strange, ghost-like figure suddenly burst into the synagogue, ran up to the stage and began to shout, “I escaped from Auschwitz to warn you, my Jewish brothers. Run away!!! Run away or they will burn you!!!” 

“Within moments,” the elderly man continued, “the caretakers of the synagogue took the poor man by the arms and removed him from the synagogue. When they dragged him out, he accidentally touched me. I still remember how my entire body shook. Not long afterwards, I was also deported to Auschwitz.”   

What can I tell you, dear readers? What you see and what you hear and what you feel is the exact truth. The State of Israel really is turning into a heap of ashes. In your hearts you know it. That is why you do not mange to rejoice on Independence Day and all the 60 year celebrations seem to you more like the grand finale. Don’t believe a word that the caretakers tell you. Get rid of them and follow those people who have liberated themselves from the idols of peace and Oslo. Follow those people who love you and believe in you. Follow those people who sacrifice themselves for you, the people who cling to this land and to our G-d – the people who the caretakers always throw out of the synagogue. 
 

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