The Disgrace of Durban//Am Yisrael Chai//We Can’t Live in Tur Malka

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
September 7, 2001

 

There is a story in the Talmud, Tractate Gittin, page 57a, of a town called Tur Malka, the "column of the king." In a legend it describes what it was like when the Second Jewish Commonwealth was destroyed in 70 C.E. The Talmud says that the city of Tur Malka was attacked by the Romans. And for three days they massacred Jews in one part of the city. But there was a high hill that separated the two parts of the city, and therefore, the people who lived on the other side of the city could not hear the sounds of war. And so, on one side of the city, Jews were dying, and on the other side, Jews were celebrating.

It may seem to American Jewry that Israel is very far away. It doesn't matter that through a web site you can see the Kotel, or through another web site, read the daily Israeli newspapers. For reasons that take me far a field, there has been a growing distance spiritually, ethnically, people-wise, between American Jewry and Israel.

I could rhetorically ask questions such as how many people have visited Israel at least once?

I could ask when was the last time anyone bought an Israel Bond?

I could ask, what is your reaction, existentially, when you see Israel in the headlines or on TV?

I ask all those questions rhetorically.

We may have no longer any distance between us.

And if Israel seems far away from us, if our daily lives are cloaked in comfort and serenity, regardless of the downturn in the American economy, then certainly Durban, South Africa may be furthest removed from our consciousness. Another rhetorical question is who is familiar and knowledgeable about the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance? If the very name of the place and the name of the conference do not induce anxiety, anger and extreme angst, you are living in the city of Tur Malka. I would go so far as to say that it must be forbidden to sit on the opposite hill of Tur Malka and pretend that we see not and hear not, to pretend that any and all of this is "far away from us." It is a close as our very hearts.

For a full account of the details of the conference use your web browsers to read the New York Times, the Boston Globe or the Washington Post. Go to the web site of the ADL, ADL.org, and read the excerpts from the document drawn by the NGO, non-governmental organizations, that body which is supplemental to the UN and provides the recommendations to the UN for official policy. Especially in today's world, no one can claim ignorance. No one can say, "I didn't know." And no one can claim the right to be silent. No one can live in Tur Malka.

To sum up the matter tersely, citing Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe, courtesy of my brother who lives near Boston: "Secretary of State Colin Powell shunned the UN conference for fear of lending unwarranted dignity to an ugly anti-Israel, anti-Jewish slanderfest. Just how ugly became clear yesterday, when delegates to the conference's forum voted to brand Israel a "racist apartheid state" guilty of "systematic…war crimes, acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing" and urged the UN to reinstate its notorious resolution equating Zionism with racism."

It is clear that the purpose behind the Islamic attack on Israel is to delegitimize the State of Israel. This is not a matter of land of peace. It is not a matter of allowing Arabs a fictitious "Right of Return." The language of the resolutions makes it clear the desire to roll back the hands of time, roll back the clock to 1947, when the UN was going to vote on the two-state resolution, creating Israel and Palestine. And this time, that resolution would fail. There would be no Israel. The purpose of all this is to declare that the State of Israel is illegal, and thus, legally, should not exist. It equates Israel with Nazi Germany. Any measure of self-defense is illegal, and therefore a crime. Any Arab killed by an Israeli in self-defense is genocide. George Orwell's understanding of the perversion of language and meaning in 1984 is beyond right! It's an understatement!

It doesn't matter the true historical record of our place on that land. History begins with Mohammed, not Moses.

It doesn't matter that Jews returned to a mostly empty province of Turkey, bought the land, which was ruined, and gained legal recognition of our history and our rights.

It doesn't matter that from before the birth of the State, Israeli leaders begged and pleaded with Arab leaders to live in peace, and that was based on the 1947 truncated map of Israel.

It doesn't matter that Golda Meir went to King Hussein in 1967 and begged him not to start a fight in Jerusalem.

It doesn't matter that Israel raised the living standards of Arabs living on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by bringing electricity, pure water and health care that reduced infant mortality and extended life expectancy and gave them access to Israel's hospitals.

It doesn't matter that Israel won the wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973 and of Attrition in the 1980's. Israel wasn't supposed to win. It was supposed to lose and die. And now it is supposed to roll over and die, to commit suicide. Only that would appease the attendees at Durban.

But Israel doesn't comply. Israel won't commit suicide. Am Yisrael Chai, despite all attempts throughout history, we live. We will always live.

It is important to understand that the delegitimization of Israel doesn't end there. It delegitimizes Judaism and Jews, everywhere. For Durban we are colonialists, foreigners from Europe. For Europeans, we were foreigners from the Middle East.

Removal of Jerusalem from Judaism rips the heart out of our religion.

Deletion of Israel from Judaism shreds our history.

Take away our history and we cease to exist.

We have no past.

Our presence makes no sense.

And we have no reason to be, no future, no destiny.

The attack on Israel at Durban under the UN auspices is an attack on the entire Jewish people. We may think that we sit in Richmond, we may pretend that we are on the safe hill of Tur Malka, but as sure as I am standing here tonight, we are no different and not separate from the Jews who make Shabbat in Jerusalem's neighborhood of Gilo, under siege. For all intents and purposes, we are anywhere tonight, in Israel.

The purpose of my remarks tonight:

1.We Jews of the Diaspora must clearly understand what is going on in the world. We cannot gayn shlofen, go to sleep.

2.To arouse in you a passion for rise up in unison with the Jewish people in Medinat Yisrael. We cannot disassociate ourselves from Israel, from Zionism, from world Jewry. There is the mutual interdependence of all branches of Am Yisrael.

3. To encourage you to become knowledgeable about these events. Go to the web site of the Jerusalem Post, and read the events and glean the information that no one else will give you.

4. Support Medinat Yisrael:

By buying Israel Bonds

By planning trips to Israel

By speaking up in conversation with neighbors, friends and co-workers

By attending the rally in New York or here in Richmond on September 23 rd.

5. Write to our congressmen and senators to stay the course in support of Israel. With the magic of email I wrote the Secretary of State. You can too. And the President. And the Vice President.

The question could be asked of American Jewry in the 1930's and early 1940's, why were they silent. They didn't know. They didn't have access. They were too frightened themselves.

We know. We have access. We have no one to be afraid of.

Psalm 27 is recited the month of Elul and through Shemini Azteret. Written by King David, perhaps, it says that we trust in God to help us overcome enemies, tormentors and foes. King David he might have meant actual people. Tradition used the text to refer internally, to our inner dynamics, besides external threats. As 5761 comes to a close we recite this Psalm with both its meanings. I pray that God will aid Medinat Yisrael and Am Yisrael to overcome those who seek to destroy our State, our people, and our faith. I do not seek their destruction, just our vindication and to live in peace. While I pray to God, King David also wrote, "strengthen yourself and have courage." We must join in the defense of Medinat Yisrael with a vigorous Am Yisrael. God and history demands that we do no less.