The Rebbetzen and I are currently in New York. As everywhere in the Jewish World, not a conversation goes by where the situation in Israel is not discussed. And here, as everywhere, there is deep concern at the level of anti-semitism unprecedented since before WWII.

In response to 9/11, the US embarked on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. When NATO bombed Yugoslavia, leading to hundreds of civilian deaths, NATO spokesman, Jamie Shea said, "There is always a cost to defeat an evil. It never comes free, unfortunately. But the cost of failure to defeat a great evil is far higher.”

Any nation has and would respond with far greater force than that used by Israel - and with far less concern for tragic deaths among the civilian population. The world knows this all too well - so why the double-standard? Because just as in the past the Jewish People were deemed illegitimate, so too now the Jewish State is deemed illegitimate. This is not a war about settlements, unless you view the entire State of Israel as a settlement - an aberration in the midst of the Arab and Muslim Middle-East. 

Giving away Land for “Peace” won’t solve the problem. A two-state solution won’t solve the problem. The only thing that will solve it is the abolition of the State of Israel just as in the past the only thing that would solve the “Jewish Problem” was the annihilation of the Jewish People, Heaven protect us.

In reality anti-semitism is not a Jewish Problem. There is nothing that Jews can change about themselves to placate those who hate us. The vast majority of Jews have always understood this and have not succumbed to the battered-wife syndrome of blaming themselves. 

Quite to the contrary! Jews have traditionally viewed irrational anti-semitism as a wake-up call and their response, irrespective of their level of observance or commitment, has been to become more Jewish. 

Fellow Jews: This is a time to feel enormous pride at being Jewish. Israel is ridding the world of a cancer which if left unchecked will eventually consume everyone (as we are currently seeing in Iraq and Syria where every day atrocities are being committed without any attempt by the world to put a stop to them).  And while destroying Hamas and related parties, Israel is doing more than any other nation to protect civilian lives.

And once you have a deep sense of Jewish PRIDE, use it into something practical.

• Translate this pride into love - try hard to see the good in everyone, but especially in your fellow Jew. Give him/her the benefit of the doubt.
• Translate this pride into confidence that G-d will protect us. Do not be afraid!
• Translate this pride into Mitzvot: Men don tephilin for at least a couple of minutes a day; Women light Shabbat candles on time. 
• Translate this pride into a commitment to influence your non-Jewish friends and acquaintances: Teach them Jewish Law and Ethics as they apply to non-Jews; explain to them the morality of the Jewish position vis a vis Gaza.
• Tisha B’Av represents both loss and hope. We mourn the loss of the past and hope for an even brighter future. As Jews, we have mourned long enough. It’s now time for the realisation of the hope - the coming of our righteous Moshiach - a time when truth and justice will finally pervade the entire world.
  
                                                  Rabbi Benzion Milecki OAM ~  5 Av / Aug 1st, 2014