Yisrael, the Jewish Homeland, or a Home for the Jews?

This article was co-authored by Roger Froikin and Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks

For many of us it is not even a question. There is only fact. There always has been. As far as we are concerned, there will always be. Yisrael is the Jewish Homeland, the only Jewish Homeland.

Unfortunately, there are still many, Jews included, who refuse to see it. All around us, we witness NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) popping up promoting and supporting the creation of a “Civil Society” in Yisrael, instead of the Jewish one. We hear slogans calling for making Yisrael the “state of all of its citizens.” Some are even going as far as suggesting that “Hatikvah,” the Yisraeli National anthem be changed to reflect the reality that they purport.

Of course there are more pressing issues that need addressing, as some try to enlighten us. There always were, there always will be. However, as time goes by and more groups that call for such changes show up, the more urgency this issue gains.

In order to illustrate our stance, please allow us to take you through memory lane and remind you, the readers, of some vital historical facts.

Let us start with the Torah and the whole Tanach. We know that some would regard it a religious document that may not serve as a historical one. Unfortunately, for those who entertain such claims, history and archeology support our contention. Eretz Yisrael is the Homeland of the Jews. The Torah, the whole Tanach serve as our Deed.

True, Am Yisrael conquered it from the nations that were present here. Unfortunately, however, there is none of them left around to claim it as their own just as there are no Morori left in New Zealand to claim it back from the Maori who conquered them and now claim it back from the White man.

The Jewish essence of Eretz Yisrael was decreed thousands of years ago. Again, it is supported by historical and archeological evidence.

It was decreed by G-d to Avraham first and foremost. For those of you who feel that G-d has no room in this debate, fear not, there is abundant historical and archeological proof that the Jewish People walked this Land long before many of those who wish to strip it of its Jewish core. There is the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is plenty of written material as well as exhibits displayed in museums in Yisrael and other places around the world that point at that.

On top of it, and not that it matters much to the point of this article, it was the Gentiles who determined the strong and inseparable connection of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael.

First, there is the Cyrus Declaration. “In 539 B.C.E, having conquered Babylon, the benevolent Cyrus freed the Jews from captivity and empowered them to return to the Promised Land and build their Temple.” (http://www.farsinet.com/cyrus/).

Fast forwarding in History, we have the Balfour Declaration that specifically spells out the nature of the political entity that would be established in Eretz Yisrael. In a letter that Lord Balfour write to Lord Rothschild, on November 2nd, 1917 , he states, “Foreign Office November 2nd, 1917

“….on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, …….

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration

There it is in plain view, “A National Home for the Jewish People.”

That Declaration was also the basis for the San Remo Accord of 1920. In Article 22, the Supreme Council recognized the:

“historical connection of the Jewish people to Palestine and the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country” 

Eventually it became International law in the form of the League of Nations’ establishment of the Mandate for Palestine, in which Britain was to administer parts of what was the Ottoman Empire to establish and develop a Homeland for the Jewish People.

To understand what happened we have to look at the world in that era of the mid to late 19^th century and into the early 20th.  It was recognized by all that it was necessary for ethnic minorities to have self-determination expressed through their own nation states and that no people needed this more than the Jewish people who were persecuted as outsiders everywhere.  

That belief in ethnic self-determination has continued to this day, though selectively.   Yugoslavia has split into 6 nation states whose differences are more based on religion and tradition than anything else.   The Soviet Union has been divided into many states based on language, religion, and ethnic identity.  In more recent history, Serbia was bombed viciously by NATO forces to create a separate Muslim and Albanian speaking Kosovo that caused an exodus of Serbian Christians fleeing discrimination. 

Each of these nation states, have a predominant religion and culture and often sizable minorities that do not share all of that culture with the majority. The world accepts that as normal and legitimate with ONE exception, the Jewish state.

Now, ask yourselves, why is this Jewish State the sole exception to the pattern?   Why is it that the only ethnic nation state in the world that has a 3400-year connection to its land, world recognition of its rightful existence written into International law, and after the need to fight several times to prevent genocide of its people, is asked to reject its identity and traditions and beliefs in order to be a “nation of all its citizens?”  

Should Italy ban celebrations of traditional Christian holidays,  many of them legal holidays,  to become a state of all its citizens.  Same with France.  Same with Germany.  Should France ban traditional pork from school lunches to be a nation of all its citizens?   Should Germany ban Oktoberfest because it is too ethnically German and might make Muslims feel excluded?   No one asks them to do that.

There are only 2 possible answers.   (1)  Anti-Semitism on the part of gentiles making such demands who want to see the end of the Jewish state and of the Jewish people and (2)  a Ghetto mentality on the part of some Jews who are so desperate for the safety promised by disappearing into some universal mass.

We need to stop with apologetic Hasbarah, cease with the need, by Jews and non-Jews alike, to constantly define and redefine who and what we are. Just like any other nation, we need to put our foot down and present the world with the incontestable fact. Yisrael is the Jewish Homeland just as it always has been and forever will be!

Special thanks go to Moshe Schwartz