Choni Davidowitz
Since the miraculous victory by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War in which our armed forces restored sovereignty to almost all of Israel after nearly 2 000 years of foreign rule, there were expectations that at last Israel would be at peace.
Unfortunately the leaders at the time overlooked the Torah directive in the parsha, the same directive given to Joshua at the time of the first conquest of Eretz Yisrael.
“You shall drive out all the hostile inhabitants before you… you shall settle in it, for I have given you the Land… to occupy it. If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land before you, those that remain will be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and harass you in the Land.” (Num. 33; 53-55).
Settling the Land of Israel is the “nice” part of the mitzvah of “Yishuv Ha’Aretz”. The other half of the mitzvah, that of expelling the gentile was never fulfilled. Today those who were allowed to remain after the Six Day War have been killing and maiming thousands of Israeli men, women and children, and even infants.
It is they who have prevented the nation of Israel to live in peace. “If you do not expel the gentile inhabitants, even though you have conquered the Land, you will not merit to inherit the Land for your children.” (Sforno and Ohr HaChaim).
Israel has twice in the past destroyed nuclear facilities: in Iraq in 1981 and in Syria in 2007. Even if we were to destroy or stop the Iranian facility, the killing and maiming of Israelis will not cease.
It is not Iranians or Iraqis or Syrians who brutally attack our citizens. It is the Arabs we did not expel, as directed by our Torah, who will continue to physically harm our people and be the only obstacle to an eternal peace in Eretz Yisrael.
To those who advocate a two-state solution which is the “official” policy of the SAZF and SAJBD, this is the diametric opposite of what the Torah states. Not only does it allow millions of Arabs to live in our Land, but also the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes, schools, businesses, shuls, and surrendering our Land to the Arabs.
The verse in the parsha ends with the following words: “If you do not expel them then I will do to you what I meant to do to them.” (Num.33;56). Remember Gush Katif!
Sandringham, Johannesburg
