I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field abundant, so that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your dealings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds. It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, O house of Israel.This is the basis of the belief by the Jews that God has "brought them into their own land", not through their own merit, but with the aim that Israel would "remember its evil ways". For Messianic Jews, the purpose was for Jews to recognise the Messiah.
Oded gave us a Jewish perspective about the conflict. Palestinians were offered a 2-state solution and did not accept it. At the end of the Mandate, the Arabs joined together to attack Israel. Again in 1967, the Arabs attacked Israel. In the period 2000-2005, 1,200 Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists, following the construction of the wall, killings have been almost completely stopped. This is the justification for keeping the wall.
Other things we have heard this week help to explain the level of fear felt by the Jews. As described eloquently in David Cameron's speech to the Knesset yesterday, one legacy of the Holocaust is that every Jew is told and expected to remember the story, and remember that the world deserted them in their hour of need. They are taught that all Jews must defend the State against those who would destroy them. They believe that there are many thousands of missiles aimed at Israel, with a view to destroying it. If they opted for a single state, they fear that the Jews would soon be overwhelmed by the Arabs through demographics (especially with the possibility that over a million Palestinians would take up the right of return, if offered).
When we recently visited a synagogue at home, I was surprised that it was surrounded by steel fence and locked gates. I was told at the Conference yesterday that this is common in the UK. Then today I have read about a vicious attack on a synagogue in the UK. The reason for this is not known; some say it is a Muslim reaction to recent shootings of Palestinians by the IDF, while others say it was done by the extreme right. A spokesman for the UK Chief Rabbi said that this was the first event of its kind. However, these events all serve to heighten the Jewish fear that everyone hates them.
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