I am a dual citizen of the UK and Israel with deep ties to both countries. But most of all, I am a Jew. As a result of my mongrel pedigree, I am suffering a crescendo of different emotions.
This week, the Israeli and the Jew in me mourn the cold-blooded murder of six innocent hostages, shot in the head and chest at close range after enduring God only knows what horrors for 11 months.
The deep pain is surpassed only by the burning anger erupting from deep inside my soul.
I am angry with everyone.
First and foremost, with the vile, bloodthirsty psychopaths who call themselves Hamas. Their barbarism knows no boundaries. History will judge these animals for what they are.
Next in line for my ire is the British in me against my British Government. The fury I feel towards them is mixed with an equal measure of incredulity and resignation:
Incredulity that the foreign secretary can revoke export licenses for arms to Israel on the grounds that they can’t be sure that they won’t be used for breaches of humanitarian law and announce this in the aftermath of the cold-blooded murder of our people and on the very day they were being buried.
What is the matter with these people?
You may ask, " What message does this send out?" I’ll tell you.
It states unequivocally that the UK Government has bowed to the pressure exerted by the extreme Muslim population within its borders.
Apparently (I haven’t checked it), there are 110 constituencies in the UK where the Muslim population is electorally significant – meaning that they can make or break the seat.
That is a frightening statistic because the number of constituencies with a Jewish significance at the ballot box is small, in the single digits.
It’s not hard to connect the dots, is it?
Increasing the incredulity to the level of “it absolutely beggars belief” is the statement made by David Lammy, the British foreign minister, that one of the driving forces behind the immoral decision and its grotesque timing is, and I quote:
“… this Government is also deeply concerned by credible claims of mistreatment of detainees, which the International Committee of the Red Cross cannot investigate after being denied access to places of detention. Both my predecessor and all our major allies have repeatedly and forcefully raised these concerns with the Israeli government. Regrettably, they have not been addressed satisfactorily.”
Is he for real? He has the audacity and sheer crassness to talk about Israel’s “mistreatment of detainees” on the day six hostages, who nobody had seen for 11 months, were buried with bullet holes riddling their bodies.
And resignation, because I have come to expect no better from a UK that has bowed to the loopy Left and extremist Islam for far too long, led by the BBC, which stands for Biased Broadcasting Colluders.
So there is my anger and incredulity/resignation. But it is mixed together with deep pain and sorrow.
PAIN AT the state we are in, mourning yet more innocent victims of evil, and sorrow that the UK, the place which gave refuge to my grandparents and gave me the very best of everything – education, welfare, safety, and prosperity – has sunk to the depths of cynicism whereby winning marginal seats in an election trumps supporting a so-called ally in its hour of need.
But I am not finished with my anger yet.
I am angry with ourselves – the Israeli people.
The scenes of demonstration and counter-demonstration, with each side hurling abuse at the other, show that the ubiquitous slogan of “yachad nenatzeach” – “together we will win” – is just hot air.
Have we not learned our lesson from last summer? Clearly, we haven’t.
My good friend Rabbi Natan Slifkin wrote an excellent blog in which he states “I will start this post by giving my position on the hostage deal: I don’t have one. I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. I don’t even know how anyone can know. Nobody (in the general public) even knows what the details of the deal are! And certainly, nobody knows the consequences of either doing the deal or not doing the deal.”
Part of maturing as a human being, moving from simple childhood through belligerent adolescence to considered and measured adulthood, is the ability to look at a dilemma and view it from more than one perspective.
Education is supposed to enable us to consider all the sides of an argument, see the other’s point of view, rationally pick apart its weaknesses and cogently present our own position, whilst respecting the others’ entitlement to disagree.
We are not behaving like mature adults. We are acting like spoiled children, screaming and shouting if we don’t get our own way.
Our enemies must be rubbing their hands in glee.
We are displaying all our old weaknesses of disunity and fragmentation, and our so-called allies are selling us down the river.
We need to get a grip.
Like Slifkin, I don’t know the answer, but I do know what isn’t the answer and that is fracturing our society such that our famous unity is mere lip-service.
And finally, my anger, I am ashamed to say, is directed towards God Himself.
Enough already! I don’t pretend to know His will and His mind, but my prayers are being uttered with an extra intensity and urgency.
We have just entered the month of Elul where the King (God Himself) is said to be in the field amongst His people.
Please God, look at us and help us; we don’t appear to be able to do it alone, and we certainly can’t rely on anyone else.
The writer is a rabbi and physician who lives in Ramat Poleg, Netanya, and is a cofounder of Techelet-Inspiring Judaism.