Q. Shouldn’t Israel just ignor the farce anti-Semitic circus in Hague which comically accuses us (!) of genocide against the innocent Hamas? Answer: It’s true that Chazal say that “It’s halacha: Esav hates Ya’akov” (Sifre Bamidbar, 69), inferring that it’s a waste of time to look for logic or solutions regarding anti-Semitism. The Netziv explains there that Chazal mean to say, it’s a tradition, inferring that it’s passed down, like we pass down our traditions even if we don’t always understand them, lehavdil, so too they do the same. R. Moshe Feinstein adds that Chazal are warning us, even when some nations seem friendly, Jews should never “let down our guard” and not be naïve (Ch.Mish. ii, 77). But these approaches don’t contradict R. Y.E. Henkin, one of R. Moshe’s colleagues among rabbinic leaders of their time (Tshuvot Ibra, 116), who points out that Esav actually did (!) change his approach to Ya’akov, and we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility to see the same in future history
Rav Kook, as we mentioned in the past, writes that inevitably mankind will eventually mature and “grow out” of anti-Semitism (Orot Yisrael 5, 15). I think the Hague conference is ironically an opportunity to hasten this process. Perhaps Hashem is sending us this ironic situation which is just so blatantly absurd and unbelievable, that we should at least consider why He’s sending us this weird opportunity, which is probably meant for us to utilize for the sake of Israel!
If in the past, the world was divided between pro-Israel and anti-Israel, it is now divided between the objectively humane and the anti-Semitic; the good against the bad; the truly progressive and open-minded against those who pretend to be so- as long as the issue doesn’t involve Israel- where they will even side with sadistic terrorists and rapists against democracy and women’s rights.
Many leaders of the free world who were sometimes confused, suddenly have a clarity and are now siding with Israel, even visiting us out of solidarity. It’s a golden opportunity to unmask the anti-Semites and prove that nothing in the world will ever convince them to side with us, and contrarily, all objective people will see these crackpots for what they really are. Even if some may think that our reaction is “disproportionate” (which may have some logic, if our goal were just to punish and deter our enemies on all sides, but they forget that the no less important goal is to free 136 (!) hostages who are still there, and distance Hamas from our border to insure “never again”), they agree in principle that we are correct in fighting evil and justified in defending ourselves. Perhaps they will even learn from us that Islamic terror should not be tolerated, but combatted.
In addition, today the Jewish opinion of many young and naïve students who keep hearing the other side, is at risk, so we must speak up. It’s also an opportunity for national unity, where former Justice Aharon Barak, probably the most serious spokesman for the extreme Israeli left, and a Holocaust survivor, is in a position where he can unite Israeli consensus.
Just like Herzl and Zionism, once Israel has already agreed to attend Hague, we should also take this opportunity to try and hasten the Tikun Olam, helping the objective “see the light”, and see the absurdity of anti-Semitism, in our lifetime! Why should we just suffer it when we can actively hopefully help solve the problem, at least for a certain percentage of the world, and most importantly: for our naïve and impressionable young Jewish brothers and sisters abroad. Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari