The Days of Awe in 2014 were filled with Anything but Redemption

The ten days from the start of the Month of Tishrei in the Jewish Calendar are referred to as the Days of Awe. The First of Tishrei is the holy day of Rosh Hashanah while the tenth Day culminates in Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), perhaps one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar.  As this is being written Jews in Israel and in Europe have already heard the Cantor (Chazzan) intone the Kol Nidrei prayer absolving professing co-religionists from sins of omission or commission among Jews and others during the New Year.

Thus begins an obligatory 26 hour fast atoning for sins against Ha Shem. During Yom Kippur, Jews engage in a public confessionals, reciting the prayer of Veedooi (confession/ reaffirmation in Hebrew).  Each repetition of Veedooi contains a list of sins for atonement, called “al-Cheyts”, observant Jews beat their breast with each recitation. Yoram Ettinger wrote in his “Guide for the Perplexed, 2014” in The Jewish Press:

Yom Kippur is a day of forgiveness only for sins committed against God. It is customary to dedicate the eve of Yom Kippur to apologies for sins committed against fellow human beings. However, an apology or compensation are not sufficient if they do not elicit an expressed forgiveness by the injured person. One is commanded to be community-sensitive and invite everyone, including transgressors, to participate in Yom Kippur services. Thus, Yom Kippur underlines unity, as synagogues become a platform for the righteous and the sinner.

Yom Kippur’s focus on seeking forgiveness highlights humility, fallibility, faith, soul-searching, compassion, thoughtfulness, being considerate, accepting responsibility and magnanimity. Speaking ill of other people (“evil tongue,” Le’shon Ha’Ra, in Hebrew) may not be forgiven.

Yom Kippur is a happy Jewish Holiday, replacing vindictiveness and rage with peace-of-mind and peaceful co-existence between God and human beings and, primarily, between human beings.

There is one exception to the sin of Le’shon Ha’Ra, the evil tongue or speaking ill of other people, it has to do with what Rabbi Jonathan  Hausman ascribed as “al tifros min haTzibbur “in Hebrew, “Do not separate yourself from the Jewish people as a fellow Jew”.

During the Days of Awe in the first Ten Days of Tishrei 2014 there was a surfeit of opprobrium heaped on Israel from its enemies, allies and fellow Jews.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas went to the podium before the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Rosh Hashanah, September 25th. He accused Israel of ‘genocide’ in the recent Gaza war, calling an end to Peace negotiations with Israel. Instead he promoted  a UN Security Council Resolution declaring a Palestinian State “under occupation” based on the pre-1967 War armistice line and claiming East Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas, despite providing information to Israel leading to the capture of the Hamas killers of three Jewish yeshiva students, no longer sees the Netanyahu government  as a peace partner. He remains opposed to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

Polls of Arabs in the West Bank indicate that in trial elections  that Hamas would win. Other polls indicate that 80% of Palestinian respondents would favor a return to the rocket war that triggered 50 days of war in Gaza. Stefan Lofven, the Prime Minister of the new center left government in Sweden announced  it was the first Western nation to recognize the proposed Palestinian State. This despite a veto threat by the Obama Administration to overturn the proposed UN Security Council Resolution supported by members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. A report on the Swedish announcement in USA Today, noted this comment from veteran US Middle East negotiator, Aaron David Miller:

The Swedish move would have the same practical impact as the United Nations General Assembly’s recognition of a Palestinian state in 2012. The Swedes would be recognizing a “state” with no set borders, territory under control of competing factions and no real capital.

In the end, it’s a joke, actually. It confers nothing. It could create a wave of support for growing international recognition of a Palestinian state, but what does it really mean?

On September 29th it was Israeli PM Netanyahu’s turn to speak from the podium to a sparse audience at the UNGA, as most of the OIC members and their Third World allies vacated the Assembly hall.  Netanyahu    said that Hamas and the Islamic State “were branches of the same poisonous tree” both bent on terrorism “like the Nazis”.  He said, “When it comes to its ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas.” Referring to Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, ISIS as contemporary versions of  totalitarianism  he emphasized that “we must remove this cancer before it’s too late.”  He rebutted PA President Abbas accusing Israel of ‘genocide’, when Hamas was committing “real war crimes against the Palestinians by “using them as human shields” in the recent 50 day rocket and terror tunnel war in Gaza.

Netanyahu emphasized that Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Operation Protective Edge was the same as the US Strategy against the Islamic State – “defeat of Islamic extremism”. He condemned those UN GA members criticizing both Israel’s Gaza war against Hamas and the US-led coalition air war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.  But he saved scorn for Iran’s role in the global Islamist terror war and nuclear development program, saying:, “It’s one thing to confront militant Islamists on pickup trucks, armed with Kalashnikov rifles. It’s another thing to confront militant Islamists armed with weapons of mass destruction.”  He considered Iranian President Rouhani’s condemnation of terrorism by ISIS as “one of history’s greatest   displays of doubletalk.”

Netanyahu warned the P5+1, including the Obama Administration, that “To defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.” Finally, he tied the rise of anti-Semitism to the criticism of Israel by UN Human Rights Council, declaring it to be an “oxymoron” and “terrorist rights council”. He noted,  “It’s called anti-Semitism. It is now spreading in polite society, where it masquerades as legitimate criticism of Israel.”

Two days later on October 1st, there was a Oval Office meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama. A hoped for coalescence between the two didn’t materialize.  Obama praised the courage of Israelis against the onslaught of rockets from Hamas and terrorist partners in Gaza noting US support of the Iron Dome system, while at the same time drawing attention to the collapse of peace discussions with Palestinians:

I think we also recognize that we have to find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe in their own homes and schoolchildren in their schools from the possibility of rocket fire, but also that we don’t have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well. And so we’ll discuss extensively both the situation of rebuilding Gaza but also how we can find a more sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

But then the President and State Department condemned  Netanyahu’s announcement of 2,610 apartments in Givat Hamatos completing the Jewish areas of the municipality and separation from Bethlehem. The Administration said the move would “poison relations” among Israel’s allies. Nir Barkat , Mayor of Jerusalem, took exception to the  Administration’s criticism of the building program noting that it was anti-discriminatory and had been approved over two years ago. A majority of those apartments were allocated for Arabs.  There were death threats against Arab property brokers for sales of apartments to Jews in the Silwan section of Jerusalem, that prior to the War for Independence had been occupied by Jews. The Iranian threat and looming November deadline for a P5+1 final agreement with Iran also drew sharp differences between the two leaders. The failure  by the US to press  Iran to dismantle nuclear enrichment and  stop ballistic missile developments was a flash point. The only common area of support was the undeclared war on ISIS. The US led air campaign appears to receive intelligence feed from Israel’s spies in the sky satellites.

Thus did the ten Days of Awe draw to a close as Jews gathered in synagogues and temples across the West to engage in reflection and be inspired to face daunting prospects in the New Year.  We  trust that fellow Jews had “ an easy and meaningful fast”   and that they and their loved ones  were sealed  in b’sefer  chayim  (the book of life ) by Ha Shem for another year of good health, happiness and achievements in  all pursuits.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.