Are you among the silent?
Call to World Jewry in Face of Nuclear Threat
by Hillel Fendel
Israel National News.com April 16, 2010
Veteran Israeli commentator Shaul Schiff declares that world Jewry has forsaken its obligation to stand up for its nuke-endangered Israeli brethren.
A veteran columnist for decades in the now-defunct HaTzofeh and in other publications, Schiff's latest column in the B’Sheva weekly newspaper is entitled: “The Silence Continues: Why is world Jewry silent in the face of the Iranian threat against the very existence of the country of the Jews?”
The Three Lessons
Schiff quotes the late renowned Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik as having said that Jews must learn from the Holocaust never to stand idly by while other Jews are endangered. Asked what should be emphasized when teaching about the Holocaust, Rabbi Soloveitchik reportedly said:
“Three things. One, that we Jews in America did not help our brothers when they were being wiped out in Europe – not with emissaries, nor with enough help in the halls of US government and other organizations. Two, other nations are also guilty for not protesting or doing what they could to stop it… And three: that whenever and wherever Jews are in danger and need help, we must do whatever we can to help, using all the tools at our disposal.”
Schiff wrote that he consulted with top political scientist lecturers and asked if it would be acceptable to say that the current U.S. president, deep down in his heart, is interested in having the Palestinian problem and Middle East tension solved via the disappearance of the State of Israel. “They answered that it would not be politically correct to say that," Schiff wrote, "and that it would be better to simply state that he would not be too upset if Israel would be mortally hurt by Iranian atomic weapons.”
Not Long Ago...
"Not only are human rights organizations and champions around the world silent in the face of this danger", Schiff writes, ‘but even the Jewish leadership around the world, in its various forms, is silent in the face of Iran’s threats to destroy Israel. It was not long ago that pillars of smoke rose from the crematoria in the Nazi death camps…”
Schiff quotes an American Jewish leader who once explained to him that American Jewry need not speak up about this threat “because a nuclear Iran is an American problem no less than it is for Israel. So why should we get involved?” The events of the past year belie this approach, Schiff claims, writing:
"Iran is now on the verge of attaining nuclear weapons, and whoever has eyes sees that Obama is not rushing to prevent them, and soon he will say it’s too late to do anything, and that we must consider defensive options – while Hizbullah and Syria threaten us at our borders. Perhaps it is time for world Jewry to wake up from its slumber and adopt the three lessons of Rav Soloveitchik?”
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