Rabbi Elie Mischel’s commentary “Uncomfortable Truths: Speaking Honestly as Life Turns Upside Down” in the November 2 issue of The Jewish Link is an excellent essay on the state of the Jewish world within the context of the Gaza war.
I would like to further comment on some of the points he covered, which may offend liberal Jews. He says that a large majority of Palestinians support Hamas, which would like to eliminate Israel and all its Jews. Also, in 2006 after Israel turned over Gaza to the Palestinians, the majority elected Hamas as their leaders, so they are again directly responsible for Hamas’ actions.
More frighteningly, even if there were only a minority of Arabs/Muslims that were Jew-haters, that is still an overwhelming number. Today there are 1.8 billion Muslims and 465 million Arabs vs.only 16.1 million Jews worldwide. If only one-tenth of 1% of the Muslim world were vicious Jew-haters, that would still be more than the entire Jewish population worldwide. I think I can safely say that there are many more than one-tenth of 1% of those so-called evil Muslims in the world today.
Additionally, there are even more Christians (2.2 billion) than Muslims in the world today. The exact number of those who are Jew-haters is also again almost immaterial, as the combined total who want to completely destroy Israel and eliminate all Jews from this world is simply astronomical.
Rabbi Mischel’s “uncomfortable truth” is that Jews today, as Jews throughout the ages, like to see the good in their fellow human beings and believe in the inherent goodness of man, and don’t like to contemplate the pure evil that often occurs in the world around them, and specifically to them.
Max Wisotsky Highland Park
