by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen
It came as no surprise to me at all, that the so called International Criminal Court (AKA Idiotic Corrupt Crazies) would issue genocide-based arrest warrants against Galant and Netanyahu. It was a foregone conclusion given that it was set up by the Disunited Nations with its built-in left-wing, anti-American, Muslim bias against Israel. Nor that the equally unbalanced CIJ (AKA International Cabal of Jesters) should condemn Israel. And I expected it from the worlds hypocritical charities. The two great Jewish jurists Raphael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht assisted the Nuremberg prosecutions and laid the foundations of international human rights law. Both lost their families in the Holocaust. They would be disgusted at the farce the human rights institutions have become today.
Way back on November 10, 1975, a large majority of the members of the 30th session of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that denounced Zionism as a form of racism. Each year the Disunited Nations invites heads of States to lecture the world on how evil the State of Israel is and those who support it are dangerous criminals. If ever there was a case of kettles calling the pot black, this is it.
On November 8, the UN Human Rights Office published a report that accused Israel of grave violations of international law from November 2023 to April 2024 — when Israel was being targeted by thousands of attacks committed by Hamas and Hezbollah, every one of them a war crime, and not once has called for the return of hostages. The UN report repeated the blood libel that Israeli forces had caused unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation and disease; and that Israel fully and immediately protect against and punish acts of genocide.
The United Nations hammers home the message that Israel’s just war of defense against genocide is genocide, thus demonizing Israel while giving true genocidists a free pass. The United Nations has refused to renew the contract of Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the brave Kenyan special adviser on the prevention of genocide, because she has firmly maintained that Israel’s war with Hamas is not genocide. She gave the world body a lesson in what genocide actually is. And she was cancelled!
There may be some other agencies under the United Nations heading that do magnificent work and should be supported. But the automatically biased political establishment has to be defunded or better still destroyed. The greatest gift that the Trump administration can give to the world and to peace ( and save money) is either to withdraw from the United Nations or stop funding it and any of its corrupt agencies. I doubt that this will happen. But until it does, we could only expect the war against the Jews to continue supported and encouraged by the left-wing Marxists running dogs and the politicians of Islamic states (who whether they all approve of the jihadi plague that is infected Islam or not) will certainly never vote in favor of anything to do with Israel. And one must not forget to include in this harangue the Bloody Red Cross which did absolutely nothing to visit or help the hostages or even offer a token rebuke to Hamas.
I’m not saying that Israel is blameless. Anyone guilty of crimes should be punished for things that some of its citizens have done or may do wrong. Lord knows the nation itself is divided politically. And lord knows war is a terrible business and can dehumanize people both sides. But defending oneself from unproved attack is not one of them. I do feel desperately sorry for Gazans and Lebanese deaths and casualties, but they started it with unprovoked attacks against Israel and the kidnapping and torturing of so many innocent hostages from children to elderly. Even if I would concede that years of occupation were responsible for fighting back, unspeakable cruelty only convinces me we are not dealing with. normal people.
Hamas and Hezbollah have been encouraged by so many across the world, calling for the total destruction and annihilation of the Jewish State. Isn’t that genocide? Since their leaders have brought down this terror upon themselves, they are the ones who should bear the blame for their actions and for forcing their own civilians to act as human shields while they hide beneath them in their safe tunnels. And have you heard anyone criticizing Hezbollah for raining thousands of rockets at civilians when they were neither occupied nor attacked?
Not once have we heard criticism of Palestinian leadership refusing to compromise for peace. Even former president Bill Clinton admitted to the Democratic Party convention that Palestine had refused to accept painful compromises for peace offered by Israel. America is increasingly standing almost alone against this torrent of hatred and this cabal of autocratic bullies and criminals who cannot possibly claim self-defense in the way that Israel can. But then since when has a rational argument ever triumphed over prejudice?
We have to stop deluding ourselves as Jews that our enemies will ever go away (and please do not think that I include all Muslims in this list). This has become a holy war for our extermination. The majority of Americans (and a handful of others) remain the last bastion of objectivity in a world of corruption but they are shrinking. Many of them, including nominal Jews, have become infected as schools and universities indoctrinate with hate. Praying may help us cope, but that won’t solve the problem. Being self-sufficient will help too up to a point. But we have to go back to the drawing board and not fool ourselves (as we have for so long). As our enemies expand their financial and propaganda efforts, to fund schools and universities to spread obnoxious theories and false equivalents, to isolate, divide and disenfranchise us.
Some were surprised at the farce at the Oxford University Student Union last week. Yelling, mentally deficient yahoos, shouted down any attempt to correct lies and disinformation. They even physically attacked an Israeli Arab who was defending Israel against the ludicrous charges. It should not have come as any surprise. During the 1930s the Union hosted the infamous King and Country Debate. The motion presented, “That this House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country”, passed with 275 votes for the motion and 153 against it. It became one of the most controversial debates held within the Union, driving debate between the older and younger generations about patriotism and pacifism, and whether this motion would actually help or hurt war prevention efforts.
Winston Churchill claimed that the Oxford debate only emboldened Hitler to advance war, convinced the Brits would not fight. Top universities on both sides of the Atlantic have a baleful record of providing spies and traitors. One sees the universal capacity of so many university students to support the wrong moral side. And this lot now will be the leaders of the next generation. I shudder to think how they will try to undermine their own countries.
As we said in the Hallel prayer we recited this week (and by all mean leave God out of it if you wish)
“In my distress I called on God and I was answered. My enemies surrounded me. They attacked me. But in the name of God, I will surely overcome them. They have beset me like, I will surely cut them down. You have pressed me hard, and I nearly fell. But the God helped me. My strength comes from God, and I will be saved” (Psalms 118).
I am so sorry if some friends may think I have gone too far and apologize for my juvenile humour. Having suffered for over a year, I need to ventilate.
Jeremy Rosen
December 2024
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Jeremy Rosen was born in Manchester, England, the eldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen and Bella Rosen. Rosen's thinking was strongly influenced by his father, who rejected fundamentalist and obscurantist approaches in favour of being open to the best the secular world has to offer while remaining committed to religious life. He was first educated at Carmel College, the school his father had founded based on this philosophical orientation. At his father's direction, Rosen also studied at Be'er Yaakov Yeshiva in Israel (1957–1958 and 1960). He then went on to Merkaz Harav Kook (1961), and Mir Yeshiva (1965–1968) in Jerusalem, where he received semicha from Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in addition to Rabbi Dovid Povarsky of Ponevezh and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Yeshivat Be'er Ya'akov. In between Rosen attended Cambridge University (1962–1965), graduating with a degree in Moral Sciences.