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JJ204 www.regencyofbp.com Tishrei 5761 •November 2000 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 •VOL XXXI!l/NO. 9 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 84 William Street, New York, N.Y. 10038. Periodicals postage paid in New York, N.Y. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10038. Tel: 212-797-9000, Fax: 212-269-2843. Printed in the U.S.A. RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR 4 Israel on the Brink, Yonason Rosenblum EDITORIAL BOARD RABBI ABBA BRUDNY 14 IN THE PATHWAYS OF BRISK RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FAIEDENSON A Tribute to Rabbi Binyamin Paler ':>'Yl, RABBI YISROEL MEIR KIAZNER RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum PROF. AARON TWERSKI DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Z"L Founding Chairman 20 A PARADIGM OF BRtSK A Talmid Remembers Rabbi Binyamin Paler ':>"Yl, MANAGEMENT BOARD AVIFISHOF Rabbi Moshe Einstadter NAFTOLI HIRSCH ISAAC KIRZNER RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN 23 The Call of Shmitta, Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Managing Edilor Published by Jew vs. Jew: Cracks in the American Mosaic, Eyton Kobre Agudath Israel of America U.S. TRADE msm1BUTOR ISRAELI REPRESENTATIVE Fetdheim Publishers lnlnl. Media Placemen! 41 SECOND LOOKS 200 Airport Executive Park POB 719515 Even Israel Nanuet, NY 10954 Jerusalem. ISRAEL Let the Readers Beware, Rabbi Pinchas Jung BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE BELGIAN REPRESENTATIVE M.T. Bibelman Mr. E. Aplet Grosvenor Works Lange Kievitstr_ 29 Mount Pleasant Hill 2018 Antwerp 44 Letters-to-the Editor London ES 9NE. ENGLAND BELGIUM FRENCH REPRESENTATIVE SWISS REPRESENTATIVE Rabbi Bamberger Mr. S. Feldinger 21 Boulevard Paixhans Le\rnanstrasse 36 57000 Metz 4051 Basel FRANCE SWITZERLAND THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages © Copyright 2000 November 2000 VOLUME XXXl!l/NO. 9 Yonason Rosenblum I. THE DEEPENING CRISIS The Scales Have Dropped the Green Line. Residents of Upper Nazareth were unable to leave the city for ((Israel's position today is worse t wonld be hard to overstate the almost the entire period; the Wadi Ara than in 1973, when it was degree to which Israel's Jews, espe­ highway, one of the major thoroughfares attacked by concerted Arab I cially ardent supporters of the Oslo traversing the Lower Galilee was closed armies, worse than when Egypt mobi­ process, have been traumatized by the for days by Israeli Arabs rioting in lized in 1967, worse than in 1948, when sustained eruption of violence since Erev Umm-al-Fahm; and a motorist was Arabs rejected the U.N. partition of Rosh Hashana. Janet Aviad, a leader of killed by a boulder dropped on his car Palestine... and sent arinies to kill Peace Now, describes the peace process as he drove on the main coastal highway Israel;' writes George Will, perhaps she and her colleagues advocated as between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The Tunnel America's most respected political corr1- "ended" and the peace camp as "not real­ Highway from the Gush Etzion bloc, mentator. Then, at least, Israel was con­ ly relevant." which according to the most far-reach­ fident of the legitimacy of its positions. Consider the psychological distance ing Israeli offers to date would still remain That confidence has been squandered that believers in the ''peace process" tra­ within Israel, was also closed on an almost over the seven plus years of the Oslo versed in a n1atter of days. I-1irsch Good­ daily basis due to stone-throwing and process, which, according to Will, has man's lead column for the October 10 shooting. The situation of Jews living in succeeded in "delegitimizing all previ­ issue of the JerusalC'rn Report, confident­ Judea and Samaria and near the Gaza ous positions... and destroying the ly prononnced that peace has already strip was even worse.2 absolute prerequisite for successful been achieved, with only a fevv lechnical Nor were Tel Aviv and Jernsalem negotiations-the insistence that some­ details left to be worked out. The com­ spared: Shots were heard in Jaffa and the thing is nonnegotiable." plex web of interpersonal relationships Jernsalem neighborhood of Gilo came Will correctly identifies the greatest developed over the past seven years nnder heavy and constant fire. 3 By open­ crisis in Israel today as one of the spir­ ensured, in his opinion, that another ing his jail doors to Hamas and Islam­ it. The question still to be answered is intifada was no longer a possibility.' ic Jihad terrorists, Arafat gave the green whether the renewal of the intifada on By that October 10 cover date, Israelis light for renewed terrorist actions Erev Rosh Hashana will provide the nec­ had already endured 12 days of ongoing 2 The ability of the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, essary shock therapy or only deepen the violence, in which they found themselves in some cases using firearms stockpiled over the crisis. unable to travel freely within or without past seven years and supplied by Israel, to com­ -----···-----· pletely disrupt transportation throughout Israel Yonason Rosenblum who lives in Jerusalem is a l T\vo issues later, CoodnMn bid adieu to that gave a chilling taste of what they could do to pre­ contributing editor to The Jewish Observer. He web of relationships and concluded, "\Vhat is vent rapid Israeli mobilization in the event of a is also director of the Israeli division of Am Echad, needed is separation between then1 and us. lsrad full-.srale war \Vith neighboring Arab states. That the Agudath Israel-inspired educational outreach on one side of the border and Palestine on the rapid mobilization has always been at the heart effort and 111edia resource. other." of Israeli defense doctrine. 4 The Jewish Observer, November 2000 throughout Israel, and effectively in sight. At last, it dawned on Israeli Jews "Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter declared every Jew an open target. that the problem in Palestinian eyes is where they are, in any country. Wherev­ During that same 12-day period, the not, as George Will put it, "that Israel is er you are, kill those Jews and those IDF stood by helpless while a soldier being provocative, but that Israel's Americans who are like them - and those bled to death over a period of five hours being is provocative." who stand behind them:" Israelis were at Yosef's Tomb from a bullet wound. Seventy percent of Israelis, admitted aghast, but as Jerusalem Mayor Ehud A week later the IDF evacuated the that they were apprehensive about the Olmert commented dryly the only Tomb, which was promptly destroyed, very future of the State. A Ma'ariv car­ shocking thing about the "sermon" was along with sifrei kodesh, by Palestinian toon caught the national mood. Next to our shock. Palestinian Media Watch, mobs. That same mob killed Rabbi Hil­ a tombstone over Yosef's Tomb, were MEMRI (Middle East Media Research lel Lieberman, who had rushed towards Yosef's Tomb to save the sifrei kodesh, and dumped his body in a nearby cave. • The savagery with which the mobs eilin explains his commitment to Oslo, "I can't live in a attacked Yosef's Tomb ominously fore­ shadowed the scene less than a week Bworld in which peace is impossible." That is a statement later when another Palestinian mob killed two IDF reservists, who inadver­ of faith not realpolitik. Messianic movements are rooted in tently entered Ramallah, and continued despair and the Israeli peace movement is no exception. to tear at them and stomp on them long after they were dead. On the Northern border, Hezbollah kidnapped three Israeli soldiers, in the several other dug graves marked •Institute), and Israel Media Resources type of daring action for which the IDF Rachel's Tomb, the 10mb of the Patri­ (monitoring Palestinian radio broadcasts) was once famed. Despite Prime Minis­ archs, the Temple Mount, and finally, the have been supplying reams of compara­ ter's promise after Israel's May with­ State of Israel. ble material, much of it from official drawal from Lebanon that Israel would Suddenly left-wing columnists, like Palestinian Authority organs, for years.5 respond disproportionately to any bor­ Dan Margalit and Ben-Dror Yemini, Within months of signing the orig­ der incursions, the IDF found itself with sounded indistinguishable from their inal Oslo Accords, Yasir Arafat called for its hands tied and no response was forth­ right-wing counterparts.