Jewish Home Chairman Minister Naftali Bennett spoke this afternoon (Monday) with classmates of Naftali Frankel and Gil-Ad Shaar at the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva in Gush Etzion:
""From the dawn of our people's existence, they have acted against us with terror, the goal of which has always been throughout Jewish history to break the spirit of the people of Israel and only then to break the people of Israel," he said in the Beit Midrash. "The first act of terror committed against the people of Israel as a people was in the desert. The perpetrators of terror were Amalek, and they targeted us, the weakest, with the goal of breaking us and showing the world that the people of Israel, who supposedly have God and all the miracles, are weak. Because that has always been Amalek's way – to break the spirit in order to break the people.
Many years later, Amalek’s heir – Haman – did exactly the same thing. Why is Purim Purim? Because he overthrew Pur. Why did he overthrew Pur, why didn’t he sit down with the senior Ahasuerus’s staff to determine the logistically best time to destroy the Jewish people? He wanted to show us: Do you think everything is planned from above? Not true. It’s all fate. He wanted to break the spirit of the Jewish people and only then proceed with the work of physical destruction.
The Nazis, too, said the same thing. From 1933, they worked first and foremost to break our spirit. Delegitimize the Jewish people. We are rats, we are leeches, and only after nine years of breaking the Jewish spirit did those Amalekites begin the work of extermination in the Final Solution.
Even today, the campaign is a campaign against the spirit. Our enemies know that they have no chance of physically defeating us. They tried it in the War of Independence, in the Sinai Operation, in the Six-Day War and in Yom Kippur, and it didn't work out for them. They tried it in the first and second intifadas, but each time "the people will rise like a lion and will exalt themselves like a lion," and each time we sat back and won even when they thought they would break us.
What is the way to break the Jewish people? Not by force. Natan Alterman, one of the great poets, wrote a poem that described the means to overcome the people of Israel. The poem is called "Then the devil said." "Then the devil said," in essence the enemies consult with the devil, how to defeat these Israelis, these Jews. "Then the devil said, this besieged one," the people of Israel, "how can I help him," for "with him is courage and skill in action, and weapons of war and resourcefulness, counsel for him." That is to say: they are smart, they have the 8200 and all the intelligence. "And he said: I will not take away his power, nor will I restrain him, nor will I put a shield," I cannot take away their power, the patrol and the air force, and I cannot tie their hands. "Only this will I do: I will darken his mind, and he will forget that justice is with him." The only way to strike the people of Israel in the Land of Israel is to darken our minds and make us forget that we are right, and there are those who try to darken our minds.
Sometimes I see in the media an attempt to darken our minds, trying to blame the police and blame the hitchhikers. What, the hitchhikers are the ones who kidnapped the children, is it the hitchhikers? The hitchhikers were the ones who kidnapped the Entebbe hostages, and they kidnapped Goldwasser and Regev and Gilad Shalit? Over 1,000 Israelis were murdered here in the second intifada because of the hitchhikers? We cannot darken our minds. We have an enemy who wants us to be unable to walk in Gush Etzion and he also wants us to be unable to walk in Ramat Aviv, and anyone who doesn't understand that if they don't walk quietly at the Gush junction and if children can't play quietly in Hebron, Ofra and Beit El, they also won't be able to play quietly in Ramat Aviv, Ra'anana and Rishon LeZion, doesn't understand anything.
Therefore, the mission of the Israeli government today is to allow all the people of Israel to live freely without fear in every corner of our land, and certainly to bring home Eyal, Gil-Ad, Naftali. The power comes from here, and the source of life for our land is here, in your study of Torah, in your volunteering, in your safe walking throughout the Land of Israel.
I know you are going through difficult times. These are your friends, these are your classmates. But you also need to be and are an example, and you are also facing a test, and the test is the test of resilience. We are not complaining. We are strong, we are not whining. And through strength and faith we will win. May your strength be with you. I know there are dilemmas here. In my opinion, your mission now is to study Torah, continue your routine, prepare for the exams. We will do our part and inject strength into the leadership in the State of Israel, and you will do your job and give us this strength.".
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