by Ruthie Blum
Several similarities
between curret events and those of four years ago cannot be ignored.
During the same period in 2008, Barack Obama had just been elected
president of the U.S., Hamas rocket barrages from Gaza were about to
precipitate Operation Cast Lead, and the Israeli elections were on the
horizon.
But there is one other
eerily tragic likeness — the slaughter of Rivka Holtzberg in Mumbai in
November 2008 and that of Mirah Scharf in Kiryat Malachi on Thursday —
that should remind us what the Palestinians’ real war against Israel is
all about.
Holtzberg and her
husband, who ran the Chabad House in Mumbai, were murdered in their home
by Pakistani Islamists in front of their two-year-old son. She was five
months’ pregnant. The orphaned boy, who was rescued by his Indian
nanny, was brought to Israel to be raised by his grandparents.
Scharf and her husband
also ran the Chabad House in New Delhi. During a home visit to Israel,
Scharf, also pregnant, was killed by a missile that struck the apartment
where she was staying in Kiryat Malachi. Her husband and three young
children were all wounded in the same attack. As each was hospitalized,
none was able to attend her funeral.
The horrible irony here
is that Scharf had scheduled this trip to enable her to do two things:
attend a memorial service marking the four-year-anniversary of the
deaths of her colleagues, the Holtzbergs, and to give birth in Israel.
Instead, the 25-year-old and her soon-to-be-born baby were laid to rest
in Jerusalem on Thursday evening.
On Friday, a delegation
headed by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil arrived in Gaza to
“broker a cease-fire” between Hamas and Israel. To call this ridiculous
would be the understatement of the century. There is no need for
“brokering.” The minute the rockets stop flying into Israel, there will
be an end to Israeli strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, pure and
simple.
But Egypt finds itself
in a bit of a bind. On the one hand, the Muslim Brotherhood-led
government has no problem with the street demonstrations in Cairo
calling for Israel’s destruction. On the other, President Mohammed Morsi
can’t afford to forfeit all the billions of dollars and euros he is
about to receive to help keep his people from starving to death and
rebelling against him. So acting as some kind of mediator with his close
allies in Gaza provides a good show for America and Europe.
Aside from taking
cynicism to new heights, this charade is yet another indication that the
world still doesn’t get it. The conflict with Israel on the part of the
Arabs has nothing to do with Gaza blockades or West Bank settlements.
The Middle East, which has been falling like dominoes into the hands of
Islamist parties, is on a religious path of jihad against all infidels.
Their first stated
order of business is to wipe out the Jews. Indeed, the Hamas charter
includes the hadith (oral directives handed down from the Prophet
Muhammad) according to which, “The Day of Judgment will not come about
until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind
rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Muslim, there
is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.'”
It is this tenet that
is being chanted by imams across the globe. It is this belief that
jihadists the world over take literally and act upon accordingly.
Indeed, the Holtzbergs
were not gunned down by Pakistanis in India four years ago because of
the borders of the State of Israel. They, like Mirah Scharf in Kiryat
Malachi this week, were murdered for being Jews.
Ruthie Blum is the
author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the Arab Spring,"
available on Amazon and in bookstores in Europe and North America.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2887
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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