Sharon
has Isabella Syndrome
By
Shelomo Alfassa
Syndicated
by Israel
National News (7/14/05) Sephardic
Jewish Voice (7/15/05) The
Jewish Press (7/20/05)
Yehudah
ha-Levi once wrote the tearful words: My heart is in the east,
and I in the uttermost west. How can I find savor in food? How shall
it be sweet to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
When Yehudah wrote this, Edom represented the Christian Crusaders that
were occupying Jerusalem while he existed under the thumb of Islamic
rulers in Muslim Spain. Today, Jerusalem is liberated from Crusaders
and the Jews have been able to return, but Islam remains a driving force
in the world as it was during his life. In our day, Islamic terrorists
and politicianssometimes one and the samehave caused such
great havoc against the Jewish State that the State is willing to pacify
them, handing them an important portion of the Jewish homeland that
has belonged to the Jews since Samson toppled the Philistines.
Years after Yehudahs poem was written, Spain fell into the hands
of the Christians and in 1469 Queen Isabella married Ferdinand of Aragon.
Isabella's marriage to Ferdinand united Spain's two largest kingdoms
and laid the foundation of the Spanish state. The Edict of Expulsion
issued in the Spring of 1492 and promulgated in July of the same year,
declared that no Jews were permitted to remain within the Spanish kingdom,
they all would have to leave forever. The King and Queen of Spain felt
the Jews committed most dangerous and contagious
crimes, and if they were expelled, all would be well. The Jews were
told they had to the end of the month of July to depart
from all of these our said realms and lordships, along with their sons
and daughters. They were given until the end of the said
month of July to better dispose of themselves, and their
possession, and their estates.
The Jewish people would be banished from the land where they had lived
for over 1,000 years because the Spanish felt the Jews had caused great
injury against the non-Jewish community because Jews observed
religious festivals and were observant of their religiona religion
despised by non-Jews. In the end, hundreds of thousands of Jews were
forced to depart, never to return or come back. But did
this disengagement of a people from their land help Spain, a country
that had declared that the Jews were the cause of the problem in their
kingdom? Noit led to the economic demise of a country that was
once a world power. Only a century after the Jews were expelled, Spain
fell as the worlds most powerful nation.
In our day, Ariel Sharon and the Radical Left have what can be termed
Isabella Syndrome, a sickness that manifests itself by development of
hatred towards the religion of Judaism along with the idea that if you
marginalize religious Jews, all will be better. This month, 513 years
since the Expulsion from Spain, Jews will once again be forced from
their homes, primarily because of non-Jewish pressure. What makes it
unique this time, is that pressure is also coming from within the Jewish
community.
Jews in the 15th century thought their persecution was a message sent
from God because they had sinned, because they had become increasingly
secular in their day to day life. The same can be said for the issues
which face the Jewish people today, ultimately, God is in charge. That
said, Sharon and others who are not Torah observant should realize that
expelling Jews from their Biblically ordained land is decisively wrong.
As the rabbis have said, it is not Sharons right to give away
piece of Eretz Israel. There is an important lesson for Sharon and the
others in his camp to heed, it is one thing not to be religious, but
it is wholly another to do something which causes your own religion
and people to suffer. By removing Jews from their land, by devastating
their lives and destroying their livelihood, we do nothing to help the
Jewish nation. By labeling Jews who are observant of the laws of Judaism
as radicals we do nothing to help and everything to hurt
our image in the non-Jewish world.
There is a famous legend that Jewish history holds saying the Sultan
of Turkey laughed when he heard Isabella was expelling the Jews from
Spain, for it was a foolish thing she was doing. Today, expelling Jews
from their modern homeland is no different, in fact, it is worse than
foolish, it sets a dangerous precedent to which the world will hold
Israel to in the future. Expelling the Jews from Gaza sets up a legal
paradigm to Expel the Jews from Hebron and eventually Jerusalem. Isabella
thought that if the Jews of Spain were marginalized, then Spain would
be better off, but that did not happen. Sharon feels that if the Jews
of Gaza are marginalized, then Israel will blossom and all will be well
between Jews and Arabs. She was dreaming, he continues to dream.
Most important, by giving in to demands of Islamic terrorists who have
declared they want nothing less than the total annihilation of the world
Jewish community is about the most absurd thing one can imagine. It
is without question the most absurd move to reward murderers who have
caused the street to run red with the blood of our people. The slippery
slope we are now perilously perched upon grows smaller each day.