Off with the Masks!

[I needed a day off, and last night before I left I found this op-ed piece from Tzvi Fishman in Israel National News ... I have to admit it's a bit unsettling. And a bit uncopyable, apparently -- after I posted half the article here the computer froze, and froze, and froze again. Oy vey. So I supply the link at the end; in light of this week's attacks in Belgium, I'd say both Jews and Gentiles have masks to take off. -- David]


The Arab terrorists succeeded in stripping the masks off of the frightened faces of the Jews in Belgium. Purim celebrations have been canceled and Rabbis have told congregants not to wear masks.


It’s sad that this is the way someone finally succeeded in stripping the masks off the faces of all the Jews in the Diaspora, who have been wearing masks for nearly two thousand years, dressing up as Belgians, and Germans, and Russians, and Frenchmen, and as good Americans, loyal citizens who want to be like everyone else, pretending to belong to foreign lands and foreign identities - yes, living a 2000 year masquerade.


This Diaspora charade has been going on throughout history, ever since we were ousted from our homeland by the Romans. But in every generation, in one foreign land or the next, the gentiles always eventually remind us that we aren’t Spaniards, or Yemenites, or citizens of the Reich like everyone else.


In every generation, Hashem raises up a new Haman to strip off our masks and to remind us that we are the Children of Israel – just like Haman stripped off the masks of the Jews of Shushan, who wanted so hard to assimilate and be Persians like everyone else, just like the Jews of Belgium want to be Belgian, and like the Jews of Germany and Russia wanted to be Germans and Russians.


How we love our masks! How we love our foreign costumes and countries! How we grovel on our hands and knees, like the leader of AIPAC, who bowed down so pathetically to America’s Achashveros, in order to prove that she and the Jews of America are Americans like everyone else.


But we’re not. Nowhere in the Torah will you find the word American, or German, or Canadian, or South African. We are Children of Israel who have been expelled from our Land. Israeli refugees. The foreign passports and citizenships are all phony costumes, no different from the clown costumes and Batman costumes that children like to wear.


Find the rest of this article at:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18602#.VvQz_sv2a1u