Extract of letter from 5740
...The reference is, of course, to the covenant between G-d and His people, beginning with the first Jew, our father Abraham. According to this covenant, G-d assured Abraham, “Unto your seed I have given this land . . .” This G-d reaffirmed again before the birth of Isaac: “And I will establish their generations for an everlasting covenant . . . and I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land of your sojourn, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.”
Since the Bible is held sacred not only by Jews but also by Christians and Muslims, no one can honestly question the Jews' title to the Land of Israel. Indeed, in accordance with this covenant, G-d led our people out of Egyptian bondage into the Promised Land, and our people took possession of it and, since the time of King David, made Jerusalem the eternal capital of their land, long before any of the present-day world capitals came into being. With a brief interlude of 70 years—the Babylonian exile—our people dwelt in the Land of Israel for 1340 years (2488–3828), and even after G-d saw fit to send our people into the present exile and dispersion, there has always, up to the present day, been a Jewish presence and yishuv in our land, while all Jews throughout the Diaspora have longed and prayed (three times daily) for our return to our homeland and everlasting possession—“May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy.”
Yet, of late, our title to Eretz Yisrael has been challenged by the very nations who, by force of arms, repeatedly sought to rob us of our everlasting possession.
Sadder still, there appeared some Jewish leaders who, for the sake of peace, or rather the illusion of peace—and frightened by threats of further violence in the midst of a hostile and callous world—were prepared to and actually did surrender portions of our land, in the ill-conceived belief that our enemies would thereby be appeased. Moreover, contrary to all experience and common sense, which have demonstrated again and again that every act of appeasement and concession only invites stronger pressures to yield to even more avaricious demands, there are still those among our own people who persist in following this dismal course. The so-called Camp David Accords are only the culmination of the first phase of this ill-fated and self-defeating policy....
– To Be Continued –
