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Videos of The Rebbe on Israel

19 Kislev, 5743 • December 5, 1982
The Israeli government must set its priorities in Operation “Peace for Galilee.”
From the outset, the military experts made it clear that casualties could be minimized on both sides of the conflict by a swift operation, which could be over in days. Even the President of the US did not pressure Israel to do otherwise. But some politicians became afraid of their own inner insecurities.

1947
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Posner and his brother were students in 770 during the 1940s. One week, their father came in from Pittsburgh and spent Shabbos with them. Friday night after the prayers, their father asked the Rebbe how he should respond to the controversial topic of the day – the creation of a Jewish State.

28 Tishrei, 5752 · October 6, 1991
Israel’s welfare is in the best interest of the United States, because Israel is the front line
against the Arabs. The Arabs are against the United States no less than they are against Israel
— and perhaps even more so! And it is imperative that there be a strong Israel in order to
inhibit the influence of Syria, Iran, and the other hostile countries in the Middle East.

2 Iyar, 5748 · April 19, 1988
Newly elected Knesset Member Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Rebbe:
I had much satisfaction from your first speech in the Knesset. Continue along this approach,
for it is the best path to avoid war. You will have to struggle with 119 others in the Knesset,
but surely you won’t be intimidated, because G-d is on this side.

“The Baal Shem Tov teaches: ‘Wherever a person’s thoughts are, that’s where he is present.’
In the Laws of Eruv Techumin, the Techum is established based upon where you have in mind, not necessarily where you physically stand. Although you are here in America, your thoughts are, no doubt, in the Land of Israel. Draw Israel’s holiness upon the people here in the Diaspora.”

“The Land of Israel is ‘The Land which G-d’s eyes are upon from the beginning of the year until the end.’ I tell everyone that it is safe to travel there. Someone who is already there is forbidden by Jewish law from leaving. And those who planned to travel there, but cancel their plans, will be perceived by others as having violated Jewish Law.”

Quality versus Quantity
Recent generations have witnessed a paradigm shift in the art of warfare. Whereas it used to be the quantity of one’s soldiers and weaponry that deterred war or proved victory in the battlefield, today it is the quality of one’s arsenal that matters most. One technologically advanced weapon outweighs vast quantities of enemy manpower.

Rashi comments on the very first verse in the Torah: “It could happen that gentiles will claim that the Jews stole the Land of Israel from them. Therefore, G-d related His mighty works in the Book of Genesis to show that it was He Who created the Land of Israel and it was he who gave it to the Jewish People.”

The Israeli government must set its priorities in Operation “Peace for Galilee.”
From the outset, the military experts made it clear that casualties could be minimized on both sides of the conflict by a swift operation, which could be over in days. Even the President of the US did not pressure Israel to do otherwise. But some politicians became afraid of their own inner insecurities.

G‑d’s Roadmap
Code of Jewish Law, Laws of Shabbos, Chapter 329: If non-Jews besiege a Jewish border town—whether in the Holy Land or in the Diaspora—stating that they come only to pilfer straw, Jews are obligated to arm themselves for war, even on Shabbos, because such an intrusion opens up the entire Jewish land to attack.

Talk Like a Jew
The nations of the world are watching and waiting: “When will Jews begin to say what they’re really thinking about the Land of Israel?” When a Jew starts talking diplomatic jargon, begging the nations to take more and more land, thinking that in this way he’ll find favor in their eyes – the non-Jew doesn’t believe him, because he’s not talking like a Jew.
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