We are almost into a whole month of a war between Israel and Gaza. I think it would be a service to explain the whole picture and not just report who fired which bomb when and who got killed by it. First, let me introduce myself. I am the third generation of secular Jews born in Quebec. My great-grandparents arrived from Lithuania in the late 1800s. I have a degree in business from McGill and law from NYU. I became Torah observant in my late 20s and went to Israel to learn Torah. I became close to a very righteous rabbi, a Tzaddik, Rav Elazar Mordechai Kenig, and would often consult him on personal and Jewish issues.

My Hebrew was very simple but I think you will find his answers to my very simple questions interesting. Sometimes the biggest problems have very simple solutions. I would ask “What’s with Arabs?” and he would say “What do you mean?” I said “Are they good or not good?” and he said, “Those that are good will be judged as such and those that are not good will be judged as that… but you won’t know the difference”. The Rav was protecting me from my liberal naïve background, When someone else asked the Rav “Can these Arabs stay in Israel?” he would say “If they behave themselves”. When I asked “What’s with the Golan?” he asked “What do you mean?” and I asked “Is it ours (Israel’s)?” and he said “2 1/2 tribes lived on it. We have a long history there for thousands of years.” And I asked “What would you say to someone who didn’t believe in the Torah?”, and he answered, “We won it.” Let’s get it clear.

There has never been a time in history when a country wins a war and gives back the lands conquered voluntarily. According to the Torah, the land of Israel was given to the Jews by God. Of course, it’s only viable when the Jews are keeping the Torah on the land. We have an expression that not only do the Jews keep the Torah, but the Torah keeps the Jews. At this point in history if a Jew doesn’t keep the Torah it’s almost guaranteed that by the third generation, they will lose their Jewish identity and probably assimilate completely. Having taught statistics at McGill University, I did a very quick artificial intelligence equation and discovered that in the next decade, the vast majority of Jews in Israel will be keeping the Torah intentionally (shomer mitzvos).

The main reason is that observant Jews have more children, but also that there’s less homosexuality, less emigration from Israel, less assimilation, etc. Now you can understand what the battle in Israel regarding the reforms of the judiciary was all about. The politically left realizes that they’re losing the popular vote and only have the judiciary on their side and want to keep control of it. It’s not like the system we have here in a democracy. In 1948, Israel was created on the fly, and the powers given to the government and the judiciary were not contained by any constitution. It may even be that the debates and riots between Jews at that time were a precursor to this war. One thing you can be sure of is when the Jews in Israel are united no one can harm them. And when the Jews look to God and their Torah for their protection, no one can harm them.

This is not just a physical battle, it’s a spiritual battle, as many people are starting to realize. Now if you want to understand who the Arabs are, they are descendants of Ishmael, son of Avraham. It says in the Torah, Ishmael is a wild ass of a man and his sword will be at all his brothers’ throats. This is how they were created and if you don’t understand that it’s because you’re not Ishmael. It doesn’t mean that they have to be violent. That word for violence in the Torah is Hamas and was used two weeks ago in the Parsha Noah to describe violence and thievery. God destroyed the world in a flood because of this “Hamas”. The world cannot tolerate this type of violence and thievery. Unfortunately, this is who is ruling the people in Gaza. Don’t be so quick to judge Israel. You could be sure that the Arab countries surrounding Gaza don’t want these so-called Palestinians because if you let in thousands, for sure there’s going to be some (many) who are part of Hamas and will turn on their host country. This is exactly what happened in Jordan after 1948 when the Arab refugees from the Israeli War of Independence came to them.

So when people are saying free Palestine they really should be saying free Palestinians from their evil leaders of Hamas, who stole almost all international aid to the Gaza region. Isn’t it amazing that Gaza can’t get enough food or medical supplies to its people but they don’t seem to be in a shortage of missiles firing on Israel. Israel is doing the world a favour by destroying Hamas and all the Arab countries surrounding Israel know it even if they don’t say it.

As a side note, these same Arab countries also won’t take responsibility for the situation that they created in 1948 telling their brothers inside of Israel to get out of the way because they were going to destroy all the Jews in Israel at that time. As history shows it didn’t happen that way. God created a miracle and let the Jews win the war. Don’t doubt it was miraculous as are all the wars that Israel wins. Because when you have 1 million Jews fighting against 1 billion Arabs and winning time after time, it could only be attributed to God‘s hand.

Again I reiterate, do not doubt that this is a spiritual battle. And the whole world is part of it because this war is coming closer to home every day. And how do we win this war? How do we protect ourselves from evil? By siding with good. The world is to be governed by the seven Noahide laws, which, if you understood them, would make sure that all secular governments wake up. There is only one God and we are not to abuse His name. We are not to kill, steal, be immoral (complicated) in our sexuality, or be cruel to animals. We are to have just courts of law that will enforce the Noahide laws. The Jews have other rules that they have to live by and by doing so they are protecting themselves in the land of Israel and receiving God’s favor.

If you want to make the world a safer place, help a Jew learn more about their religion. And if you are not Jewish learn more about the Noahide laws. Because whether we like it or not, there is a new order coming. It’s going to be a time when peace will reign throughout the world and the main occupation people will have will be to get to know God, the Creator of the universe, better. And it’s going to be more beautiful than anything you could imagine.