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On Friday night, Jews throughout the world will gather around their Seder tables and read the Haggadah, the story which celebrates our freedom from bondage and our independence and sovereignty in the land of Israel.
As we get ready for the holiday, I would like to suggest my own version of the Four Questions:
Why are Israel and the Jewish people different from all other people?
To the wise son, you explain that the modern rebirth of the state of Israel and the return of our people to our ancient homeland is a story of emancipation that should inspire anyone who has doesn’t have a heart of stone. That this rebirth was not only forged through war, but through the consent of the United Nations and the international community.
Yet, Israel is the only nation on the planet that is forced to forever justify and re-justify its existence. That, despite what you might hear in classrooms and on university campuses, Israel still has relentless enemies that want to destroy it today. You tell him that Israel has made incredibly generous offers of land for peace to the Palestinians time and time again, and that the Palestinians have rejected every single offer. That the Palestinians have managed to turn this on its head, and wage a relentless war on the Jewish state, not only using physical weapons, but cunning and deceptive rhetorical ones. You tell him that the Palestinians have manipulated the truth and have managed to win the sympathy of far too much of the civilized world in many refined quarters of society.
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