No US Presidency is complete without the White House South Lawn peace-making ceremony for Jews and Arabs. The first was Jimmy Carter raining goodwill upon Begin and Sadat; then it was Bill Clinton pushing Arafat and Rabin together; and now we have Donald Trump beaming proudly at Bibi and ABZ (Abdullah bin Zayed of UAE) as they sit before him. It is an excellent photo-op and a potent symbol. “US President saves Jews from Savage Arab Fury”, or “Pax Americana makes Peace between Nations”. It could bring the Nobel Peace Prize; it has electoral value; it will go down into the history books. Coming just after the opening of the first Muslim state Embassy in Jerusalem (Kosovo), it has turned Trump into a major peacemaker and a great benefactor of Jews, for Israel paid nothing for this achievement.

For peace with Egypt, Israel paid with Sinai; for Arafat’s agreement, Israel authorized the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA); for the last deal, nothing at all. Unless you count its kind permission for the superpower to sell its jets to the UAE, or their postponement of the Jordan Valley annexation, something Bibi was keen to put off anyway. A great achievement for Israel, no doubt.

It is a wonderful gift for the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah coming Friday, but there is precious little joy in the air in Israel. The ceremony, broadcast in full on Israeli TV, brought little cheer or comfort to the Israelis. Exactly on the eve of Rosh Hashanah on Friday, the Jewish state will return to the total incarceration of the lockdown. The schools will remain closed; people will not be able to venture more than 500 meters from home. Restaurants and shops will be shut down. The Med will be declared out of bounds, despite clement weather and warm water.

Israel is to become the first nation to go into their second corona lockdown, just as Israel was the first in the Western world to enter the first lockdown. Another world’s first, and for sure other nations will follow it into disaster, as they did it first time. The professionals, heads of leading hospitals, prominent infection experts, objected; they said that there is no need for such a far-reaching measure. The head of the Rabin Medical Center said, “A full closure is not required”. This year, fewer people died in Israel than last year in the corresponding period, but the PM decided to lock down the country anyway, to spread darkness into the nations.

Meanwhile it will last three weeks, as long as the High Holidays, the sequence of autumn feasts starting with the New Year continuing with the Day of Atonement and terminating with the Simchat Torah. This year the Jews won’t have the feast; Jewish families won’t assemble around festive tables dipping apple in honey to ensure good and sweet year. They won’t gather at all, as their Covid officials forbid getting together, barring even leaving their homes except for a hasty trip to the nearest shop.

The observant Jews of Israel are against lockdown anytime, even more so at the Jewish holidays, especially at the most important holidays of the Jewish year. They valiantly fought the police during the first lockdown. As the cabinet ruled to introduce the second lockdown, the Orthodox Jewish minister Yaakov Litzman resigned from the government. The new Minister of Public Security, ex-ShinBet (Israeli FBI) agent, the first openly gay cabinet member, Amir Ohana promised to strong-arm lockdown refuseniks into compliance.

This year the Jews of the Holy Land won’t blow Shofar’s horn and they won’t hear the Kol Nidrey prayer releasing them from sins past and forthcoming. Even in the days of the Inquisition, Jews were allowed to observe the commandments. Not so now. The synagogues will be locked, with max 10 believers in attendance. It means the vast majority of Israeli Jews won’t be able to go to the synagogue for Yom Kippur for the first time ever in known history.

The Corona Tsar of Israel, Ronnie Gamzu, is not satisfied with locking Israeli synagogues. Many thousands of Jews from Israel, the US, and elsewhere celebrate the New Year in the Ukrainian town of Uman, where a charismatic mystic Hassidic Tsadik, Rabbi Nachman of Uman, is buried. He taught that by celebrating Rosh Hashanah with him, one fulfils all the commandments at once. Ronnie Gamzu called the Jewish president of the Ukraine, Mr Zelensky and demanded that he forbid Jewish pilgrimage to Uman. Zelensky immediately granted his request and thousands of Jews suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the Ukrainian border as Ukrainian guards blocked their passage.

The Jews stuck in the bogs on the Belarusian side of the border raised hell and called Netanyahu. He said he never told anyone to stop them; it was entirely the initiative of Gamzu, who had acted outside of his writ. This pathetic story exemplifies the Israeli Corona official’s attitude to faith – they are ready to go far, very far indeed just in order to stop people from getting together and praying to God Almighty. “If you find yourself surrounded by police,” said a Jewish father to his son in the Nazi-occupied Poland, “Go to the German policeman and beg, he will let you out. If there is no German, go to a Pole or Ukrainian; your last bet should be the Jewish policeman for they are very conscientious”, thus spoke Jewish folklore.

It appears that the obscure force (let us call it Factor X) behind the officials, behind the Covid pandemics and lockdowns, is nothing less than a hatred of God and organized religion, be it Christian (they forbade Communion in many countries), Muslim (they banned the Hajj), and in an unusual twist, even Judaism. Usually the Jews are exempt from anti-religious bias because even the strictest atheist is Jewish by birth and saves his hatred for Christ and Allah. Not in this case; our Factor X is an equal opportunity hater. It is a super-Grinch: the Grinch stole Christmas, but Factor X stole Christmas, Eid el Fitr and Yom Kippur in one go.

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