Is it Divine Retribution?

Last week when I spoke for a gathering commemorating the 6th Anniversary of the Destruction of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron communities, I had some interesting feedback to my speech.

B"H, it was all positive.

I had said,

"The foundation of today’s we-want-a-home tent protests did not begin last month on Rothschild Blvd. They began in Gush Katif six years ago when 10,000 Jews became homeless. Just as former Israeli Prime Minister Arik Sharon predicted, 'The fate of Netzarim is the same as the fate of Tel Aviv.' And so it is."

My audience agreed.

Yesterday my husband and VOICES publisher Israel Katz told me that things happening today are so clearly Divine Punishments for past sins against the Jewish people. These were his thoughts:

"Everything we see today is a case of midda k'neged midda, (loosely: the punishment fits the crime). The same people in Tel Aviv and Central Israel that pushed for the homelessness of the people of Gush Katif are now homeless themselves. The same people who have spent the past many years crying out for the destruction of homes in Judea and Samaria are themselves without homes."
"If young people all over Israel want social justice, they should make sure that the Jews of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron are settled into permanent housing and working in appropriate jobs and businesses. Then they will be blessed with social justice for themselves."

He continued. "G-d has infinite patience. Sometimes it takes a little longer for G-d's Hand to be seen. But it is surely seen today in Great Britain with the London Riots."

"The British, who during the British Mandate in Eretz Yisrael, captured Aliya vessels and returned the Jews on their way to the Land of Israel back to certain death in the fires of German's crematoria are today seeing their own country consumed by fires everywhere."

"London is burning down. Buildings and neighborhoods that survived the Nazi blitz are now unable to survive G-d's wrath by the hand of 13 and 14 year olds."

The world was warned long ago, "G-d will bless those who bless the Jewish nation, but those who curse the Jewish nation shall be cursed."

(Photo from Jewish Task Force)