The Erev Rav Strikes Again Through Poet Yehonatan Geffen

Yehonatan Geffen (Image credit: Nachoom Assis [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Writer Yehonatan Geffen, who is very popular with the “enlightened” Left, published a poem on January 22 comparing the Israeli soldier-slapping teen Ahed Tamimi to Holocaust victim Anne Frank and Jewish paratrooper Hannah Senesh. Following intense backlash, Geffen offered an apology of sorts on Saturday night.

You recall that a few weeks ago we were treated to the sight of an Arab "Palestinian” teen and her family accosting and humiliating an Israeli officer as he stood and absorbed the blows and curses. Ahed Tamimi is now a legend in her own time - a legend and a hero, not only to those who openly yearn for the day that they will murder and dispossess us, but also to some of our own Jewish "elites" and "progressives."

I can understand the Arabs’ desire - well, not exactly understand, but I am not surprised by it at all. However, I have not yet figured out what makes some of our own, especially the more "sophisticated" and talented ones, use their talents and influence to aid our enemies.

Imagine Anne Frank or Hannah Senesh assaulting and cursing a German soldier. Does this thought really escape Mr. Geffen and his very smug crowd? What was he thinking? What do they think, or whatever you want to call the process? Certainly, he understands the difference - he must!

Does he really think that our humiliated officer who walked away from his young tormentor was as evil as a German soldier who Anne Frank would not even dare look in the eye? Does he truly equate our presence in biblical Judea and Samaria, which is a base for Jew-murdering terrorists, to the Nazi occupation and rape of Europe?

Does he really?

Yehonatan Geffen is not alone, of course. His buddies always try to outdo each other. A few years ago PLO leader Marwan Barghouti was arrested and tried for 37 terror attacks. Outside the courtroom was another old warrior of the Left, Uri Avnery, shouting, "The intifada will win!" Did the murdered Jews and their families enter his thoughts at all?

In the courtroom Barghouti's lawyer, Mr. Samuel Shamai Leibowitz (grandson of Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz who coined the term “Judo-Nazi”), compared his client to none other than Moses! He saw them both as equal leaders of their people in the quest for national liberation.

Was this just theatrics or do these people really believe this stuff?

Award-winning Israeli authors visit the mass murderer Barghouti in his cell and adoringly grant him autographed copies of their latest works.

Is it just me or is there something totally nuts with this picture?

In last week’s Torah portion of Beshalach (Ex 13:17-17:16), the Jewish nation finally leaves Egypt after centuries of bitter enslavement. Along with the Jews there were also Egyptians who wanted to latch on to the new winners. Moshe allowed them to come along - a major mistake.

Our sages tell us that it was they who agitated and led a series of unrest and rebellion against Moses and G-d in the desert. They tell us further that it was their seed who pop up throughout our history to betray our people and take the side of our tormentors. In my study of our history, I find that indeed in every generation there are Jews who do just this.

Are they really the seed of the "mixed multitude" - the Erev Rav - that made so much trouble for Moses? I do not know; I also truly do not know what makes Mr. Geffen and company tick. Yes, being a self-hating Jew is the obvious answer. But what creates this illogical, cruel, loathsome, and ever-present phenomenon?

Until someone gives me the slightest logical answer to this historical phenomenon of treason and self-loathing, I am forced to go with the Erev Rav theory.