Kristallnacht, Then and Now

Andrew Wilson, January 25, 2024
​
​The pogroms that began with Kristallnacht in 1938 brought upon the Jews of Europe the greatest insecurity imaginable, seeing the Nazi juggernaut ripping through their communities with no one to stop them. The 6 million who died in that horrific and systematic action of mass murder suffered unimaginable pain, stifling their hopes and dreams.
 
What happened to the victims of the Holocaust? They were embraced in the love of G-d, who was crying countless tears. Their hearts, though in pain, were warmed by those divine tears, and while many harbored thoughts of revenge, they coalesced around a burning desire for the redemption of the Jewish people. That desire, and their memory by those on earth, became the fuel that powered the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
 
As these spirits have grown, some of them have been spearheading God’s work for healing and recovery in the spirit world and on earth. The mature among them know that the cry “never again” cannot become a reality until issues are addressed on all sides of every conflict. The security and safety of all Jews in Israel will require healing and growth for everyone, so that no recurrence of Nazism in new dress can appear to threaten the future of the Jewish people. 
 
I know this to be true, because it was on November 9, 2008, the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, that God called me to support such works of healing. What began with a request to help the ascended son of a significant spiritual leader whom I regard highly, developed in the following year to effect recovery for Moses and Zipporah, to end their biblically-placed exile beyond the Jordan and return them to their homeland, to Jerusalem.  Subsequent healings have occurred for Sarah, Hagar and Keturah,  Jacob’s wives and Dinah, to be more fully attuned with the love of God who is our Mother as well as our Father.
 
This work developed further with a conference in Hawaii in 2011, which set out borders between Israel and a Palestinian state, borders approved by God and sealed by a handshake between Yasser Arafat and myself. I was there representing Israel, having been labeled its spiritual president, and I was accompanied by Louise Strait, whom God deemed to be co-president. Mrs. Strait and I subsequently traveled the byways around Jerusalem to map out the ins and outs of the proposed border, which became this website, the Citizens Proposal for a Border between Israel and Palestine. We met Isaac Herzog, who became Israel’s current president. We sat in spirit with Mr. Arafat in Jerusalem at the American Hotel and talked about our hopes for peace.
 
Some of the major characteristics of our proposal, which we believe need to be incorporated into an eventual two-state solution, are first, that it is arrived at by mutual agreement; second, that its borders provide Palestinians with ample living space where they can develop their economy with minimal interference from Israel; third, that Israel will be able to maintain their security interests in the Palestinian state against any force that would invade Israel proper; and fourth, that Israeli settlers in the West Bank would have the option to remain in their homes as citizens of Palestine with their rights guaranteed, just as Israel guarantees the rights of Arabs living in Israel, with additional accommodation for those in established urban centers such as Ariel and Maale Adummim.
 
Despite the failure of diplomatic efforts thus far to actually implement such a solution, which will require concessions on both sides, we believe that it is still the best option for securing a just and equitable peace that can support Israel’s security in the long term.
 
Thus, Kristallnacht took on a special significance for me. It will always be associated with the beginning of my efforts to support God’s desire to bring peace to the State of Israel, by resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a manner that will warm the hearts of Palestinians so that they will put away their animus towards Jews. And it must have been significant likewise for all those Jews in the ascended world who have been working behind the scenes for this effort. In short, what I learned from the call that I received on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht is that the desire of the 6 million is for more than just a Jewish homeland; it is for a homeland where Jews live in peace with their neighbors.
 
Hamas’s sudden attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 has been called “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust” (CNN) and “our generation’s Kristallnacht” (Star Tribune). But instead of a facile comparison between two atrocities, let us consider our response in light of what the victims of the original Kristallnacht and the Holocaust that followed are longing for on earth. For beyond the cries for revenge that sprung from their lips, theirs was the hope that redemption and peace, long delayed, would finally arrive for our people. 
 
The Jews living in Germany were powerless when the Nazis targeted them as scapegoats. They could not stop their descent from Kristallnacht to mass murder. But today’s Israel has options for addressing Palestinian hate. We can take measures now to ameliorate the rage and frustration of the Palestinians living in Gaza, so that the conditions that brought on October 7 will not recur.
 
To those who say that the Palestinians are incorrigible and will accept nothing less than Israel’s total annihilation, we say, first, Israel is not going anywhere, and second, many Palestinians have grown to the point where they have the maturity to accept a responsible modus vivendi. Therefore, instead of viewing the Palestinians as eternal enemies, Israel should treat them as potential partners. After all, Germany had been the home of centuries of antisemitism, but after the pain of World War II it changed and became Israel’s partner.
 
Do you think that if the 6 million had simply thirsted for revenge, like so many goyim have done, that we would have a State of Israel today? God would not have supported them, and their ashes would have been scattered in vain. But because of their devotion to God and even their many friendships with Germans, the weight of their deaths moved God’s heart, and their sacrifices became the seeds of today’s Jewish state.
 
What about the victims of October 7? In life, many of them were dedicated to peace. They had Palestinian friends who were likewise dedicated to peace. They were forward-looking people who celebrated life in the hope of a greater future for Israel living in peace with Palestinians. It is time to honor their memory, as we do the memory of all the victims of the Holocaust that arose from the original Kristallnacht, by removing the hate and stopping the bloodshed.

We should not underestimate the effect of the spirit world, especially in the land of Israel where the work of God has been so strongly present throughout history. This is a time when ascended Jews need to be major actors in the efforts for peace, and when there is value for Jews living on earth to connect with our ancestors and esteemed elders who have the peace of Jerusalem engraved in their hearts.  
 
The living God has been working to heal the hearts of the victims of the Holocaust so that they no longer cry out in pain for revenge. Having been healed, they are working for the day when peace, long delayed, will finally arrive for our people; that is what will give them satisfaction.  Further, they understand that peace for Israel requires peace for the Palestinians. The lives of these two peoples are inextricably intertwined.
 
It is time to end this bloody war that is only inflaming passions and making Israel’s existence more precarious by the day. It is time for all the parties that compose the government of Israel to take a step back. Instead, let us take concrete steps to end the Middle East conflict by envisioning and working towards two states where Israelis and Palestinians alike enjoy prosperity and live as peaceful neighbors. 

The EU Should Act Decisively to Move Israel toward Peace

Andrew Wilson, January 22, 2024

In recent days, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun proclaiming publicly what formerly he had equivocated about, namely rejection of all efforts to establish a Palestinian state. This came in the wake of President Biden’s proposal, put forth by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on January 18, for normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia in exchange for agreeing to provide the Palestinians a pathway towards statehood. Netanyahu rebuffed that proposal, and a few days later he doubled down, boasting to the Israeli public that he would forever thwart Palestinian statehood. “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River,” he said in a video message on January 21.
 
The issue has arisen to prominence with the Israel-Hamas war and the question of how to provide for the people of Gaza once that conflict comes to an end. With the war destabilizing the entire Middle East, it has become clear to most of the international community that only a solution that guarantees Palestinian aspirations to statehood can bring lasting peace to the region. The Israeli-Hamas war, and Israel’s continued belligerence on the Palestinian question, poses larger international security issues that impact Europe and the US, which cry out for some form of international action.
 
The foreign ministers of the European Union, who are currently meeting on the issue, “are likely to discuss the possibility of imposing consequences on Israel if Netanyahu continues to reject Palestinian statehood,” according to a report in the Financial Times. But would any international pressure move the Israelis, who are understandably fearful of what a Palestinian state could bring?
 
What can give Israel, rocked by insecurity and fear after October 7, some degree of confidence that a Palestinian state can be a partner for peace and not a threat? The answer lies not with Hamas but in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has a two-decade-long record of security cooperation with the IDF. Before this recent violence, one could point to examples of cooperation, supported by the EU and the wider international community, that could have laid the groundwork for a lasting accommodation between Israel and a Palestinian state. Clearly, we need to lift up such models of cooperation, which could be thriving in the West Bank today if Netanyahu and his settler allies were not undermining the Palestinian Authority at every turn.
 
Now it is well established that Netanyahu has never wanted the international community’s “peace process” to establish a Palestinian state existing peacefully side-by-side with Israel to succeed. To this end, he found in the terrorists of Hamas a useful ally, permitting their sporadic attacks and then covertly sending them funds through Qatar to rebuild so that they could attack again. In this way, Netanyahu weakened and discredited the Palestinian moderates who would have been only too willing to be partners for peace with Israel.
 
Hamas has served Netanyahu well. He made its terrorists the straw man for all Palestinians, giving him the political cover that he needed in order to remain known as the leader who would defend Israel from a hostile world – the world as he with his Manichean mindset imagined it to be. Meanwhile, he maintained his power by allying himself with the settlers, extremists who, with religious zeal, worked to claim the entire West Bank for Israel and harass the Palestinians who lived there.
 
Clearly it is Prime Minister Netanyahu who is the biggest obstacle to peace, and now he has said as much. Until he resigns or is voted out of office, protracted conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will continue, regional instability will continue, and the danger of a wider conflagration will remain. At least now the Israeli public is beginning to see through his machinations, seeing as Israel is less secure and more threatened now than ever at any time in the last 50 years.
 
The road to peace begins with Netanyahu’s departure. Israel needs new leadership with a new outlook, one that is willing to work with moderate Palestinians as partners for a shared peace. At the same time, Israel’s leadership needs to put a damper on propaganda coming from the Israeli Right that labels all Palestinians as terrorists. 
 
We applaud that the EU is beginning to consider steps to penalize Israel. They need to put in place at least economic consequences: a regime of stiff tariffs would be a good start. The EU’s actions would have to be understood not as done out of animus against Israel, but rather as actions undertaken to discipline Israel to cease its misbehavior and do better: instead of acting as a solo actor in ways that run counter to greater community, it should begin acting constructively for the peace of the whole region. No one should belittle the pain that the Hamas terrorists have caused Israel. Nevertheless, the international community is rightly calling on Israel to go beyond its own hurt, and play a constructive role for a peaceful future.
 
We are looking for the EU to impose temporary punitive measures that would be conditioned on Israel changing its policy from one of belligerence against all Palestinians to one of peace-making with moderate Palestinians. And we hope that America will, even if behind closed doors, give such measures its tacit support. 
 
Until now, EU trade regulations only sanctioned trade with Israel for products produced in the West Bank. But now, with Netanyahu taking a hard line and all of Israel complicit in the deaths of countless civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children, there is no reason to maintain that distinction, i.e. between Israeli products made west of the Green Line (permitted) and those made in the West Bank (sanctioned). When Israeli farmers in Jaffa cannot sell their oranges in the EU because of a 50-percent tariff, and Israeli technology companies in Tel Aviv find their products uncompetitive in Europe for similar reasons, the pressure on Netanyahu may reach a point that will force his resignation.
 
Such measures, taken out of love for Israel and Palestinians alike, will bear fruit when, once the terrorists have been vanquished and the bombs and guns fall silent, there will be leaders in Israel who will dare to take steps for peace, supporting productive growth and development for all.