Outrage Over Netanyahu Denying Divine Protection in Cabinet Meeting on Uman Plans

By Matis Glenn

Outraged ensued after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed a cabinet meeting concerning travelers to Uman, Ukraine, saying  “G-d did not always protect us,” R”l, in an apparent reference to the Holocaust.

Among topics discussed at the meeting were the plans of Minister of Yerushalayim and Jewish Heritage Rabbi Meir Porush to ensure the safety of the tens of thousands of Israelis who are expected to travel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah, to daven at the kever of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, zy”a.

Netanyahu reported that during his phone call last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the latter said that there aren’t enough shelters in Uman for local residents, let alone foreign travelers. Netanyahu added that Israel cannot guarantee travelers’ safety, and that “Israeli citizens traveling to Ukraine should bear personal responsibility for their travel at this time.”

During the meeting, Netanyahu chose to assert his theological notions, that Israelis are safer in Israel than in Ukraine, and overtly denied Hashem’s protection over the Jewish people in Europe.

UTJ MK Yisrael Eichler responded to the comments. “For more than a century, the G-d of Yisrael has been saving the Land of Israel from the hands of the gods of ‘power,’ the evil culture and assimilation of the secular regime. The Zionists and partisans did not prevent a Holocaust in Europe. The Germans were stopped on the way to conquering the Land of Israel by miracles and not because of the Zionists.”

Eichler further stated: “The Zionists alienated the Jews of the Diaspora. Some members of the Judenrat collaborated with the Nazis. Some of them traded and sold the Jews of the Diaspora. The Zionist leadership in Israel refused and thwarted rescue plans. Some of the Zionists even called on the Jews of the ghettos: ‘Human dust – let them go to their fate.’

“Even after the Holocaust, all Jewish immigrants in the Diaspora have been living in relative peace and quiet ever since. Only in the Land of Israel has Jewish blood been spilled like water, ever since. The danger of nuclear annihilation threatens the State of Israel alone.”

The Shas party released a statement following Netanyahu’s remarks, but did not address them directly or mention Netanyahu. “G-d has always protected the people of Israel in all persecutions and persecutions, and this is why the people of Yisrael are the only ones that have miraculously survived for thousands of years, while other nations, numerous and powerful have perished. Of course, the condition for divine providence is adherence to the faith and observance of the Torah and mitzvos, as the Jewish people have been doing since they became a nation.”