The Two Walls: From Berlin to Judea

כ"ב באייר, תשפ"ה

May 20, 2025

By Ashrei Ima Sari

The noble desire to achieve peace in the Middle East requires the ability for all people in the relevant countries to allow for free and safe passage and movement between the borders. This is required for peace, for prosperity, for economical growth, and for tourism. Without being able to open the borders between the countries, there is no true peace. 

The borders that Israel is currently surrounded by are not peaceful ones. Even the countries Israel has peace agreements with are not peaceful borders. Israel is continually needing to guard all of its borders as if still in war on all fronts, to prevent the endless attempts to infiltrate, attack, or bring in illegal weapons to terror organisations within the territories of Israel-Palestine.  

To better understand the complexity of the border situation between Israel and all its neighbours, let us reflect on the German border situation, as it was post WWII. 

The post-WWII European borders were not as they were prior to the war. Forces from the east, as well as from the west, fought hard to defeat the Natzi regime that had spread itself across the continent. This left Berlin, a German city, split between east and west Germany. In the east, the soviet bloc was taking the Berlin citizens under its communist curtain. Initially, many tried to flee this regime. Thus, in 1961 the Berlin wall was built. 

When this wall finally came down, the epic event was viewed on the news across the globe, showing all in the western world just how exuberantly excited the people of Berlin were to finally have this wall come down, 28 years after it was built, in 1989; more than 40 years since WWII ended. 

After Germany was defeated, the country was split between the USSR’s control over the east of Germany and the allied forces in west Germany. In 1949, the allies established a new government in Germany, under their control, the country started flourishing and became what Germany is today. 

In East Germany, the people saw the rapidly improving conditions of the west and many started fleeing from the east to the west. The USSR did not approve of this situation and erected a border separating the two sides of Germany. 

This situation divided people that should not have been divided, into two separate countries, within their own land. A status that caused much grief and pain for all that were forced to live through this time of separation. 

One can say that the allies and the USSR were the colonisers, governing over a country that was not theirs. While the west was set up by the allies to become independent, the east was set up to become part of the entire USSR communist system. 

When Transjordan and Palestine-Israel were set up by the colonial English power, they were set up to have Jordan, Israel and Palestine. The Arab League, the rising colonial power in the region at that time, was not happy with only part of the Israeli-Palestinian territory -- they wanted it all. So, they decided to colonise the land that was given to Israel by starting a war. 

Unexpectedly, the colonial Arab forces were unsuccessful in their multiple wars on the new-born state of Israel. During these wars, they lost the lands that were offered to them freely. Their refusal to set up their own state had cost them the potential of yet another Arab country. Their attempt to take over all the land of Israel had ironically left them without any of it. 

One cannot force a group of people to set up a state if they refuse to. Try as you might, a group of people that does not wish to have a country, will not set up a country. A group of people that use the excuse of ‘let us build a country’ only to be able to disguise their desire to kill the Jews, is not a group of people one can make peace with. And yet…

The theology and ideology of the west had the UN and Israel believing that it is possible to establish a state for a group of people that were refusing to get themselves organised. 

 As time went on, the Arab League and the Palestenians did not show any ability or promise in turning the open territories of Israel-Palestine into a functioning state. This open area is known today as “The West Bank.” A name that was given because the land is west of the Jordan river. 

The West Bank is not named “the east side of palestine’ because Palestine did not exist in that way. It is named The West Bank because it was a part of the Transjordan area, where colonial England had ruled over an area that included the entirety of Jordan as well. 

When England left the Middle East, it created in its wake the countries we see today -- therefore, the west bank is in relationship to what Jordan was, not in relationship to what Israel was. 

This distinction is important because Jordan was one of the main culprits to open multiple wars against Israel. Jordan, like with the Berlin wall, was in control of the entire west bank, including parts of Jerusalem -- which included the Temple Mount and the Western Wall; the Jewish most holy places. 

In Jerusalem, the border between the two countries ran in the center of the city. The bullet holes and markings of bombs that the Jordanians inflicted on the Jews are still visible today on some of the buildings in Jerusalem.

Like in Germany, when the city was finally united, and the Jews were finally able to return to their most holy place, it was one of the most powerful moments in Jewish history. We have lost the Temple Mount to so many colonial forces -- and now, finally, after 2000 years, with our own army, able to defend our own people against colonial powers -- we were not going to leave this holy mountain again. 

For the government at the time, a quick decision had to be made, as a beautiful Muslim mosque was built over our holy temple. The choice was to not change anything: to allow the Muslims not only to keep praying in a mosque we just conquered, but to allow the management to govern its affairs even if they reside in Jordan, an enemy country. 

Until today, it is safe for all Muslims to go on to the Temple Mount, while Jews can only go up with multiple police officers guarding them, to insure their safety. While Muslims can pray as they please, the Jews are only allowed to walk in specific areas, and they are not allowed to bring up to the mountain any religious items, not even a prayer book -- as doing such things sparked violent riots and intifadas in the past. 

In essence, Israel is so accommodating of the Muslims and local Arabs, that it is in effect discriminating against its own Jewish community only to ensure peace is maintained. Acting like a true abuse victim, minimising our own people’s needs and desires only to not upset the abuser that might lash out on us with another intifada if we do or say something wrong. 

While Israel was trying to be the nice neighbour; the all inclusive and all accommodating country -- our neighbours did not and still are not showing us any of the same kindness in return. 

   The desire to have a two state solution for the Palestinian people side by side with Israel, requires that the people on both sides of the fence agree to live peacefully side by side. Otherwise, we will just keep repeating the disaster that the west bank and Gaza had turned out to be: a disaster not only for Israel, but for their own people as well. 

Not too long after the wall of Berlin came down, the wall surrounding the West bank was being built. 

Unlike the Berlin wall, which was built to keep citizens from east Berlin from escaping into a better life in west Berlin, the wall blocking the West Bank was being built to stop suisice bombers and terrorists from entering Israel freely and slaughtering Israelis everywhere they could. It was meant to minimise the Palestenians ability to conduct an Intifada -- a war of terror attacks -- against the entire Israeli population. 

The western world, freshly remembering the falling down of the Berlin wall, started complaining and objecting to the wall Israel was building to defend itself.  

The abusive and manipulative powers of the Arab League and the PLO were only too eager to start using this development to their advantage, and further root their victim narrative as the poor people who Israel is now surrounding with walls. 

This is a manipulation and a gaslighting tactic that is still used today when Israel is being blamed for imprisoning Gazan people, when in fact they have a border with Egypt. They are simply not all surrounded by Israel. 

Until Israel was brutally attacked, Israel had no control over the crossing with Egypt. Yet a world blinded by hate, gaslighting and lack of understanding is only too eager to side with whoever appears to be the victim -- too lazy to understand the true reality of the situation in Gaza. 

 A two states solution can and will only work when the victim gets to set the boundaries and the rules. Not the abusive power of the Palestenians, the terrorists and their backers (Iran et al.). Nor do the enablers, the former colonial powers such as Canada, England and France, have any legitimacy in dictating to Israel what it should or should not accept to establish at its border. 

When a colonial power intends to do good and allow the people to flourish, the area prospers, as west Berlin did. When a colonial power has sinister intentions and goals that are not for the best of the people it governs, the best outcome is what happened to East Berlin. 

When the colonial power is one of true evil with the desire to actually kill their next door neighbour -- one does not simply hand them over the keys to the white Toyotas that they will then use to infiltrate and massacre more Israelis.

The Israeli people have had enough with trying to figure out these two states solutions. It is not as if we did not try. We have been bleeding for the cause of a two states solution for 77 years. We will not keep bleeding for their desire to colonise the entire area of Israel-Palestine. 

As a teenager, as soon as I saw the walls around my town being built, I started dreaming of the day they would come down. I remembered the news reports of the Berlin wall coming down. I remembered the kindness of the Arab neighbours in the village next to us. 

The Palestinians would have the world adopt the idea that Israel is the coloniser, when Israel is merely the victim, trying desperately to defend itself against a colonising Arab power. If you doubt me, open a map of the Arab world and compare its size to the size of Israel, and ask yourself -- who is the real colonizing power, and who is not?

Arab communities, such as the Druze communities, live and flourish within the Israeli borders without any problems. As a teenager, I personally went to a youth movement that had Druze and Jews together in all youth activities. They serve in the Israeli Army. They are an integral part of our society. 

The Druze community is one example of how Israel has no problem with Arabs living on these lands -- it is Arab colonial forces that have a problem with Israelis and Jews living in these lands -- not because these lands are rightfully theirs, but because it is considered an insult to their religion that we are here. 

The colonial forces of the western world, such as England, Canada and France and the UN, have stopped colonizing the world's land, yet they keep colonizing the world with their mentality.

These western colonial veterans still believe that they have superior knowledge of how to solve conflicts in areas that do not function in accordance with their values and government systems. They still believe that dictating to Israel and the Middle East how to resolve the situation would lead to better outcomes -- entirely neglecting that it is their own actions and their past interventions that led us to the conflict we find ourselves in today. 

If East Berlin would have consisted of people waiting to slaughter the people of west Berlin, would we have celebrated the falling of that wall? If attempting to have a cease fire knowing it only leads to another Oct. 7th type of attack on west Berlin, would the western leaders jump to stop this attack?

Would the allied forces find it resnable to let Natzi Germany recuperate and regain strength before they once more attack them? Does it make sense to let the Natzi army restructure and rebuild, putting all the allied forces at greater risk?

It is painful to see what is happening in Gaza. Yes. It is horrific to know how much needless suffering is going on there. Suffering inflicted by Hamas refusing to release all the hostages at once -- all of them. Not one, not 7, not 10, not 5 alive and 10 dead. All of them, the dead and the alive. That is what it takes for Israel to pause for a moment and reconsider its strategy. 

I am afraid to think what would have happened in WWII if it would have been televised and broadcasted as Hamas is doing with their own propaganda -- a regime that is so blatantly making up stories. At least some of their videos of wounded and killed children were found to be fabricated. The number of killed and wounded was found to be inflated. Hamas is counting teenage terrorists as innocent children, terrorists that worked for UNRAW as innocent UN workers. The lies are endless and all are aimed to pluck at the strings of the empathetic westerner’s heart, so they gain international support to keep abusing and massecuring Israelis. 

I believe that if WWII would have happened now, the lack of capacity of world leaders to understand who the true victim is would have led to our allowing the Natzis to keep doing what they were doing. We would hear leaders around the world saying “...but the Germans say that these are only showers, they are not really gassing these people to death. No one needs to go there and save them, that would cause too many deaths.”

That is the level of immorality the current global leadership is showing. That is the level of lies that have been told to you to manipulate your consciousness. That is how flippant and dishonest the discord about what is really happening in Israel is. 

Seeing the truth does not mean closing our hearts to the pain and suffering of those who truly are innocent. Understanding the truth means that global leaders stop telling Israel what to do. Instead, global leaders can ask Israel -- how can we help? 

If you are a world leader who wants to make a difference, stop preaching for Israel to repeat the exact same mistakes we have been doing for almost eight decades. Enough is enough. 

Like in a brutally painful divorce process, where one partner was abusing the other -- the fight over who gets the house and the valuables can leave the innocent children suffering from further abuse. The narcissistic and psychopathic desire to get revenge on the abuse victim can leave both the victim and the innocent children mentally and financially in deep trouble.

Unfortunately, our world is not built to protect the victims of abusive behaviours. Our world is built to protect the biggest manipulators. Our systems are built to offer the greatest prize to the worst abusers, because they understand how to manipulate the systems and the people in them. Our world created systems that allow evil to rise, unless we actively stop them. 

Evil knows no limits because they will do whatever it takes to get their way. While the victim, the voice of good, suffers -- for they abide by ethical roles that will not allow them to become a tool in the hands of evil desires of the mind or of the evil forces of the world. 

In almost all divorces that include an abuse situation, it is not the victim that wins in today’s society and in the courtrooms -- it is the abuser. 

When we find ourselves in this type of world, that systematically allows the abuser to gain more power, to inflict more pain onto others, and for the bystanders and enablers to allow this to keep going on -- it is no wonder how the abusive nature of the Arab-Palestenains is being celebrated around the world. Their pain flaunted over that of the true victim. While enabling colonial powers who see themselves as righteous, believe they can keep acting as colonial powers in a world that has ended colonialism a while ago. 

Our world is heading towards unions, not colonialism. Colonialism is the way of the past. Countries like Canada, England and France, who still hold the mindset of a colonial nation, telling Israel what they can and cannot do, need to first figure out how to answer for the toxicity and infiltration of the new Arab terrorist colonial forces in their own countries before dictating to Israel what to do. Israel is the only country in the world that has real experience with this type of terrorist infiltration into their own country -- we have been in this fight for many decades. You do not tell us what to do -- we tell you. 

Instead of telling Israel what to do and when to stop fighting -- reach out to Israeli leaders and ask how you can help. Or better yet -- demand, over and over again, every single hour, from the leaders of Hamas and the Gazan people, to find the Israeli hostages and let them out. 

It is time to see our own flaws. It is time for those who have become enablers of this abusive situation Israel finds itself in, to wake up and stop the abuse. Those who keep enabling the abuser, at a certain point, become the abuser themselves. 

The two states solution is a wonderful idea, when on the two sides of the fence we can have people who wish to live in peace. Until then, Israel should have the complete right to decide how it wants to handle these territories. 

It does not mean Israel will be governing over other people who wish to have independence. It means that nothing will work without Israel's full agreement on the matter. Attempting to force any such agreements onto the government of Israel is manipulative, abusive in its nature and will simply fail -- those who keep doing so only demonstrate their lack of understanding on the matter; they are exposing their own ignorance. 

One can say that I am naive, and this is just how global politics work. But that is a lie politicians tell themselves to sleep better at night. 

Politics does not need to be abusive. Politics does not need to be forceful when the people of both sides actually want peace. It is only forceful and aggressive when one side is refusing to put their weapons down. 

It is convenient at this point to see Israel as the one refusing to agree to a peaceful solution -- but that is the delusion these evil forces want you to fall into. 

Releasing the Israeli hostages was the only thing that would have made any difference. And I am afraid that now, after so long and so many manipulative games that Iran, the Hotties, Hamas and all these abusive allied forces -- all this wasted time -- they have shown their true colours. Do not keep falling to their manipulations. 

There is no middle ground in this fight. Israel does not wish to harm any innocent people. Israel only wishes to return its hostages home and to ensure the terror organisation will never come back to hurt us. We have been suffering from this cycle of war and cease fires for decades. It does not work, really. It really does not work. Really -- it does not work.

Standing with Israel means understanding that this is hard. It means being able to see the larger picture. It means understanding that to achieve true and lasting peace in the world there is a terrible price to pay -- and it requires fighting with force against those who refuse to stop their aggression. 

Hoping this situation was different is a fool's hope, a childish wish and it will not lead to peace nor to a two state solution. 

Dictating to Israel what to do or coming after Israeli leaders and soldiers with lawsuits and refusal of entry to your country is like stating that your country has either joined the dark side, your leaders are being manipulated by master-psychopathic manipulators or that you are still holding on to a colonizing mentality even though your days of being a colonizing power are far behind you. Either way, the problem is with the way you see and understand the situation -- it is not with how Israel is handling the tragic events it must regretfully face. 

It starts with you, dear leaders, reflecting on what you believe to be true, and seeing what is actually true. Your believing in something does not make it true. Your feeling sad or bad about someone’s suffering, does not mean that they are the ones you need to be defending. Start with gaining true and deep clarity on the situation. 

The Bible states that those who curse Israel will be cursed, and those who bless Israel will be blessed. In times when Israel is literally battling the forces of evil, this prophecy can not be any truer. 

We would love nothing more than to take all our walls and fences down. We would love nothing more than to stop all the fighting. Yet it is the other side that needs to stop fighting us, for we will never stop defending ourselves. We will never stop fighting to bring every single one of our hostages back home. 

I pray that each leader around the world takes a few moments of silence to ponder if what they believe in is true, or is it just what is the convenient and easy political statement to make. I pray each one of you takes the time to reflect on who the true victim is -- not in the short term and latest news report type of victim -- but the overall story narratives that have been shaping the entire middle east and the growing violence, crime and terror attacks in your own countries. Are you sure that you are on the right side of the story?

May we all have the strength to stand up against such abusive and manipulating powers. May we find in us the resolve to change the nature of politics from manipulative and abusive to a new type of political framework that reaches out, not with demands and forceful statements, but through a true desire and attempt to listen -- so through deep understanding of the situation true and lasting resolutions can be implemented.