When I Learn Vayishlah, I Think of the Palestinians

When I Learn Vayishlah, I Think of the Palestinians.

What????

Did I just say that???

Yeah, it's actually true. Here's my list so far:

• 32:8 Rashi s.v. ויירא ויצר - Yaakov Avinu was afraid that maybe he would be killed, and he was bothered maybe he would kill others. This is the same dillema an Israeli soldier goes through when faced with Palestinians shooting and firing rockets from civilian areas.
• 32:9 Rashi s.v. והיה המחנה הנשאר לפליטה - Yaakov Avinu prepared himself for 3 things: for gifts, prayer, and war. How do we deal with the Palestinians? We give them way too many gifts, and not enough prayer or war.
• 32:25 Rashi s.v. ויותר יעקב - Yaakov Avinu forgot small pitchers, and returned for them. When our soldiers like Gilad Shalit are captured by Hamas ימ"ש, we don't give up on getting them back.
• 33:19 Yaakov Avinu buys a field in Shechem. I've heard it said that Shechem is such a hotbed of terrorism because Yaakov Avinu bought it when he should have just taken what was a G-d-given gift already. The same with Avraham and Hevron.
• 34:16 Rashi s.v. ואת בנתיכם נקח לנו - When Hamor is talking to the sons of Yaakov Avinu, he says, "You will give your daughters" and "You will take our daughters," implying that the sons of Yaakov have control whom they will pick. However, when Hamor talks to his townspeople, he says, "We will give our daughters" and "We will take their daughters", implying that the Shechemites will have control whom they will pick. This reminds me of how Arafat ימ"ש and current Palestinian leaders say one thing in English and a very different thing in Arabic.
• 35:5 There was a G-d-placed fear over the cities surrounding the sons of Yaakov. This, I'm told, was the case in Israel in the aftermath of the Six Day War. ויי על דאבדן.
• 35:19 Rahel Imeinu is buried in Beit Lehem. Look at that - it's a Jewish city.
• 35:29 Yitzhak Avinu is buried in Hevron. Look at that - it's also a Jewish city.
• 36:33 Rashi s.v. יובב בן זרח מבצרה - Botzra was of the cities of Mo'av, but since it supplied a king for Edom, it is destined to be punished together with them, as it says כי זבח לה' בבצרה. One of the commentaries on Rashi (I forgot which) asks why Botzra is singled out here, when all the kings were supplied from elsewhere. He answers based on a ספר הישר that the previous king, Bela ben Be'or, was killed in a battle by Yosef and his brothers in Egypt. After that, the Edomite nation was decimated, and couldn't function as a nation without its leader. Came along Yovav ben Zerah from Botzra to save the day for Edom and became their new leader. I'm reminded how Arafat ימ"ש and the PLO were saved from bankruptcy in Tunisia, and the Palestinians were brought back to life once again by misguided Israeli leaders.

May Hashem save the Jewish people from all harm, and may we merit the returning of our complete Land of Israel, including the Har Habayit, to our hands, together with Mashiah Tzidkenu, speedily in our days. Amen.