Can Zionist love of Israel ever be too much? Believe it:
A Teaneck synagogue [in New Jersey] may become a flashpoint this weekend in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Congregation B’nai Yeshurun will host a real estate fair aimed at persuading American Jews to buy property in the disputed territories of the West Bank.
“The purchase of a home … is an ideological gesture of love of the Land of Israel,” said a letter to potential American investors from the Israeli group that’s conducting the event.
But critics say such land sales would inflame the conflict by bringing more Jewish settlers to the predominantly Palestinian territories”¦.
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, the spiritual leader of B’nai Yeshurun, represents an Orthodox Jewish community that, generally speaking, opposes a Palestinian state and holds that Jews have a right, and a responsibility, to settle in the territories that are part of the biblical land of Israel.
Indeed, Pruzansky, who calls the territories by their biblical names of Judea and Samaria, said the meeting will be held in the sanctuary of his synagogue – rather than in its conference room – to underscore the notion of religious duty.
“It’s not occupied land – it’s disputed, unallocated land,” Pruzansky said. “And Israel certainly has a valid claim.”
He blamed the Mideast conflict on Arabs who don’t recognize Israel.
“I don’t think there is much hope for peace in my lifetime, unless the Messiah comes,” Pruzansky said. “And the main reason is that there are too many people who are not reconciled to Israel’s existence.”
Of course, illegal settlement expansion in Palestine is normal.