Sunday, August 26, 2007

Why Is Manhigut Yehudit In The Likud?

feiglin campaign
Israel's current leadership is trapped in a dizzying loss of direction. The "peace obsession" compels us to give up parts of our Land, making Israel weaker, creating even more pressure, compelling us to give up even more land and Israel's destruction becomes ominously tangible. Not only is the current leadership incapable of dealing with Israel's geo-political reality, it creates and exacerbates the problems!

The solution to the crisis is not dependant upon a particular leader or political party. It is dependant upon a completely different leadership consciousness. There is only one possible source for the needed moral-spiritual change: Jewish consciousness.

Jewish consciousness does not mean religious consciousness. It means Jewish identity, Jewish faith, cultural values and morals. It means Jewish historical awareness, knowledge of our Jewish roots, Judaism's sources and destiny. Without these we will not find significance and thus will not have the strength for the struggles that our nation still must face. The same applies to all aspects of life in Israel; education, society, culture, economy and more. If we understand that classical Zionism is spent and that Israel needs a new consciousness to continue to develop, the only realistic alternative is classical Jewish consciousness.

The Political Move

Manhigut Yehudit was established in 1996 precisely to create leadership based on Jewish consciousness. Our goal is not to achieve sectoral gains. Our goal is to lead the entire Nation of Israel. That is why Manhigut Yehudit joined the political party that most faithfully represents the entire nation: the Likud. The Likud is a democratic, national, political tool that allows people representing a rainbow of nationalist views to become members and to democratically influence the party. As a national leadership party open to traditional Jewish content, the Likud is the most relevant political home for the realization of Manhigut Yehudit's goals.

Our goal is important. But the means to achieve it are important as well. Every time that we run in the elections, more and more people are exposed to the fact that Israel sorely lacks Jewish leadership. The idea has caught on and we have no doubt that the Nation of Israel will soon merit worthy leadership that deals with reality instead of denying it, leadership rooted in Jewish values, leadership that is politically independent. In short, authentic Jewish leadership.

Israel's current leadership, both Right and Left, is quickly collapsing. Manhigut Yehudit's answer is the only authentic solution to the problem. That is why we are confident that the question is not if we will win. The question is only when.

In last week's primaries, we doubled our strength in the Likud . One quarter of the Likud membership voted for leadership that believes in G-d, the Land of Israel, the Nation of Israel and Jewish values. That is a tremendous achievement. The fact that there are forces fighting so hard to eliminate us shows that we have focused on the source of the problem and are on the right path.

Although the primaries are behind us, this is not the time to rest. It is very likely that there will be Likud primaries once again before general elections in Israel. And in those primaries, we must double our strength once again -- and WIN!


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What Are You?

By Moshe Feiglin

11 Cheshvan, 5764
November 6, 2003


Translated from Moshe Feiglin's book, "The War of Dreams."

question markI once went into a synagogue in the U.S. to pray the afternoon prayers.

"Where are you from?" the rabbi asked me.

"From Israel, of course," I answered.

"Why 'of course'?" the rabbi asked.

"Because I am a Jew," I answered nonchalantly.

I am not from Israel because I am religious and not because I am a Zionist. I am from Israel like a Frenchman is from France. I am from Israel simply because I am a Jew.

"As a Religious Zionist, how can you work in the Likud?" an Arutz 7 listener once asked me.

"I am not a Zionist and I am not religious," I answered.

"So what are you?" the listener asked.

"A Jew," I answered.

"Fine." the listener said. "That's clear. We are all Jews. But after all, you are not secular and you are also not ultra-Orthodox!"

"Certainly not," I answered.

"Nu? So what is left?"

"I have a question for you," I said to him. Was King David a Zionist? Was he religious? Secular? Or perhaps ultra-Orthodox? What was he?"

The listener thought that I was trying to evade his question. He was not capable of thinking out of his label-covered box. I look like an observant Jew. I have a skullcap on my head, so to him, I am religious.

But in truth, the concept "religious" is borrowed from other cultures -- particularly Christian culture. It does not fit Jewish culture at all. The first person to use this concept was the wicked Haman. "And they do not abide by the religious precepts of the king," Haman said to King Achashverosh in order to justify his "final solution." It was Christianity that separated religion from life. It created the concept "religious" with the Western significance with which we are familiar.

But Judaism is not a religion. Judaism is a culture. It is a nation, a land, the Torah of Israel -- the entire spectrum of life in which observance of commandments is an essential part.

It is difficult for a person born into the concepts of "religious" and "secular" to think in other terms. But to better understand that other options exist, we can just look at cultures that do not rely on the Western/Christian thought pattern. For Sephardi Jews (Jews from Eastern countries) for example, the concepts "religious" and "secular" are not as unequivocal as for their Ashkenazi (Jews from Western countries) counterparts. There are those Jews who observe more commandments, there are those who observe less and it is not always clear who is "religious" and who is "secular." These definitions just don't easily apply to them.

So what are these Jews? Religious or secular? And maybe it is not really fair to ask that question? Maybe it is like asking a person if he is a cat or a rooster.

Israeli society will be forced to march toward a new/old consciousness. Two hundred years of secularization on the one hand and two thousand years of seclusion behind the walls of religion, on the other hand, must come to an end. In the reality being woven before our very eyes, these concepts are already becoming irrelevant.

The Rabbinical Courts should be part of the Justice Ministry, while a self-hating Jew like Tommy Lapid should not be in the Justice Ministry or in any other position of power. The Rabbinical Courts do not have to be "Rabbinical." But they do have to be Jewish. Those people who insist on being religious in some sort of Ministry of Religion -- religious outside of reality and outside of our familiar history -- will eventually disappear. Those people who insist on being secular and forcing lack of significance, lack of rationality and their dreams of assimilation onto Israel's history will also become irrelevant and disappear.

In order to survive, we must establish a Jewish State. To do that, we must go back to being simply Jews. When that happens, the concept of "Israeli-ness" will be redeemed from its current neuter state. Then we will be able to once again be the children of Israel -- authentic Israelis.



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Friday, August 17, 2007

Eradicating God, Hidden Spaces and the Tefillinists

By HaRav Nachman Kahana

Parashat Shoftim 5767
Part One: Eradicating God
Part Two: Concealed and Revealed (Hidden Spaces)
Part Three: I am not a Zionist


Part One: Eradicating God
The ritual goes like this: The leftist-secular majority of ministers in the government raise their hands in affirmation of a proposal to expel Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael.

An appeal is then brought before the Supreme Court in the hope that the decision will be judged illegal, to which the learned judges knee-jerk their consent of the legality of the decision.

The order is then passed down to the police who have the hands-on job of peeling away loyal Jews holding on for dear life to a kitchen table or to a pipe on the wall and hurling them as far as our burly border police and regular police can fling a human being.

The victims are unable to believe what is in store for them, that is, until they feel the hard crack of the police baton of their bodies.

We who believe in the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael will never forget nor will we ever forgive the uprooting of ten thousand Jews from an area of the tribe of Shimon, called Gush Katif, and the Northern Shomron, Chavat Gilad and Chevron. And so it will be, God forbid, with the other Jews whom the government, the Supreme Court and implementing forces will decide that the presence of Jews in parts of Eretz Yisrael are hindering the understanding with our peace loving Islamic Hizbullah and Hamas and just plan Achmed and Fatima good neighbors.

The Torah begins "Shoftim ve’shotrim" - the nation is required to appoint judges who make the judicial judgments and the police who implement them, who will serve as the basis of the social contract between those who govern and those who are governed in a civilized manner.

Judges and police are the show cases of a society. If one wishes to learn of the Spanish government in the 15th century, let him review the decisions of the auto de fe and those who implemented the torture and murder. To study the Nazi regime one need not do more than research its judges and the Gestapo. The Soviet government’s soul can be bared when reading the judicial decisions and the protocols of the NKVD - today's KGB.

The democratic philosophies of the American elders receive their reality in the judicial decisions and the manner they are implemented by the police.

One cannot escape the inevitable question: what makes the Israeli leftist politicians, academics, judges and law enforcement agencies scurry around in frenzy to escape behind what Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz borders" of the pre 1967 War?

On the surface they are mad. We all know that an area which is empty of Jews and tzahal becomes Hamastan land. Doesn’t the Israeli left see the missiles and rockets falling on Kfar Saba and indeed on Ben Gurion Airport? Is their intelligence so miniscule that the Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Foreign Ministers together don’t understand what every "man on the street" knows?

No! They are not handicapped mentally although they are totally crippled spiritually. Let me explain.

The thrust of the media is to emphasis the Shoa at the same time to bring about the character assassination of the holy people who have settled in the area liberated in the Six Day War - and both for the same reason.

No thinking person, with or without military background, can explain our unprecedented victory in the Six Day War. It was obvious that the hand of God was at work saving Yitzchak from annihilation at the hands of Yishmael.

As an aftermath of the six days of fighting, the area under Jewish control on Shabbat was more than three times larger then on the previous Monday, when the war broke out, including the re-unification of Yerushalayim.

Wars are not won in six days - it takes longer to bring troops, weapons food etc., into position to wage a battle. In our six days, the Biblical land of Israel on the western side of the Jordan River reverted to the control of its legitimate owners, the People of Israel.

The miraculous nature of the war and its result brought to light, once again, that God is the God of the People of Israel with whom He maintains a special relationship non existent with any other humans in the world. One could say that the war and its outcome were the most apparent appearance of the Creator in Jewish affairs since the destruction of the Bet Ha’Mikdash 2000 years ago.

The lessons of the war were not lost on the secular Jew here. It came across loud and clear, that if God is what Judaism has claimed for 3500 years - the God of Israel - then the Torah and its demands are incumbent upon every Jewish man and woman.

The thrust of the Israeli secular left is to disprove the lessons of the war, and to show that even if there is a God He is not the God of Israel by eradicating every semblance of historical change wrought by the war. If they can cause the land to revert back to the Arabs through negotiations or unilateral retreat, then the war was the result of a better army but not because there is a God of Israel.

Moreover, if there is a God of Israel, where was He at the time of the Shoah?

So the Israeli secular have engraved on their flag the giving away of all the Shomron, Yehuda, Gaza and the Golan even to the lowest bidder and emphasizes the tragedy of the Shoah in order to serve their anti-God agenda.

But the story does not end here.

The secular Israeli left deny that the Six Day war was the revealed hand of HaShem in the affairs of the modern State of Israel. But they have ready partners in this negative belief.

Does the Hareidi community here or any where in the world, believe that it was the hand of HaShem saving His people in Eretz Yisrael. Do they recite Hallel with a bracha on the anniversary of the war?

Do you, dear reader in the galut believe it was the hand of HaShem? Does your rabbi or rosh yeshiva believe it? Do they speak of the miracles which happen daily in Eretz Yisrael?

It would appear not. Because one who believes the hand of HaShem is at work here in Eretz Yisrael, would naturally wish to join in experiencing the miracles.

Politics, it is said makes "strange bedfellows."

One need not make an active effort to eradicate the results of the Six day war in order to be included in the camp of the Israeli secular left, to be part of them it is sufficient to be indifferent, blase, aloof, unmoved, disinterested, unconcerned or apathetic towards the ongoing struggle to maintain the liberated areas.


Part Two: Concealed and Revealed (Hidden Spaces)
To keep a secret is one of the underpinnings of society. Attorneys are obligated to conceal admitted acts of "indiscretion" by a client, as well as physicians before whom a patient reveals the external and internal trappings of his body, and kal ve’chomer rabbis before whom people reveal their souls.

But the ultimate curator of secrets is the Almighty himself, who knows our deepest conscious and sub-conscious thoughts. When Yehosua asks who stole from the booty taken from the City of Yericho, Hashem replies, "Am I an informer!" And what better proof does one need then the fact that Hashem has not revealed himself openly since He spoke to Malachi, last of the prophetic period, 2500 years ago!

In this weeks parsha, as in last week’s, Hashem zealously conceals the location of the future bet hamikdash, by referring to it as "there" and "in that place". And although it was known that Mount Moriah was where Avraham bounded up (akayda) his son, Yitzchak, in preparation for being offered as a korban, it was not necessarily the place of the public Bet Hamikdash. It would take another 400 hundred years before David and Shmuel, the prophet, sat in the yeshiva in Naot, and based on certain halachic guidelines concluded that the place of the mikdash was Mount Moriah, har ha’bayit. And only then did Hashem appear to them confirming their conclusions.

The Rambam in Moreh Ne’vuchim suggests three reasons for Hashem’s non-disclosure of the future place of the Bet Hamikdash. For had it been known then: 1) the nations of the world would have united to prevent the Jewish nation from attaining possession of the area; 2) they would have physically destroyed the mountain, as was attempted by the evil Roman, Hadrian (Adrayanus) when he plowed up the Temple Mount and spread salt on it so nothing would ever live there again; 3) the tribes of Yisrael would have fought a civil war over who would be the custodians of the holy place.

On Shabbat we recited Birkat Ha’chodesh announcing the arrival of the new month of Elul. The next time we will announce the new month will be for the month of Mar Cheshvan. We do not announce the arrival date of the month of Tishrei, as chazal learned from the verse, "Te’ku ba’chodesh shofar be’keseh le’yom cha’gay’nu" - sound the shofar at the time of our concealed holyday" - Rosh Ha’shana.

It is possible to explain the reason for concealing the pending arrival of Rosh Hashana along the lines set down by Rambam regarding the Temple Mount.

If the earthly bet din would declare the arrival day of rosh hashana, then the angels whose function it is to prosecute sinners would attempt to prevent the mitzvot of Am Yisrael from appearing before the heavenly court (Arachin 8b). Other angels who are appointed to care for the 70 nations of the world would attempt to destroy the good works of Am Yisrael. And if these things would happen, there would be deadly strife among Am Yisrael with each group blaming the other for the punishments wrought against us. The Satmarites would blame the Tzionim for the holocaust because of their attempts to bring the Jewish nation back to Eretz Yisrael, and the Tzionim would blame heaven’s fury on those elements who held back so many Jews from returning home.

Now since there is "nothing new under the sun", as stated by Shlomo ha’Melech (Kohelet 1,9) these three reason are active today in all their virulence and vehemence. The members of the un-United Nations are united in one thing - their enmity and hostility to the Jewish people. This is expressed in their repeated condemnations and threats to the miniscule State of Israel, while oblivious to the background "music" of millions of people so cruelly massacred in all parts of the world.

They don’t hate Jews, they just oppose Israel’s occupation of a foreign country, which just for the record never existed. But like an anti-Semite said in a moment of lucidity, "I don’t believe Jesus ever lived but I believe the Jews killed him."

The code word which refines this insane, unexplainable hatred towards Am Yisrael making it more palatable for their super sensitive consciences is "Yerushalayim". The Christians hate the Moslems and vice versa yet despite their inability to concur on any issue, there is one to which all agree - Yerushalayim does not belong to the Jews. But what they really mean is that we do not belong in Eretz Yisrael.

While reading this, I am sure that you are thinking of the perfidious French, the treacherous British and hostile United Nations. All true! But, dear reader, are you aware of the fact that of all the countries in the world with whom the United States maintains diplomatic relations, there is only one city in which there are two US consulates - Yerushalayim. The US does not recognize Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel, so they maintain one consulate in west Yerushalayim and another in the eastern part.

The second reason of the Rambam that the Gentiles would destroy the city rather than permit the Jews to be its sovereign is in full force today. The Moslem Wakf, caretakers of the Temple Mount, are in the process of extracting unknown tons of soil containing Jewish articles from under the ground. They know full well that the creation of these empty spaces are endangering the entire platform of the mount, as testified by the weakened southern and eastern walls. Yet they go on undaunted in their "holy" crusade to destroy all vestiges of our presence on the Temple Mount.

And the third reason of the Rambam, that Hashem did not disclose the place of the mount lest the Jewish people indulge in fratricidal hatred, is also present. There are those who would fight for the right to ascend the Mount and pray. And those who scream "kares, kares" to all who would take a step on it (this is sheer ignorance, but I will leave this for another time).

The reality of our lives today is that Yerushalayim will assume an ever greater role in the consciousness of the world. The Temple Mount, G-d’s little acre, will become the focal point for the evolution of peoples and nations now and for all time. If Hashem, in His ultimate wisdom, saw fit to conceal the place which connects this world and the next, then today Yerushalayim is the unveiled, revealed, manifest, fulcrum of mankind, according to which all peoples will be marked, as stated by the prophet, Zecharya 14,17:

"And those of the family of nations who will not ascend to Yerushalayim to bow before Hashem the King, they will be punished with famine (and death)".

The conclusion from all this is brutally simple: A Jew who wishes to be part of G-d’s great design in this world, let him come up to Eretz Yisrael where life has substance and meaning for eternity.


Part Three: I am not a Zionist

The month of Elul will begin on Wednesday. There is a saying in the "yeshiva world" that every month of the year should have an aspect of Elul (introspection and repentance), and certainly the month of Elul should be Elul.

Events of the past year (the war in Lebanon, corruption in government, etc.) have come together to create a national mood of introspection, with one of the primary objects under the public microscope being the mass media.

It seems that no matter what happens, their leftist outlook prevents the media from getting anything right.

A "catchy" headline in the paper of several months ago caught my attention. It read, "The Last Zionist", relating an incident which occurred then at Ben Gurion Airport.

A religious man, who lives in Yerushalayim, passed through customs and entered the arrivals hall.

He suddenly turned around and requested to return to the customs inspector. He told the inspector that he had brought in a camera but was not charged the tax according to law. The inspector told him that he had detected the camera; but since the tax was only 180 shekels, he decided that the paper work was not worth his time.

To the astonishment of the inspector, our arrivee was adamant that they accept payment for the camera. The man then explained that the government does so much for the people, that it is our obligation to contribute to the expenses. He then quoted a ruling of HaRav Elyashiv shelita, regarding what a woman should do who had purchased a refrigerator without the store charging her the value added tax. The Rav told her that she must go back, inform them of the oversight and pay the tax.

The headline of this item was, as I stated, "The Last Zionist".

Now for the real story behind the story.

What the gentleman did was not an act of Zionism, and HaRav Elyashiv’s decision was not based on Zionism, and contrary to what some people think, I am not a Zionist!

The man who insisted on paying the tax also keeps Shabbat, as do you, dear reader and I; but because of that are we called Shabbatians?

We wear tefillin daily. Does that make us Tefillinists?

We keep kosher. Does that make us Kosherists?

We are Jews, and Jews follow Hashem’s Torah. Shabbat, tefillin and kashrut are three out of the 613 mitzvot, as is living in Eretz Yisrael - although the mitzva of living in Eretz Yisrael is qualitatively equal to the sum of all the other mitzvot, as stated in Sifray, parshat Re’ay chapter 80:

Residence in Eretz Yisrael is equal to all the other mitzvot of the Torah

I am in Eretz Yisrael for the same reason I keep Shabbat, kosher and put on tefillin - because it is Hashem’s will as dictated in the Torah.

I pay my taxes and drive carefully because that is the way of the Torah.

I served in the army, as do my sons and sons-in-law today, and as shortly my grandchildren will, because it is a mitzva to defend the Holy Land and not because we are Zionists.

Zionism began with Herzl. Our devotion to Eretz Yisrael began 3500 years ago on a hill in the Golan, when Hashem said to Avraham (Beresheet 15:18)

I have given this land to your descendants from the river of Egypt (the Nile) up to the great river of Prat (Euphrates).
Here the Holy Temple was built to connect the spiritual and material worlds; here the Sanhedrin defined the Halacha, and here the national character of Hashem’s chosen people was shaped.

The book of Devarim is called Mishna Torah, which means review or repetition of the mitzvot already stated in the previous four books. But it can justifiably also be called the Book of Eretz Yisrael, because the Land is the focal point of every parsha.

As part of our effort of introspection and repentance in Elul, ask yourself a small question. When was the last time your rabbi or rosh yeshiva prayed shmoneh esray in English? Or for that matter kriyat shema or birkat hamazon in English? You would certainly be correct to conclude that they never did and never will.

We pray shacharit, mincha and maariv daily for a total time of about two hours; to this add three birkat hamazon for another 15 minutes. So what we pray to Hashem takes up a little more than two hours daily. Now, how much time of the day do we spend in the land where we live? Obviously 24/7.

The universally accepted Shulchan Aruch states that one may pray in any language (orech chaim 62,2); and may recite kriyat shema in any language (orech chayim 101,2) and birkat hamazon in any language as well (orech chayim 185,1).

The same Shulchan Aruch who lived in Tzfat deals with the case (even haezer 75:4) where one of a married couple wishes to move to Eretz Yisrael and the other does not. The halacha stated there that refusal to go to Eretz Yisrael is grounds for divorce.

Your rabbi or rosh yeshiva would never contemplate praying two hours in the day in any other language except Ivrit, despite the halacha in the Shulchan Aruch that states it is permitted. But your spiritual leader in Chutz L’aretz permits himself to be in the galut 24/7 when the Shulchan Aruch lets it be known that such conduct is unacceptable (understatement).

Elul demands first and foremost honesty. To fool another person is a sin. But to fool oneself is insanity.

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Turning Enthusiasm Into Votes

feiglin votesThere is unmistakable enthusiasm for Moshe Feiglin in the streets. Anybody who wants to feel it is invited to put on a Manhigut Yehudit t-shirt and walk through the center of any Israeli town. You won't be able to get too far before people of all stripes stop you to talk about Feiglin. And the overwhelming majority of them are positive. They want the Jewish majority revolution that Manhigut Yehudit has been talking about. The question, of course, is how to make sure that this grass-roots support is translated into votes. Just because people stop someone wearing a Feiglin t-shirt on the street does not mean that Feiglin will get their vote. It is, however, an excellent starting point.
The media coverage that the primaries provided has gotten the Manhigut Yehudit message into virtually every household in Israel. Now is the time to personally reach out to the Nation of Israel with Manhigut Yehudit's message. That is the way to turn enthusiasm into votes. There is no time to lose and it is important to maintain our primaries momentum. Let's get to work!
Manhigut Yehudit needs your help now more than ever. You can also help create the Jewish majority revolution. Now is the time to support Manhigut Yehudit. Click here for our on line secure donation form. If you are in Israel, now is the time to volunteer to help. For more information, call (Israel) 02-996-1123.

One Quarter and Rising!
arrow up
One quarter of the Likud members voted in Tuesday's primaries for belief based leadership. The fact that 40% of the Likud members voted (the average for the last three primaries) means that the primaries were a basically accurate reflection of the current Likud voting public. As the Likud is a microcosm of the Israeli public, we can safely assume that at least one quarter of the Israeli public understands that Israel needs a belief based revolution and is willing to vote for it.

One quarter! Not a few settlers, not the religious, not the secular, not one fringe sector or another. One quarter of Israel's population, although subjected to a smear campaign against us, connected to our message and voted for Jewish leadership.

And that is a great achievement. When we remember how we began, with a few articles in a weekly newsletter handed out in a few synagogues; when we remember how people accused us of being nothing more than dreamers, and when we see how our message has now become obvious reality to one quarter of Israel's populace, we feel tremendous fulfillment.

We thank G-d for the awe-inspiring process that we have had the merit to initiate and escort. Clearly, we still have a long way to go. But this achievement renews our energy and motivation to continue to reach out to more and more people -- until we win!

I am filled with admiration for the absolutely phenomenal Manhigut Yehudit volunteers in Israel, the US and worldwide who courageously stood up to the antagonistic mechanism that attempted all the while to trample us. Without these wonderful people, we could never have reached this achievement. Brothers and sisters, you are truly the elite troops of the Nation of Israel. I thank you with all my heart. And if you thought that you can rest now, you are wrong. We have lots of work ahead of us!

Moshe Feiglin


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So How Many People Came?

By Moshe Feiglin

As the polls closed Tuesday night in Haifa, the poll chairwoman eyed the two official observers suspiciously. "You're pulling my leg, aren't you?" she half stated, half asked.

"How could it be? The Feiglin representative is an obviously non-observant, veteran Likud woman, while the Bibi representative is obviously a Religious Zionist, who has spent the entire night in dread that Feiglin will get more than 30% of the vote! What is going on here?"

The chairwoman put her finger on a very interesting phenomenon. While the general public -- the people who make up the Jewish majority -- is open to Manhigut Yehudit's belief based message, many Religious Zionists seem to fear the leadership option. Why?

The following article, excerpted from Moshe Feiglin's book, "The War of Dreams" was written after a massive demonstration in January, 2001 protesting PM Ehud Barak's negotiations to cede part of Jerusalem to the Arabs.



Tevet, 5761
January, 2001

demonstrationOn the way home, I listened to the estimates. The organizers claim that there were 400,000 people there and the media talks about 200,000. Actually, what difference does it make? There was a huge crowd there, any way you look at it. The demonstration achieved its goal. Now it is clear to everyone that the vast majority of Israel's public is committed to Jerusalem, and that the idea to divide it belongs to a minority. I almost wrote a "marginal" minority, but my hand stopped. The minority promoting the division of Jerusalem is not marginal. Tue, it cannot bring out even a fraction of the public that came to our inspiring demonstration. Nevertheless, the massive crowd at the demonstration is "marginal" and the minority that wishes to relinquish Jerusalem to our enemies is central and determines the direction that our country takes. As moving as this week's demonstration was, it was no more than a blip on the screen. The forces leading Israel to its inevitable disintegration march on, unperturbed.


The demonstration highlighted the deep crisis that the Religious Zionist public is experiencing. A quick look at the sea of excellent people who gathered there revealed that there was almost no one who did not look religious. Nothing is wrong with that. On the contrary, we can be proud that the belief based public is leading this struggle. But the amazing thing was that the speakers on the stage reflected the complete opposite: almost no one there looked outwardly religious. Not only that: The millions of shekels that were spent to organize the demonstration came from religious sources. The advertisement for the demonstration, though, was the famous photo of the paratroopers standing in awe at the foot of the Temple Mount. The central paratrooper in that photo, Dr. Yitzchak Yifat had declared years ago that the liberation of the Western Wall was not worth the price that we paid.


We are undoubtedly the majority. We proved that this week. But after the demonstration, we returned home and when we finished feeling exhilarated by the vast amounts of people who were there, the Left was still in power. Not only that; the Left will continue to be in power even after Sharon wins the elections. It will continue to lead and if we don't wake up, it will tear Jerusalem from us. Why? Because we have not managed to stand on our own two (leadership) feet.

For us, being Israeli means not being religious. It means being just like the paratrooper who does not understand why we had to pay such a price. We have not yet had the wisdom and responsibility to fashion an alternative "Israeliness." The Left has designed our national symbols and culture. And as long as we are culturally captive to the Left, we will necessarily reach the Left's conclusions.

We desperately attempt to convince the nation that we are right. But we use the old, secular symbols that have left us all disappointed. The people who came to the demonstration were by and large religious. But the demonstration's organizers tried to portray the participants as extras in a movie whose stars are authentic Israelis. That is a lie.

Why doesn't the belief based public stand up on its own two feet? Why doesn't it break the rhythm of the pendulum as it oscillates between two bad options?

The answer is that Religious Zionism draws its legitimacy from secular Zionism. For the traditional Religious Zionists, the current "Right wing" politicians are the only connection available between the Religious Zionist ideology and secular Zionism. If the Religious Zionists reject them, it will then be disconnected from both the Left arm of Zionism and its Right arm. Religious Zionism sees itself as nothing more than a spice for the main course. And if the main course is rejected, there is no reason for the spice.

The Religious Zionists are not willing to get up and say, "We are the country! We are the unifying factor of the entire Jewish majority in Israel! We are the new leadership vanguard!"

When the Religious Zionist public stops serving secular Zionism, unites the Jewish majority and leads, it won't need to count how many people came to demonstrations anymore.

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Sunday, August 12, 2007

No Pushovers

By Moshe Feiglin

Menachem Av, 5767
August, '07
Translated from the article in the Makor Rishon newspaper.
soldiers gush katifAnd what did you think? That there wouldn't be draft evasion?

When you organized the peace rally in the square and Rabin and Peres hugged the great, leftist draft dodger Aviv Gefen -- what message did you think you were sending Israel's youth?

And when you hugged the head of the Organization to Liberate Palestine (from us) -- in other words, when you adopted the justice of our enemy's claims -- what did you think? Did you think it would motivate our youth to enlist?


And when you degraded, scorned, expelled and destroyed the very people who -- more than anyone else -- embodied love of our land and self-sacrifice for it, what message did you think you were sending to the new recruits?

And when you totally confused them with an "ethical code" that maintains that the life of the enemy is more important than their lives, what did you think? That you were motivating them to fight?


And when, with "progressive enlightenment" you drafted women to combat units, what were you thinking? That only the enemy would stop taking you seriously? Did you really think that the soldiers would continue to respect the IDF?

And when you deleted the concepts "enemy" and "victory" from the army lexicon, did you think that you could continue to rely on youthful energy alone?

And when, time and again, our sons put their lives on the line to capture terrorists and then you release them, what do you think? That they won't ask themselves why they should continue to risk their lives?


And when they discover that the guns that shot at them are Israeli weapons that the IDF supplied to the terrorists, what do you think that does to the soldiers who just "won" the battle? Do you think it motivates them to continue?

And when you elect a prime minister whose two sons dodged the draft and left Israel, what type of claims can you possibly make against other draft evaders?


And when you elect a president who declares that he hates history and that he is an "Israeli" whose battle is against the Jews, what do you think?


Are you looking for ambition? For lightening in the eyes? Are you looking for youth with motivation to enlist? Then start telling the kindergarten children about Abraham. Teach them how to say the quintessential Jewish verse, "Shema Yisrael." Most of today's soldiers do not know the rest of the words of this verse, which, for over 3,000 years, supplied the Jewish People with all the energies and ambitions they needed. Take the school children on a class trip to Jerusalem, Hebron, Rachel's Tomb, Shiloh and Shechem. Take them to Joshua's altar on Mt. Eval. Open the Bible and let them connect to their forefathers, who lived here 3300 years ago. Teach them what a special nation we belong to. Connect them to their heritage, their culture, their nation and their homeland. Explain what a tremendous tradition they perpetuate. Explain what they are fighting for. Then you will see their ambition!

But you don't want to do that. You want to disengage -- from the Land and the people faithful to it, from history, from your identity, from your faith and from everything that justifies our presence in the land. And then you want to be protected by the self-sacrifice of the youth. But there is a limit to how much you can rely on the natural will of every young person to give and to be part of the common effort. At a certain point, he will no longer be interested. And now we have reached that point.

Israel's youth are not pushovers. If you don't have serious answers, they won't enlist.

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Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Transferring (Jewish) Identity to the Enemy

Destroying the Jewish life and existence in Hebron (Chevron) means the transfer of Jewish National Identity to Islam.

By Tsafrir Ronen—August 5 2007

(Translated from Hebrew)

We must ask Manny Mazuz, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert and the entire Left: do they want to destroy the Jewish existence and the Jewish spirit in Hebron (Chevron)? Tell us the truth. Uprooting two Jewish families is not the real objective. Even a child knows that the objective is to destroy the existence of the Jewish Nation in Hebron will be followed by the destruction and existence of the Jewish Nation in its historical—Eretz Yisrael—Land of Israel. This is the real meaning of the crusade that Mazuz, Barak and Olmert embarked on the Jews in Hebron. There is no other significance or meaning.

After all, there is no property dispute we are speaking about. The property belongs to the Sephardic Jews, given to those who renewed Jewish life in Hebron. While the European governments are returning properties that belong to Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, in Israel, in Hebron the place where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the nation’s Forefathers who granted us the nation, are buried, precisely here the Israeli judicial establishment is fighting to destroy Jewish existence.

If, as a nation, we do not have the right to Hebron, than the entire world has the right to ask if, as a rule, what is our entitlement to Eretz Yisrael-the Land of Israel?

On the same very day when we mark seventy eight years to the devastating murder and robbing the Jews who lived in Hebron of their property under the sympathetic eyes of the British who encouraged the carnage, the Sodomizing, lunatic Israeli government decided, without a case or reason, to forcefully expel the Jews from Hebron. This act of expulsion is a violation of the agreement between the army and those renewing the Jewish life in Hebron and is nothing but a nasty, villain and foolish act. The Hebrew army is executing the destruction and the deportation of the Jews from the place that if not for it there would have been no Jewish Nation.

However, if it was simply wretchedness, so be it. One day there will be someone to bring to trial those who are busy destroying Zionism. But here we are speaking about historical and national destruction of the right of Jews to return to Zion. The destruction of the right of one hundred years ago that was named: the Zionist Movement.

The urge to destroy and the impulse to extinct Jewish existence is beyond all comprehension and is bordering total madness. The question is why?!

Here we need to approach the soul searchers and diagnose this mental illness. Why the Left is so hostile toward Hebron—the place without is we would have not been a nation? Why the Left organizations with their psychological terror focus so much on Hebron? After all, if it was not for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, buried in the Cave of Machpelah—the cave in Hebron, we would have not become a nation and the wonderful story of the ancient nation that survived till today would have not been written.

The Left must understand that if we give Islam, at our own free will, our national identity, the place where our Forefathers are buried, then with our own hands we will destroy our national determination. Who is the Jewish Nation without Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? We waited for 2000 years to return to Zion so that the Israeli army is ordered to destroy our presence and existence in Hebron? After all, we are not speaking about Roman, Byzantine, muslim, Mameluk or Ottoman army, but the Israeli army! Is there is greater insanity than that?!

What characterizes the nationalistic definition of a nation is its connection to its national symbols. If the Americans will give to Islam their Lincoln Memorial or the Statue of Liberty in New York to build a mosque there for the purpose of “making peace,” any child will say that the Americans have gone crazy and they are on the way to be destroyed as a nation. The Cave of Machpelah—the cave in Hebron defines the identity of not only of the Jews as a Nation but also the world’s entire civilization. Though the Cave of Machpelah belongs to us only and our Forefathers are buried there, it is clear to the entire Christian world that the way there is no New Testament without the Old Testament and without Abraham’s monotheism, that gave birth to the Hebrew faith and the Israeli Nation, there would be no Christianity. Without the Bible and the Bible Nation, without the Jewish Nation, its Bible and the Bible Land, there would be no Christianity. Handing out Hebron to the muslims means handing out our Bible Land to Islam and letting go of our deepest national identity and the recognition of our ownership to the Bible. Giving Hebron to Islam is murdering the soul and spirit of the Jewish Nation. Forcing to leave Hebron is an irreversible act of giving our national identity to the enemy.

If Hebron belongs to the muslim, then there is no more Jewish Nation. It is way beyond the two Jewish families that Barak, Olmert and Mazuz want to expel. It is a national catastrophe that will cast calamity on the future of the nation. These two families are not the pioneers representing themselves, rather, they represent millions of Jews all over the world and their uprooting is the uprooting of the entire Jewish Nation. This is the exact meaning!

The time has come to announce to Benny, Olmert and Barak that with their crazy and irresponsible actions the yare destroying the existence of the Jewish Nation in Eretz Yisrael-the Land of Israel. They are working to destroy the unwritten constitution of the State of Israel, which is Zionism. Without the Jewish Movement to return to Zion, the Zionist Movement, the State of Israel would have not been established. Uprooting the families in Hebron is a symbolic act of uprooting the Jewish Nation from Zion. The meaning of uprooting the Jewish existence from Hebron is the destruction of Jewish identity of Hebron. It is not a matter of law enforcement act, as the government is attempting to present and drug the nation with, in the most vile, national demonization propaganda, rather an act that stands against the Return to Zion Movement, against the Zionist Movement. This is an act that sticks a knife in the existence of the Bible, in the Land of the Bible, where our story was written, where our kings ruled, where our prophets spoke their Prophecies, where our spirit was formed and to where we yearned for two thousand years.

The time has come to say loud and clear that we no longer recognize them as a legitimate government. They do not represent the yearning of generations to return to Zion nor the Jewish nation in the Diaspora. They are no longer Zionists and with their actions to destroy the Jewish existence in Eretz Yisrael-the Land of Israel, they exclude themselves as part of the Nation of Israel.

We will not allow you to go on. Your actions are a declaration of war against the Jewish Nation in Israel and the Diaspora. The act of uprooting two families from Hebron from building that was built by the Jordanians on the ruins of the homes of murdered, raped and expelled Jews is severe and horrific. It is not about two families only. With your actions you say that you will not allow Jews to live in Hebron. You will not allow Hebron to ever gain its Jewish identity but you will allow the Arabs, who are freely and clearly building a political structure its goal is to put an end to the possibility of Jews setting roots in the Land of Judea. With your actions you joined the Arab enemy that is coming to annihilate the Jewish existence in Eretz Yisrael-the Land of Israel and this is how history will remember you. With your actions you have turned to be the greatest enemy of the Zionist Movement its meaning is the return of Jews to Zion.
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Why Now?

By Faige Lobel
Director of Public Relations, Manhigut Yehudit USA

Sometimes it’s a good idea to ask, “Why now?”

Two families with fourteen children have just been evacuated from their homes in the former Hevron marketplace, and the resources of the entire state were used to accomplish it. Why just now?

The government did not want to reach a peaceful solution. In a giant, disproportionate show of force, young teenage demonstrators were beaten and arrested. Why precisely now?

The same thing could have been done last week or the week before. Or it could just as well have been postponed for another two weeks. Why would it matter to the authorities, one way or the other? Was there some pressing reason why it was done just now – exactly one week before the Likud Primary election?

The Likud primary might not seem to be a motivating factor in the evil thoughts of Ehud Olmert. He’s surely more concerned with his world image, with making a good impression. He is having “important meetings” with terrorist Mahmoud Abbas. A violent evacuation of settlers from their homes in Hevron, a confrontation with idealistic teens – Amona-style – would demonstrate his loyalties.

The prime minister has a left-wing agenda to carry out. It’s unlikely that he is even thinking about the internal politics of the Likud. (Not even his own 1% rating in the polls seems to disturb him.) How can it be suggested that the evacuation was deliberately, intentionally, purposely carried out exactly a week before the Likud primaries? That’s absurd, isn’t it?

Not necessarily.

We tend to think of Likud politics as being just that, a matter of politics. But something far larger is happening in this year’s primary. The Likud is being offered, not just another right-wing nationalist candidate, but a G-d fearing candidate – a Torah Jew. And Olmert likes that idea even less than Bibi. When Moshe Feiglin will be successful, please G-d, the entire nation will be offered a belief-based alternative.

So it would not be surprising if Olmert were taking his own actions against the candidacy of Moshe Feiglin. The teenagers beaten and arrested may be the children of Feiglin’s most active supporters. Just at the time when their parents are needed to visit Likud members, to transport voters to the polls, to observe the voting – trying to keep things honest – that’s when the children are attacked. That’s when the attention of the country is diverted from the upcoming primary vote.

There is a strong possibility that the parents of the children who were beaten and arrested may be busy this week, attending to the pressing needs of their children. That may impact negatively on the number of available volunteers at a very crucial point in the Feiglin campaign.

If the number of volunteers is not to be diminished, and the last minute campaigning is not to be neglected, additional supporters must come forward. They are needed right now.

Belief-based victory is the only real answer to evacuations and beatings. Only Jewish leadership that will lead the country and the people in a Jewish direction can root out the evil that we see in the present government. Why now? Because the opportunity is at hand, right now.
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Sunday, August 05, 2007

Dear Bibi And Caroline

By Jason Gold

Dear Bibi and Caroline:

Bibi:
I could say I am disappointed but definitely not surprised. I had hoped that after the last Likud primaries in 2005, you would fight a fair race this time. I had hoped that you would not resort to your usual assortment of dirty tricks and hatchet men in order to try and win a position you have no business having. But I assume you are desperate. I assume you are breaking a sweat as you expected a cake walk to the head of the Likud only to find that Feiglin is giving you a real fight. Yes Bibi, you know you can only have validation if you crush Feiglin and watching your poll numbers slip 20 points in a week must be quite unnerving. This is despite bringing in Danny Danon as a ringer candidate to try and siphon votes off Feiglin while you watched him approach 30% of the vote in some polls.

Obviously your anxiety drove you to to hire a high-priced attorney to spew canards and falsehoods and file motions in the Likud court to have him removed from the ballot. When that failed, you went for the jugular and brought a motion to have Feiglin thrown out of the Likud while your high-priced shyster accused Feiglin of racism, or wanting a medinat halacha as well as other old lies. The irony of all this of course is that Feiglin is truer to the Likud charter than you will ever be. Did Feiglin give back Hebron? Did he propose bringing Jordanian troops into Yesha to "help" with the war against terrorism? Did he propose making more "painful concessions" in the name of a making a mythical peace that will never occur?

Yes, Bibi the people are beginning to realize that a candidate that is belief-based is essential to Israel's survival. So you bring out your hatchet people in hopes that through character assassination you won't have to deal with this phenomenon that is growing in front of your eyes. Yes, Bibi the Likud will once again be at the forefront of the leadership of Eretz Yisrael. But, we cannot be what you so glibly and naively aspire to in the title of your book, " A Place Among The Nations". That is not Israel's destiny. Israel's destiny is in front and apart from those nations. And if you a single ounce of Yahadut somewhere in you, perhaps you would also realize that you are not the leader of Gd's nation and land and would step aside.

Caroline:
Speaking of Bibi's hatchet people, it is perhaps the worst-kept secret in Israel that you are Bibi's mouthpiece. Why an obviously gifted writer with some insight would see so much in an empty self-serving failed leader is beyond me, but so be it. It is interesting however how close you are to the truth but like your precious Bibi, you are missing one key point. Since neither of you have any faith in you, you cannot possibly see any way out of Israel's current mess. In fact in your most recent column, you are ready to prostrate yourself at the feet of the nations of the world begging and pleading for them to come and save Israel. You drag Sharansky out of obscurity in order to get him to say that "Netanyahu is the only one with a realistic understanding of global realities and a true appreciation for the strength of Israeli democracy." Israeli democracy? Oh, you mean the Israeli democracy based on a socialist-style party system with no candidate accountability that has given birth to a corrupt thugocracy that has worsened with every secular belief-averse government? The same democracy that has consistently tried to crush religious Zionism? The same democracy where secular Zionism degenerated into the post-Zionist visions of Beilin, Peres, Tamir, Avinery, et al? Is that the democracy Sharansky was writing about in his ridiculous book "The Case For Democracy" that George Bush (whom you hate now but once loved? I just can't keep abreast of those mood swings of yours) used as his bible for the Middle East where he fantasized about Arabs embracing democracy? And you accuse Feiglin of living in a fantasy? No, dear what you twist and negatively spin when you say "What is striking about these primaries is the similarity between Feiglin and Barak and Olmert. Although Feiglin comes from the post-Zionist Right rather than the post-Zionist Left, like Barak and Olmert, he bases his post-Zionist vision for the country on fantasy. Whereas in Olmert and Barak's leftist visions Israel has no enemies, in Feiglin's vision, there is no outside world at all. There is no US administration. There is no European Union. There is no United Nations. There is no media. There is nothing. No worries. Feiglin will just tell the West and the Arabs to leave us alone because this is our land and it's our God given right to be here, and everyone will understand and no one will bother us anymore" is not quite accurate.

You see Barak and Olmert are indeed living in a faithless, Leftist-induced delusion that has grown old and tired as the people espousing it. Feiglin's point which you distort so well, is that there is nothing wrong with being strong, proud self-sufficient Jews in our own Gd given (yes, dear I know that Gd concept is painful to you) land. When that happens, the nations of the world, who already loathe us, will at least be forced to respect us and stop meddling in Israel's business. Your own lack of connection to the Jewish faith on any level prevents you from seeing this and so you fall into the same trap of Israeli "practica and pragmatica" to solve the country's problems, all the while failing to realize that you are on the same treadmill to oblivion as Olmert, Barak and your hero, Bibi.

Yes Caroline you can beam with pride that Bibi was a great finance minister. But that does not equal leadership. Bibi act I was a disaster and act II will be that and more. You rightly slam Olmert but you miss the point. Not only is Bibi "Sharon-lite", he is "Olmert-heavy." That's right, dear. You see, the country can't really afford a test of Bibi II because Bibi in office will give back Yesha so fast, the country's collective head will spin. He will do it better than Olmert because the secular right wing candidates in Israel always do the bidding of the left. It is inevitable. And then the same silly right-wing people that voted him in will make the government fall and so the left will come waltzing back in while all the while the so-called religious parties collect their government handouts and help enable this sick pathological state of events in the Middle East's thriving banana republic.

No Caroline, business as usual has to end. Open your eyes and see the truth. That means no more merry-go-round of corrupt incompetents ready to destroy Israel to appease whomever. No more glib but vacuous politicos to sell out the nationalist camp suckered into voting for them. Time to try a man of faith who as a first priority can get the secular and religious camps talking to each other while mending a sick educational system that as a primary step can attempt to explain to Israel's youth where we come from and why we have a right to exist securely in the land Gd promised us. Oh, and while you're at it, ask your hero if he can find the courage to have an honest debate with Moshe on the issues instead of running away and hiding. Yes Caroline, it is time for an Israeli leader that uses Gd's name in a sentence when talking about his candidacy and his plans for Israel's future. A future that really can't afford any more business as usual and the hatchet people who try to justify the existence of those who would.
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Thursday, August 02, 2007

Just Don't Take Responsibility

By Moshe Feiglin

Translated from the Hebrew article in the Makor Rishon newspaper.
Menachem Av 67
July, '07

leadership"They had better put up protective barriers around the houses here before tragedy strikes,' a resident of Kibbutz Karmiah complained last week after a Kassam rocket hit one of the kibbutz homes. The ordinary citizen has been trained to demand protective shielding. The concepts "enemy" and "victory" have been completely uprooted from Israel's vocabulary. So the only solution is more and more layers of protection. There is no Arab enemy -- just Arab terror, which we must somehow fight. The problem is that terror has no address. That is impossible. Terror means fear. Fear is the result of the enemy's actions.

We can only imagine what would have happened to the British if Churchill had explained to England's bombarded citizens that the purpose of the war was to stop airborne terror or to silence the Luftwaffe jets. If he had done so, London today would be a German city. It is reasonable to assume that before that, all of London's residents would have demanded protective barriers, just like the poor woman from Kibbutz Karmiah. But Churchill did not flinch. In his country's most difficult hours, he defined the goal of the war as victory over the Germans. The concepts "enemy" and "victory" were embedded deep in the English psyche and were a major factor in saving the free world.


Over the past year, 4300 Israelis have requested and received German citizenship. That is twice more than in the previous year. Most of the new German citizens are the descendants of the Jews who somehow managed to escape the German hell alive. These new citizens are in good company. Thousands more Israelis stand in lines to get passports from Poland and other European countries that just two generations ago murdered their parents and grandparents in cold blood.


The German consul explained that the upsurge in citizenship requests is mostly the result of last summer's war. Possibly the best name for that war is the War of Protective Shields. It was a war that Israel attempted to fight without the concepts of "enemy" and "victory." After Israel's defeat, many Israelis lost their faith in the invincible IDF and were troubled by an ominous feeling that there is nothing and no one left to fight for.


There is nothing left to fight for because when Rabin, Peres and Netanyahu shook the hands of the chairman of the Palestine Liberation (from the Jews) Organization, Israel effectively accepted the justice of the Arab claim on its land. And there is nobody left to fight for because Israel is trapped in the pincer of cynical and corrupt leaders who do not care if the State of Israel turns into a heap of ashes -- as long as they remain at the top of the heap.


The last remaining public that believes in this country and that has the faith, vision and creative energies necessary to take control and save Israel is the belief based public. That is precisely why this public is so persecuted and derided. The people at the top of the heap understand full well that the belief based public is the only true threat to their hegemony. No other sector threatens them -- not even the standard Right leadership. All of them have been trained long ago -- even if they have won the elections -- to serve the people at the top of the heap. The only potential for true change lies with the settlers. The general public was exposed to these high-quality people during the Expulsion and remembers them well. The general public knows that the belief based public is its life line.


And what about the belief based public? They are locked inside their own world, bruised, beaten and scorned. Most of them are not capable of raising their heads to see their great potential and the great responsibility on their shoulders. Instead of leading and saving Israel from its current leadership, they are busy just surviving. As long as they continue to do so, they will continue to enjoy the sympathy of the Left. The Left will support their demands for fair compensation for the Gush Katif residents and closing the police files of the Expulsion opponents. After all, famous TV personality already admitted that the Left expelled the settlers from their homes simply to teach them a lesson. The Left will help the settlers with everything they need. As long as they don't take responsibility and lead.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Catastrophic Studies

By Moshe Feiglin

Av, 5767
July, 2007
Translated from the "Yisraeli" daily newspaper.
Arab schoolteacherThis week, the Education Ministry authorized Israel's Arab schools to add studies of the Nakbah -- Israel's victory in the War of Independence, which the Arabs call The Catastrophe, to their curriculum. This fact is just one of a plethora of decisions of Israel's political and cultural elite that all point in the same direction. The Supreme Court justices chose not to sing Israel's national anthem in their swearing-in ceremony so as not to embarrass, G-d forbid, the Arab justices with their "Jewish soul." Israel's first Arab minister also refrained from singing the national anthem. And so, through its official representatives, Israel accepts the Arab claim on the Land of Israel.

If it is fine to teach in Israeli schools that the Jewish victory in the War of Independence and the establishment of the State of Israel were a catastrophe, that means that the State of Israel is merely an illegitimate and temporary phenomenon. Of course, these types of decisions are always sugar-coated with arrogant words about understanding the "other." This post-modern affliction threatens the very foundations of our existence here. We need not imagine what would have happened to the Jews in Israel if these "others" would have triumphed in the War of Independence.

The Arabs are not the problem with the Education Ministry's appalling decision. It is only natural that Israel's Arabs will identify with the Islamic jihad being fought against Israel and its Jews. The problem is with Israel's leadership elite -- its politicians, court system and media. This leadership sees the Arab claims as legitimate. With her decision, Education Minister Yuli Tamir -- one of the founders of Peace Now -- shows that she does not identify with the Jewish claim on the Land of Israel any more than with the Arab claim. For the current Israeli leadership, Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is but temporary, while the Arab reality here is eternal. With national leadership like this, their conclusion is logical and may, G-d forbid become reality.

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