Another Good Reason to Make Aliyah

Rav Yaakov Meidan on Disobeying Orders to Destroy Settlements

Rav Yaakov Meidan, one of the the Roshei Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion recently published a short article in the local Gush Etzion journal on the topic noted in the subject header. As he made reference to Moshe "Boogie" Yaalon's tell-all book on his service in the IDF, I found it that much more interesting reading. [I am currently in middle of the good parts of the book and hope to write a short piece on it when I finish it.].

He writes:

לאחרונה יצא ספרו של בוגי יעלון, ספר העוסק לא מעט בפרשת חורבן ההתיישבות היהודית בחבל עזה וצפון השומרון. התמונה המצטיירת ממנו על מבנה ההירארכיה בצה"ל בשנת ההכנה ל'התנתקות' היא תמונה קשה. הרמטכ"ל נעקף בידי גורמים אזרחיים המקורבים ל'צוות החווה' (ראובן אדלר ושות'), לדוב וייסגלס ולעומרי שרון, והם פנו ישירות למפקדים זוטרים ממנו אודות ניהול צה"ל באותם ימים. גם קידום אישים בצמרת צה"ל נעשה אז על בסיס דומה. לא תמכתי אז בסירוב לפקודה בשל מחירו. אך נזקם של תומכי הסירוב לחוסנו של צה"ל ולמקומו במדינה דמוקרטית היה משני, ואף פחות מכך, לעומת הנזק שנגרם לצה"ל ולדמוקרטיה מן הגורמים שהוזכרו בספרו של בוגי יעלון. אלו שהתריעו אז בריש גלי מפני נזקם של תומכי הסירוב, ומלאו פיהם מים על מה שנעשה בצמרת צה"ל באותם ימים (והדברים היו ידועים לכול כבר אז), נחשדו אצלי כמי שאין פיהם וליבם שווים, וכוונתם בגינוי תומכי הסירוב הייתה שונה.

I'm wondering if he includes his fellow Roshei Yeshiva in the above bolded statement.

At the time, Rav Aron Lichtenstein wrote a manifesto supporting the obeying of orders to destroy Gush Katif. One of the statements he wrote was:

ההנחות הנלוות – כי הכל נובע מקשר רשעים או אבדן פתאומי של "חכמת חכמיו"; שראש הממשלה וכמה משריו נפלו על הראש, ובגדו במורשתם ובמרעיהם, והחליטו להיפרד ממכורת אבות תמורת נזיד עדשים אישי או לאומי, פשוט מעליבות

Statements such as these were repeated by RAL over and over again as recorded in a book of discussions held at the Yeshiva regarding the disnegagement. Ironically enough, the above statement was the ONLY sentence removed from this essay when it was published in Haaretz. (Compare the paragraphs that begin קשה למצוא סימוכין הלכתיים לנקודה הראשונה ובסיס עובדתי לשנייה ). This only lends support to Rav Meidan's assessment that the corruption and lack of reasoned decsion making described by Gen. Boogie Yaalon in his book was well known even at the time - so much so that even the leftist editors of Haaretz did not want to embarrass such an esteemed Rabbi by including an absolutely ridiculous statement so disconnected from reality in an essay they were publishing on his behalf, when even they knew that Sharon was doing what he was doing so as to save his political future and keep his family out of jail - just like Boogie writes in his book.

I hope to write a bit more about Boogie's book when I finish reading it. Even if Rav Meidan will grant Rav Aron Lichtenstein a pass at being included amongst the people he describes as being less than intellectually honest about their reasons for speaking out against disobeying army orders, I certainly hope that he passes his copy of the book on to RAL to read, and then leaves a copy in the Yeshiva - in the Beit Midrash and not the teaching college library. If you're going to create p'sak halacha which rely upon the assessments of the security establishment and the government, then books such as these from high-ranking members of the security establishment that deal with these issues and how the decisions are reached by said establishment should be placed next to the Chiddushei HaGra"ch, Gri"m and Gri"d Soloveitchik, not amongst the academic works downstairs.

BB

I always knew the day would come

Plenty of cheap housing available in Mitzpe Ramon.

Amid recession, Americans eye aliya
Dec. 7, 2008ALLISON HOFFMAN, jerusalem post correspondent, new york , THE JERUSALEM POST
Ely Cole, a 25-year-old accountant from Columbus, Ohio, says he always dreamed of moving to Israel but worried about leaving his high-paying New York job before he'd established a career for himself.
Now, that job is gone, and Cole is on his way to the Jewish state, joining a wave of returning Israelis and new immigrants fleeing the dismal economic outlook in the US.
"It's a bit of a relief to be laid off instead of quitting - I'm not second-guessing myself," said Cole, who was let go two weeks ago from a New York hedge fund. "Having the push is beneficial."
Cole will join his sister, who made aliya last year, and begin looking for work in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem once he has completed ulpan.
Cole was among more than a half-million Americans who lost their jobs last month, and economists predict that three million more could be unemployed in the coming year.
The job losses, initially centered in the hard-hit financial industry, are beginning to spread through the economy, touching everyone from lawyers to book publishers to independent business owners whose holiday sales expectations have nearly evaporated.
When pressed what opportunities they hoped to find in Israel, considering that the economic crisis is also affecting Israel and could get worse there, they did not mention specific job plans but expressed optimism that something would work out.
"People who aren't even affected are saying, 'I just feel like I shouldn't be spending money right now' - they're afraid to buy," said Leah Zeira, who left her teaching job last year to help her Israeli husband, a jewelry maker who has been in New York for a decade, manage his business.
The pair had scheduled a trunk show (in which vendors present merchandise directly to store personnel or select customers) on September 25, investing in advertising and food, only to find that friends and clients canceled at the last minute.
"We're getting by, but not much - there's just a limit to how long we can weather the storm," said Zeira, 28, who is expecting their first child.
She cited the cost of raising a child in a Jewish way - from paying for private school to buying kosher food - as a key factor behind the move.
"The cost of living is so much cheaper in Israel," she said. "We've always wanted to move, but we've never been able to pinpoint when to go, and now I just don't know how we're going to make it here."
Sami Zeira said he was exploring moving his workshop to Israel, where they could be near his family, but was concerned about being able to continue selling his finely wrought gold earrings, rings and bracelets through his Web site and in American department stores.
"It's scary - I've spent 10 years building my business, and I have to make sure I can pick it up and move it," he said.
The Jewish Agency and the Absorption Ministry have responded with a series of employment conferences across North America, set to begin Sunday in New York, promoting tax incentives for new immigrants and returning Israelis, education grants and job opportunities.
Additional job fairs will be held in Boston, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Miami, Washington and Montreal.
The agency has seen a sharp uptick in queries since September, when the failure of Lehman Brothers triggered a chain of events that has left the American economy frozen.
"The economic crisis has spurred increased interest in employment opportunities in Israel," said Liran Avisar, the agency's aliya liaison in New York.
One New Yorker whose job offer from an investment bank was rescinded just as he was graduating from Yeshiva University this fall said he and his wife considered moving to the West Coast or to Texas - both far from their families on the East Coast - before deciding to make aliya.
"I realized I would probably have to leave New York, because it's such a bad market, and once we were looking at relocating we decided we may as well just move to Israel now," said the 25-year-old, who asked that his name not be used.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702451462&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull[ Back to the Article ]
Copyright 1995- 2008 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/

Religious Jews and the Oslo Syndrome MCMXXII

Tzivia Greenfield was sworn in as an MK for Meretz replacing Yossi Beilin.

What else can I say?

Here's what Ze'ev Gailili has to say about her anti-semetic book that was funded by the EU

Yossi Ben-Aharon on Dithering Rabbis

My friend BarKochba132 was kind enough to alert me to an interview with Yossi Ben-Aharon who served as Director General of the Prime Minister's office under PM Yitzchak Shamir and is a veteran of decades of service in the Foreign Ministry. He explains how the whole corrupt leadership of the State of Israel sold out the national interests for their own benefit. He also is critical of the Yesha leadership and the religious rabbinical leaders.

This interview, found in one of the pamphlets distributed weekly in many synagogues around Israel, (and available online for download as .PDF here) is important because Yossi Ben-Aharon worked with ALL of these people intimately and knows them personally. It is not just someone foaming at the mouth.

A quote (translation mine):

"We could have stopped the disengagement. The Yesha leadership simply failed completely. When we were at Kfar-Maimon we should have left and marched towards Gush Katif, and then we could have stopped it. Another thing - there is great disappointment from the Rabbis: They should have been at the forefront of the camp, united as one, and say to every soldier in the IDF that this is an act that cannot be done. Unfortunately, they became alarmed and became attached to all sorts of hackneyed excuses, and invented all sorts of new ethical values that should bind us.

"It was possible to stop Arik Sharon. It starts with the IDF Chief Rabbi Yisrael Weiss and extends to the entire structure that cooperated, instead of telling Sharon 'Go find someone else to uproot bodies and destroy synagogues.' "

Why I loved Today's Headline

Here’s why I loved today’s headline in the free commuter paper that is handed out around town.

The front page (above) lists the offenses that Olmert is accused of with his scowl pictured next to each one. The offenses are as follows:

1) Fraud under aggravating circumstances
2) Breach of Trust
3) Violations of the Party Finance Law
4) Theft
5) Violations of the Tax Laws and the Gift Law
6) Money Laundering

Here’s what struck me. On most of these violations one could in theory come up with the argument that “all politicians do this sort of stuff” or that “we really can’t expect our political leaders to be squeaky clean”. But the accusation of THEFT is just beyond the pale.

To even suggest that one should obey the illegitimate orders given by someone who stole money from Yad Vashem or the Society for the Welfare of Soldiers is just beyond the realm of any type of reasonable rational thought. As Rabbi Dr. Haim Shine, writes in an op-ed in the same edition (translation mine):

"Seemingly we are commanded to believe the Prime Minister, who in the course of his day makes decision involving life and death issues. Without being able to believe the Prime Minister soldiers will not go to battle and civilians will not pay taxes. The cohesion of society and the anchor of of the democratic regime is the trust in the purity of the decision making process of the government."

Yes, the children’s skull-smasher of Amona, the one who cooked up the immoral, illegal transfer and expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif was caught with his hands in the till and stole money from Yad Vashem, Aguda Lemaan HaChayal and Aki"m – just like a petty common thief.

I’m saving this headline – next time a Rabbi tells me that we have to listen to the government I’m not going to say that the government is illegitimate – they have answers for that; I’m not going to say that the government is corrupt – they don’t feel that this should impact out decisions making process. I'm not even going to try and argue that obeying such immoral orders is bad for the fabric of society and bad for democracy - despite what Dr. Shine writes above, these Rabbis will always be of the opinion that civil disobedience and disobeying orders will rupture the cohesion of society

No, what I'm just going to do is show how the government is comprised of petty thieves who steal from holocaust victims, widows, orphans, injured soldiers and the developmentally disabled. And that's who these Rabbis are trusting with life and death decisions.

New Biography on the Founder of the Meimad Party

Elyashiv Reichner, a journalist at Makor Rishon, Nekuda and NRG/Yahadut has published a new biography on the Rosh Yeshiva of Har Etzion and Former Minister Without Portfolio in the short-lived Shimon Peres led government of 1995-1996, Yehuda Amital. You can read excerpted chapters here and here. According to the blurb on the book and Reichner's public statements, the purpose of the biography is to bring to our attention Amital's educational message which has long been ignored by Religious Zionism as a result of his left-leaning political views.

It is well worth reading Hagai Segal's succinct review of the book in his weekly column last week (middle article of the column). I agree with everything he writes. I do support independent thinking which is why I find it easy to criticize Rabbis - including Amital and his co-workers. Independent thinking goes both ways and Rabbis who support it should not hide behind the rabbinic mantle. I disagree, however, with Reichner's assessment that after 1996 Amital left politics - In the run-up to the 2003 general elections, Amital very visibly supported the campaign of Labor and Amir Peretz and was very visible in the media with Peretz at the Meimad Party conference (as you can see by the picture in one of the above links - again here). He did no such thing as "leaving politics" and for Reichner to claim otherwise is a simple misrepresentation and should be corrected in future editions of the biography.

Here's what Segal writes (translation is mine):

His Natural Place

Yair Lapid wrote last week that his father (Tommy Lapid – B.B.) was “the only minister in the history of the State of Israel who was a holocaust survivor”. With all due respect accompanied by condolences, he is mistaken. Aside from the head of the Shinui Party, there was at least one additional government minister who was a holocaust survivor, and even a fellow survivor of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry: Rav Yehuda Amital, Minister without Portfolio in the transitional government of Shimon Peres between the murder pf Rabin and the election of Netanyahu. It’s quite possible that Lapid Jr. forgot about him as a result of the inbred family hatred of anything rabbinical, but most likely its because Rav Amital’s tenure as a minister was short-lived and with minimal influence. He sat in the government for only a half year and did not leave behind him any type of ministerial heritage. Even the Rabbi himself regrets that adventure, as can be understood from his new biography - “Be’emunato”.

“I felt the entire time that this is not my natural place”, he admitted with intellectual honesty to his talented biographer, Eliashiv Reichner. It’s a pity he doesn’t publicly regret other adventures that are worthy of regret, if only for educational purposes. For example, his support of the Oslo Accords or his joining in the chorus demanding a commission of inquiry into the Sabra and Shattila event. Not an insignificant number of students and rabbis followed his lead and were caught up in the peace messianism of the left. Already in 1982, Chanan Porat, the person that invited him to establish a yeshiva in Gush Etzion, wailed about the “educational destruction” that Rav Amital’s political doctrine caused to the students. Instead of taking advantage of the new biography to admit a mistake, the Rabbi delivers the opposite message: “I was confident that the passage of time would prove me right” (pg 160).

This is a strange statement that proves there is “no righteous person in the land who will not sin” at times with shortsightedness. If the passage of time has indeed proven anything, it is rather only the errors of the Rosh yeshiva of Har Etzion: The Oslo suicide terror attacks, the Al-Aksa intifada, the falling in line of the Labor Party – his political partner – with the radical left, and of course the crushing electoral failure of his movement r.i.p., Meimad. It was even more pathetic than that of the Mafdal, which he singularly detested.

“The greatest insult was when they suspected that my love of the Land of Israel was defective”, the Rabbi states in attack of self-pity (pg 285). Did any serious authority ever really suspect that he does not love the Land of Israel? One cannot even attribute to Yossi Beilin or Yossi Sarid a shortage of love of the land without risking violating a Torah prohibition of falsely suspecting the innocent, so much more so when it comes to Rav Amital. The basis of the dispute between him and the rest of the Religious Zionist world was concerning the limits of the abilities of the Nation of Israel, not on love of the Land of Israel. For nearly his entire lifetime, from Budapest until Alon Shvut, he leaned towards spoiling the party, doubts and surrender. Already regarding the founders of Gush Emunim, who sought to draft him to their ranks in 1974, the Rabbi poured a bucket of cold water: "You are crazies; you have futile visions, you think that you are heavenly angles but you have no powers.” During the course of the passing years these futile visions turned into 150 flowering communities, but Rav Amital remains firm in his view.

It’s fair to guess that Yediot Acharonot publishing initiated writing the book because of his political positions, but nonetheless one has to bless the decision. Rav Amital is, after all, a fascinating rabbinical manifestation. The study hall is in need of Torah giants such as him, those who refuse to go with the trend. Would it be that all budding Jewish scholars repetitively study his refreshing instruction against extremeness and strictures in the performance of the commandments: “Despite the importance of the tension factor in life, one should refrain from exaggerated tension in serving God, resulting from excess restlessness. An excess of concern is likely to bring about total paralysis.

Oh, and well worth reading the first part of Segal's column which explains how "democracy" in Israel has basically been eviscerated due to the lethargic apathy of most of the voting population.

Guest Post: The Real Political Failure of Religious Zionism

In the wake of the destruction of Gush Katif, it is now apparent to everyone that Religious Zionism (RZ), as a political movement, has pretty much ceased to function. Several Knesset members, who have no discernable ideological differences between them, seem inable to work together or join a single political framework (I am not including the Leftists of the MAFDAL who dream of restoring the phony "historic covenant between the MAFDAL and Labor movement in this, only those who claim to be loyal to the supposed values of the so-called "National Camp").Why is this? Why is it that the people who quite correctly predicted what would happen when Gush Katif was destroyed seem to have vanished into thin air with no message for the National Religious voter, much less anyone else in Israel who is still committed to Zionism?

It is apparent that the problem did not just start during the Gush Katif crisis. Of course Sharon made a major contribution to the dissolution of political Religious Zionism by brilliantly playing different parts of the religious camp against each other, i.e. MAFDAL against National Union, Haredim against the RZ's, but the degeneration of the movement began long before that. The National Union was a member of Sharon's coalition that accepted Bush's so-called "Road Map" which called for the creation of a Palestinian State and an end to building Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria. Other than making some ineffectual protests, they did nothing and remained in the coalition. This was also at the time of the big terrorist attacks and the daily horrific murder of Jews when Sharon was saying that "restraint is strength" and "I gave Bush my word I wouldn't move against Arafat". Apparently to our RZ "representatives" who stuck with Sharon at this time, Sharon's "word to Bush" was more important than Sharon's responsibility to his own citizenry to protect them.

The roots of this sickness that afflicts the RZ's political echelons (and please note, I am NOT criticizing the basic ideology of Religous Zionism which I do identify with-the cooperation between religious and non-religious Jews for the good of the Jewish people and the Zionist State of Israel) goes way, way back. It goes back to a basic misunderstanding of how a modern democratic state should be constituted and administered (which, of course, is not limited to the RZ camp, but to all of Israeli society), what the role of political movements which participate in its political life is, and what the relationship between these movements and their constituents, the voters, should be.

The best example I can give to illustrate the source of this sickness comes from an outstanding television docu-drama series of the 1970's called "Fall of Eagles" which dramatizes the last years of the three dynasities, Romanov, Hapsburg and Hohenzollern, that fell as a consequence of the First World War. The series also devoted considerable time to showing how Vladimir Lenin built up his Bolshevik/Communist movement from its very beginnings to be in a position to sieze total power in Russia following the collapse of the Romanov/Tsarist monarchy. There is a scene where Lenin is talking with his colleague, Julius Martov. After discussing other business Martov tells Lenin there is another urgent matter he must discuss with him. He tells Lenin that a certain Comrade had raped the wife of another Comrade, and got her pregnant. As a result, she committed suicide. Martov asks Lenin what he is going to do about it. Lenin replies "nothing!" Martov asks why. Lenin replies "because Comrade X is an outstanding operative". Martov is outraged and asks how Lenin can respond that way. Lenin asks Martov "Julius, what is it you think we are doing here?". Martov says "we are trying to build a political movement which will lead to a better society, ultimately bringing about the perfection of mankind". Lenin bursts out "METAPHYSICS, JULIUS!" He then adds a phrase in Latin which means something like "the only law is the law of the Revolution", meaning that the only thing that is important is that THEY, the Bolsheviks, come to power. Once that happens, they can then go about building utopia. So what ultimately happened? They did come to power, using Lenin's belief that the ends justify the means, leading to Stalin's dictatorship and one of the bloodiest terror regimes in history, which interestingly enough, ended up liquidating almost all of Lenin's colleagues who themmselves accepted and justified his views that the ends justify the means.

How is this relevant to the question I raised about the failure of politcal Religious Zionism? Because religion, in the political sphere, is no different than any other ideology. RZ's said "we are part of the Zionist movement. All Zionists, including the non-religious ones, are our allies. Since we are a minority, and unskilled in various aspects of 'nation building' and they are willing to dirty their hands with things that religious people have not dealt with for ages such as military matters, we will let them run the country, and our job will be to give the state they are building a little 'Yiddishkeit'". Another version says "they will teach us Zionism and we will teach them Torah". This led to the attitude that anyone who wears an IDF uniform or is elected to the Knesset or sits in the Cabinet is a "Zionist" and thus, a Tzaddik. Why do I say "Tzaddik"? Because the RZ camp has taught its followers to "look at the good in everyone and ignore the bad". This is indeed a nice thought in certain circumstances, but deadly in others.This ultimately led to perversions that had the most negative consequences.

The most prominent is Ariel Sharon. It was this RZ mentality that created the "etrog" syndrome which is incorrectly attributed to the Left when Sharon decided to destroy Gush Katif.It was the RZ's who said "true Sharon led Israel into a disastrous war in Lebanon leading to hundreds of unnecessary casualties, the creation of a more dangerous enemy in HIZBULLAH and great damage to Israel's image around the world, and it is true that he is a deceiver and corrupt, but don't forget he was a great general who saved Israel in the Yom Kippur War and he builds settlements! We HAVE to support and defend him. Only look at the good and ignore the bad!". In other words, Sharon went around mouthing all the right RZ Zionist words, we RZ's attributed to him the "correct" ideology and we assumed that we could rely on him because of this. After he became a pariah as a result of the Lebanon War disaster, we kept inviting him to our communities, we danced with him and we kept telling him he was a Zionist-Tzaddik. Unfortunately, we all forgot that ideology does not make people good or bad. It is their character (or "middot" if you prefer) that makes all the difference. Lenin claimed he wanted to perfect mankind and make utopia and yet we see the montrosity which he created and then handed over to someone (Stalin) who was even worse , but who still kept mouthing the same slogans about wanting "freedom", a "workers' state" and end to "exploitation of man by man", sucking millions of otherwise well-meaning people into his web.

Thus, we see the RZ's attributed sainthood to anyone who claimed he was a Zionist, and then fell into impotency when the ruling echelons abandoned the Zionist ideology, leaving the RZ's with an empty cupboard. There are different approaches to dealing with this crisis. The first we might call the "Timothy Leary approach-turn on, tune in and drop out". These people say "yes, we love Eretz Israel and the Jewish People, but the Haredim were right, there is no point in participating in the corrupt system-simply drop out of public life and, instead, work on increasing our own spirituality and start getting the non-religious people to become religious". This, of course, I view as irresponsible. The country has serious problems in the here and now. It is not realistic to expect a mass return to Torah observance in the near future and people in Sederot are suffering TODAY from rocket attacks. This is a repeat the passivity approach which envervated European religious Jewry in the face of the twin existential threats of Communism and Nazism. We lost too much to those monstrosities to accept a fatalistic approach to similar threats today.

A second approach is that of the mainline RZ political camp which still sees itself still allied with the Likud because the Likud, unlike the Left, still mouths the same words about the importance of security and a certain limited affection for Jewish settlement in Judea/Samaria. This, of course, is a totally useless approach because the Likud has already proven that its leaders are no more devoted to these Zionist ideals than the Left is and it assumes (wrongly) that its followers will continue to support it even as the leadership abandons those very values it hypocritically espouses. The fact that the Likud got only 12 seats in the last elections and that the RZ party only got 9 which was the same as the previous Knesset without benefitting at all from the massive defection of Likud voters seems to make no impression on the politicians of this supposed "National Camp".

Now, some of you will say that there is another, fresh approach being offered....that of Moshe Feiglin's "Manhigut Yehudit" (Jewish Leadership) and that this offers the way forward. Feiglin correctly points out the deficiencies of the tradition RZ approach that I outlined above (in all fairness I must admit I did get some of the ideas I am expressing here from Feiglin's own writings).Feiglin calls on the RZ camp to get out of its ghetto mentality and passivity ("they will build the state and we will sit in the Beit Midrash")and to become full participants in the state and in defining its goals, something that was neglected in the past. As I said, the attitude was '"they will teach us Zionism and we will teach them Torah". However, they no longer have any Zionism to teach us....their values are universalist and materialist, and they are not interested in learning any Torah from us, which they view as "primitive and regressive". Thus, Feiglin says the RZ camp must go front and center and offer the Jewish people in Israel leadership "with faith" (whatever that may mean since Feiglin says non-religious people can be part of his "Emuni-faith" camp) with ideas taken from the Torah and Jewish tradition to serve as sources for national values, something the secular Zionists of the past resisted, for all their devotion to Zionist values such as security, settlement and aliyah, all of which, I have pointed out, they have now abandoned.

So far, so good. The only problem is that this approach is doomed to degeneration and destruction just like the old RZ one was. The old RZ said "we put our faith in people who are Zionists". The Jewish Leaderhip people now simply move the borders between who is on the "inside" and who is on the "outside" of our ideology. They say they want "Emuni" people and "Emuni" values. But this is simply another ideology. It is inevitable that if Jewish Leadership-Emuni people come to power, the movement will end up like the Likud and Labor party "Zionists", using their position to enrich themselves while abandoning the positive things their movement claims to represent. Today a "Zionist" like Olmert (a fomer member of the "National Camp" no less!) is taking cash in envelopes while telling the police to beat religious kids over the head at Amona, and tomorrow, an "Emuni" person can end up doing the same thing. I am not, G-d forbid, saying anyone who identifies with this "Emuni" idea today is capable of doing these things, I do not doubt the good intentions of those, today, who are advocating these ideas, but history teaches us, as I said, that it is inevitable that a later generation of people in the same movement will become corrupt and, in effect, abandon the ideology they claim to advocate. The bottom line is that substituting one ideology for another will not get Religious Zionism and Israel as a whole out of the existential crisis it is in.

You can then rightly ask "okay, you have pointed out the problems and how maintaining the same framework of ideology-based politics has become a dead-end. What is your solution?".The simple one-word answer I can give is "DEMOCRACY". As I said above, a man's character is as important as his ideology, if not more important, and it is only through democracy that the people can make sure that only those with good character are the ones who get into power. This is something Israel has never really had. The RZ camp feared real democracy and supported the authoritarian nature of the state apparatus. One reason, which is at least somewhat understandable to a religiously-observant person like myself, is that the state could arbitrarily define "Orthodox" Judaism as the only "movement" recognized by state apparatus. However, the RZ movement has nothing to fear from real democracy and empowerment of the citizenry. Many, maybe most Orthodox/relgious people fear the word "democracy", primarily because they don't understand it, thinking that it is somehow contrary to Torah values.

In reality, the ones who have the most to fear from it is the post-Zionist oligarchy that has immorally taken control of the political system in defiance of the wishes of the population. Religious Zionism is making a terrible mistake by not realizing this. Had they years ago become the advocates of real reform and real democracy, the population would be turning to them to show the way out of the crisis, instead of ignoring them as they are now doing. Their big mistake was to ignore this and to tie themselves to a corrupt, authoritarian system which they flattered and to which they attributed undeserved righteousness in order to try to get a few crumbs out of them. The Torah itself demands justice and honesty from the nations rulers. The religious community should have been at the forefront in the fight for the rights of the people. I hope to expand on these ideas in a later posting.

Land for Peace and Religious Zionists

Rabbi Jeffrey Woolf writes on his blog:

The mantra of the Israeli Left has always been that Religious Zionists are, essentially, idolators who worship the sticks and stones of the Land Of Israel. Moreover, they prize them more than human life, itself. So the canard goes. The most recent expression of that sentiment came from that paragon of morality, PM Ehud Olmert. In support of that position, mutatis mutandis, religious and secular leftists often cite the words of מורי ורבי Rav Soloveitchik זצ"ל, concerning the supreme value of life over land. I've been thinking a lot about that speech recently, and I think that it's message has been distorted. It is true, that the Rav was emphatic that if real peace were achievable, that territorial compromises were legitimate. However, that does not mean that it is illegitimate to love a place, especially if that place is endowed with sanctity. On the contrary, he spent many hours emphasizing the kerygma of Eretz Yisrael, of the rarified sanctity that it exudes and its inexpressible hold upon the Jewish soul, which is irresistably drawn to it.

From the comments:

At 5:00 PM, Ben Bayit said...
I've been saying for years that some RYBS' students have distorted his message in this regard and were basically repeating the canard of the left. I think this is because they have come to adopt the language of the socialist left in Israel regarding this (and other issues). It's actually very sad that bright intelligent rabbanim who have much to offer (and some of whom are my teachers)and were educated in the USA and should know better regarding civics and government, come to Israel and adopt the discourse of Eastern-European Socialism and Marxism. As I pointed out (quoting Amnon Lord) some of these Rabbis are unwitting accomplices, some are publicity seekers and some are true fellow travellers of the left. One can do their own homework to decide who is which.

At 7:39
AM, Y. Ben-David said...
Thanks for posting this clarification of Rav Soloveitchik's oft-distorted position.I see in the comments above the frequently repeated canard that Israel has to choose between "peace" and "land". Of course, the way the Arabs have defined the nature of the struggle (read Benny Morris' new book "1948" which clearly shows the Arabs were NEVER prepared for any compromise whatsoever over the Jewish presence in Eretz Israel), the choice becomes "no peace" with us controlling the land" or "no peace" WITHOUT us controlling the land.Those who complain that that RZ settlers are too willing to sacrifice for the land are totally ignorant of Zionist history. The people (secular Leftists who quoted Marx and not the Bible) who cleared the swamps and lost many of their children to malaria and fighting Arab marauders are still held up as heroes by Israeli culture, but religious people who do the same are considered "fanatics" even though at the time many people accused those secular pioneers of being fanatics as well. Why is this? Does quoting the Bible instead of Marx make all the difference? Note how even religious Jews grant more legitimacy to secular Zionist motiviations than to religious ones. This is really a galut mentality.

At 12:11
PM, Y. Ben-David said...
Tal-El:What you are stating is your opinion only. Since this is a blog of a religious person, it is fitting to point out that settling the land is a mitzvah, whether done by a secular or religious person, and thus, is of value in and of itself. But if you want to talk secular "poltics", Israel is completely indefensible within the the borders of the "state" you are referring to, i.e. the Green Line, so I can argue that settlement of hilltops in Judea/Samaria contribute as much to maintaining the state and its security as the early day pioneers. At that time people who criticized them for endangering the children and wasting their time trying to build a state in a bleak, desolate land said a modified version of what you said "the Jewish people will continue to exist, with or without a state, so why bother?". History decided that issue.

Esti:My friend Ben Bayit didn's say that the Rabbis are "socialists"...what he meant was that the terms of the political discourse defined by the socialists who set up the state has been adapted by everyone in the country, even the RZ's and Haredim, even though it is untrue. They don't have the nerve to come out and overturn the applecart. The mentality of the socialist founders of the state stated the following: (1) only we have a right to be in power (2) the Arab-Israeli conflict is, at its heart, materialist and economic.Thus, those Rabbis who are Jewish scholars accepted the arguments that Oslo would work because, even though Arafat and his FATAH gangs are murderers and cut-throats, Marx taught us that their motivations are economic and materialist, thus if we give them money, a state and power, they will be happy, even though they themselves say they hate Jews, don't accept any right of the Jews to be in Eretz Israel in a political sense. The Left says "its all talk, meant for internal consumption. They don't really mean it." How can people deeply immersed in Torah accept this when the Torah teaches there such a thing as truly evil people whose hatred and evil deeds have nothing to do with "money and power". Yet I saw many learned religious Jews accept this Marxist definition of man and his motivations. That is what Ben Bayit is referring to. Those of the "national camp" have to give up their inferiority complex and think for themselves and articulate their vision more clearly, ON ITS OWN TERMS.

A while back I wrote about Amnon Lord's discussion of the influence of the "useful idiots" of the left. The influence of Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism and Socialism on the public discourse within Israel is - as Lord put it - a little studied and even less known topic. The influence of this discourse on Rabbinical figures and the religious community in Israel has been examined even less.

If it is stupid to say this, then so be it - I guess I'll have to admit to being stupid - even though I don't think I am. And others who value my opinion and contribution to the discourse - some of whom have radically different views than I do on many of these topics - don't think so either.

The Envelope Tender

A few days following the Talansky testimony, the government of the State of Israel - specifically the government press - issued a new tender for the supply of envelopes.

No I am not making it up.

Talansky's were manila envelopes. As Amnon Lord reported on the testimony:

דומה שמשהו החל להשתחרר כאשר לדור שאל אותו פתאום: "אתה מכיר את מר אולמרט, נכון. ממתי?". אז, אחרי דקות ארוכות שבהן תיאר טלנסקי את הרקע הציוני שלו רווי האהבה לארץ ישראל, פתאום נזכרנו במה מדובר. וטלנסקי החל להיחקר על ראש הממשלה כאילו מדובר בעבריין לכל דבר היושב על כס הנאשמים. כך לפחות זה נשמע. היה רגע שבו לדור ביקש שיתאר באופן מדויק איזה מין מעטפות הן היו, המעטפות המדוברות שבהן הועבר הכסף המזומן."מנילה", אמר טלנסקי ופתר את הסוגיה הגדולה תוך שהוא מצייר באוויר מעטפה מלבנית גדולה. מעטפות מנילה אלו המעטפות הכתומות צהבהבות שהאמריקנים משתמשים בהן עם סגר מתכת דק. בשאלות הפתיחה תיאר טלנסקי באריכות את סוגי המוסדות והארגונים, כולל בית החולים שערי צדק, שעבורם עסק בהתרמות. הוא עשה את הכל בהתנדבות או כחבר במועצת המנהלים.