What Do We Really Want Israel To Be?
(This post is a bit long, but please bear with me...)
I had already joined Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") a year or two ago, when just recently I discovered they also had a site on Facebook; so I joined that, too.
Why did I do it? It's because I saw no other Israeli politician, nor any other spokesperson for Israel other than Moshe Feiglin , its Founder and President, Shmuel Sackett, its International Director and Yehudit Dassberg, their Eretz Yisrael activist--who were able to cut straight to the point of why and how Israel should exist as a Jewish State, as opposed to merely a "state of the Jews."
I read one of his books, Where There Are No Men, and it made a lot of sense to me and spoke to my soul. It reminded me of Rav Meir Kahane's The Jewish Idea.
It seems to me that this is a good time--right after we mourn the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash on Tisha b'Av, and right after Israel is again trying to appease the PA, this time by releasing over 200 Arab terrorist prisoners from Israeli jails--to read how and under what circumstances Israel was founded.
From Moshe Feiglin's book, The War of Dreams, where I saw it posted by Yisrael M. on a Facebook wall (bold and italics are mine):
Let's Be Realistic
7 Adar, 5764February 29, 2004
Fifty six years ago, the Jews decided to establish a state in the Land of Israel. Initially, America supported the idea. But when it realized the extent of the Arab opposition, it backed down. The entire world stood back and shirked responsibility toward the small Jewish community in the Holy Land. They all waited to see how seven Arab armies would continue from the point that Rommel stopped at Al Alamein -- and add the 600,000 Jews of the Land of Israel to the 6,000,000 already murdered in Europe. An embargo was imposed on weapons sales to the determined but practically defenseless Jewish community. Old World War Two weapons shipments that U.S. Jews attempted to ship to Israel were confiscated in the New Jersey port. Never has such a desperate, dangerous and hopeless attempt been made to establish a state. The Arabs did not hide their intentions as to the fate of the Jews in that war - or in the wars that followed. The Jews were sentenced to annihilation with shocking cruelty. The leader of the Arabs in the Land of Israel, Haj Amin el Husseini spent time in German concentration camps, learning how to build gas chambers. He had already charted out the area in which the concentration camps in the Holy Land would be built - in the Dotan Valley, not far from my home in Karnei Shomron, where I am writing these lines. Against all odds, the State of Israel was born and became the strongest and most established state in the region. In the past decade, though, the entire world, under the orchestration and leadership of Israel, has been attempting to establish another state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. An Arab state for the descendants of el Husseini. In contrast to the establishment of the Jewish state, the entire world gladly supports the establishment of the Arab state. And they put their money where their mouths are. The world (and Israel ) have donated millions of dollars to the state in-the-making; they have given them huge supplies of arms, the CIA trains terrorists in special training camps, they have received fully equipped army bases, international recognition and media encouragement, seaports and airports.Never has an ethnic group anywhere received a state in this manner - literally on a silver platter.But something strange has happened. The Arab state in the Land of Israel has not been established. Reality in the Land of Israel has its own set of rules. Reality in the Land of Israel is intrinsically connected to the will of the Creator. Whatever correlates to His will is realistic. Whatever opposes His will is unrealistic, even if the entire world is mobilized to achieve it. This is true in every place. But in our era in the Holy Land of Israel, it is most obvious.Time and again the would-be realists bang our collective head against the wall. They think that their small intellect is realistic. For them, the Land of Israel is nothing more than another piece of real estate, as Rabin said about the Golan Heights. It is nothing more than a bargaining chip. But the leaders of our State who do not take the Creator's will into account deny reality. And the price of that denial is increasingly unbearable. We know that our Eternal G-d will never let us down. We know that our Father in Heaven has brought us back to our Land and will not destroy the re-born Jewish settlement in the Land of our Forefathers. The final Return to Zion is not simply a macabre joke played upon us by G-d.So why do we need Manhigut Yehudit? After all, we believe that G-d will work everything out for us anyway.There are those people who relate to faith as something detached from reality. This religious approach characterized the Jewish Nation in exile -- until the appearance of Zionism. It still characterizes important sectors of the religious community. But it is this detached approach that fostered the destruction of entire Jewish communities during the Holocaust. The Jews who believed that the Nation of Israel would miraculously return to its Land were right. But the price they paid for their detached faith was staggering. Authentic Jewish faith is not detached from reality. On the contrary, it defines reality and requires us to act to actualize it. Reality is the will of the Creator in His world. The reality is that there is a G-d, that there is a nation whose very existence reminds the world of His existence, that there is a land that G-d has created for His nation only and that only in this land can His children accomplish their universal mission.That is the reality. Our job is to reveal and actualize it.Today, there is only one political movement that is synchronized to this reality. It is Manhigut Yehudit. This synchronization to reality is becoming clear even to those who initially opposed Manhigut. Just like a surfer who rides the wave instead of fighting it, Manhigut Yehudit correctly understands reality and guides Israel and the Jewish Nation to safe shores.Join those who have shouldered the wonderful challenge of Jewish leadership, and prevent unnecessary suffering from our Nation. Let's be realistic. It is time for Manhigut Yehudit -- authentic Jewish leadership for Israel.
On the Manhigut Yehudit website, there is a page on which is outlined what they would do, if elected, in their first 100 days in office, here.
Sounds good to me. What do you think? I welcome your comments. . .
I had already joined Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") a year or two ago, when just recently I discovered they also had a site on Facebook; so I joined that, too.
Why did I do it? It's because I saw no other Israeli politician, nor any other spokesperson for Israel other than Moshe Feiglin , its Founder and President, Shmuel Sackett, its International Director and Yehudit Dassberg, their Eretz Yisrael activist--who were able to cut straight to the point of why and how Israel should exist as a Jewish State, as opposed to merely a "state of the Jews."
I read one of his books, Where There Are No Men, and it made a lot of sense to me and spoke to my soul. It reminded me of Rav Meir Kahane's The Jewish Idea.
It seems to me that this is a good time--right after we mourn the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash on Tisha b'Av, and right after Israel is again trying to appease the PA, this time by releasing over 200 Arab terrorist prisoners from Israeli jails--to read how and under what circumstances Israel was founded.
From Moshe Feiglin's book, The War of Dreams, where I saw it posted by Yisrael M. on a Facebook wall (bold and italics are mine):
Let's Be Realistic
7 Adar, 5764February 29, 2004
Fifty six years ago, the Jews decided to establish a state in the Land of Israel. Initially, America supported the idea. But when it realized the extent of the Arab opposition, it backed down. The entire world stood back and shirked responsibility toward the small Jewish community in the Holy Land. They all waited to see how seven Arab armies would continue from the point that Rommel stopped at Al Alamein -- and add the 600,000 Jews of the Land of Israel to the 6,000,000 already murdered in Europe. An embargo was imposed on weapons sales to the determined but practically defenseless Jewish community. Old World War Two weapons shipments that U.S. Jews attempted to ship to Israel were confiscated in the New Jersey port. Never has such a desperate, dangerous and hopeless attempt been made to establish a state. The Arabs did not hide their intentions as to the fate of the Jews in that war - or in the wars that followed. The Jews were sentenced to annihilation with shocking cruelty. The leader of the Arabs in the Land of Israel, Haj Amin el Husseini spent time in German concentration camps, learning how to build gas chambers. He had already charted out the area in which the concentration camps in the Holy Land would be built - in the Dotan Valley, not far from my home in Karnei Shomron, where I am writing these lines. Against all odds, the State of Israel was born and became the strongest and most established state in the region. In the past decade, though, the entire world, under the orchestration and leadership of Israel, has been attempting to establish another state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. An Arab state for the descendants of el Husseini. In contrast to the establishment of the Jewish state, the entire world gladly supports the establishment of the Arab state. And they put their money where their mouths are. The world (and Israel ) have donated millions of dollars to the state in-the-making; they have given them huge supplies of arms, the CIA trains terrorists in special training camps, they have received fully equipped army bases, international recognition and media encouragement, seaports and airports.Never has an ethnic group anywhere received a state in this manner - literally on a silver platter.But something strange has happened. The Arab state in the Land of Israel has not been established. Reality in the Land of Israel has its own set of rules. Reality in the Land of Israel is intrinsically connected to the will of the Creator. Whatever correlates to His will is realistic. Whatever opposes His will is unrealistic, even if the entire world is mobilized to achieve it. This is true in every place. But in our era in the Holy Land of Israel, it is most obvious.Time and again the would-be realists bang our collective head against the wall. They think that their small intellect is realistic. For them, the Land of Israel is nothing more than another piece of real estate, as Rabin said about the Golan Heights. It is nothing more than a bargaining chip. But the leaders of our State who do not take the Creator's will into account deny reality. And the price of that denial is increasingly unbearable. We know that our Eternal G-d will never let us down. We know that our Father in Heaven has brought us back to our Land and will not destroy the re-born Jewish settlement in the Land of our Forefathers. The final Return to Zion is not simply a macabre joke played upon us by G-d.So why do we need Manhigut Yehudit? After all, we believe that G-d will work everything out for us anyway.There are those people who relate to faith as something detached from reality. This religious approach characterized the Jewish Nation in exile -- until the appearance of Zionism. It still characterizes important sectors of the religious community. But it is this detached approach that fostered the destruction of entire Jewish communities during the Holocaust. The Jews who believed that the Nation of Israel would miraculously return to its Land were right. But the price they paid for their detached faith was staggering. Authentic Jewish faith is not detached from reality. On the contrary, it defines reality and requires us to act to actualize it. Reality is the will of the Creator in His world. The reality is that there is a G-d, that there is a nation whose very existence reminds the world of His existence, that there is a land that G-d has created for His nation only and that only in this land can His children accomplish their universal mission.That is the reality. Our job is to reveal and actualize it.Today, there is only one political movement that is synchronized to this reality. It is Manhigut Yehudit. This synchronization to reality is becoming clear even to those who initially opposed Manhigut. Just like a surfer who rides the wave instead of fighting it, Manhigut Yehudit correctly understands reality and guides Israel and the Jewish Nation to safe shores.Join those who have shouldered the wonderful challenge of Jewish leadership, and prevent unnecessary suffering from our Nation. Let's be realistic. It is time for Manhigut Yehudit -- authentic Jewish leadership for Israel.
On the Manhigut Yehudit website, there is a page on which is outlined what they would do, if elected, in their first 100 days in office, here.
Sounds good to me. What do you think? I welcome your comments. . .
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