February 2, 2006

This is the saddest article I have ever written. My most profound conviction is the right and Divine obligation of the Jewish people to resettle our ancient homeland and thereby to usher in a redeemed Zion from which Word of God will spread throughout the world. This is the heart and soul of the religious impulse to return to the Holy Land in all its entirety. The Land is a birthright from Abraham to all the generations of the Jews until the Messianic Age. It is a fundamental precept of Jewish religion that there will be an ingathering of the exiles, followed by a series of historic and religious developments that culminate in the world peace and justice and the ultimate purpose of Creation. Many Christians may disagree on specific final outcomes, but that is frankly besides the point now.

The very concept of a secular Jewish State is an oxymoron. If the state is “secular” and no different than a second-rate European social democracy, what is—in any sense—“Jewish” about it. For a long time, there has been an unsteady coexistence between religious and secular Jews in Israel. The millennia of disasters combined with the Holocaust of the last century made the State of Israel a practical solution. Beyond that the Jews had unassailable legal, moral, historical and religious rights to all of the former British Palestine Mandate (which includes Israel and Jordan). Any serious scholar can research all of the elements of legitimacy mentioned above. Nevertheless, the State of Israel never had any aspect of “malchus” or legitimate rulership in a Jewish legal sense. How can a Knesset made up of those who openly defy Jewish faith and practice along with Communist and Muslim Arabs determine such halachic questions (binding Jewish law) as “ Who is a Jew” and therefore who can become a citizen by right of ancestral inheritance?? How can a mere political hack who is prime minister in spite of his own party’s views have the nerve to threaten the chief rabbis of Israel?? Is a religious Jew required to listen to his Rav (religious leader and the one who determines Jewish law) or today’s governing coalition? Must one answer to God and His Torah or the prime minister? Ultimately one is responsible to one’s conscience.

Once the state of Israel began to betray the Land and the Torah of Israel, it lost legitimacy in the eyes of an ever growing number of peaceful, religious Jews.

I am a dual citizen. I am afraid to return to Israel for a number of reasons. First of all, I fear that the free expression of my views are entirely unprotected by the secular law. One may have disagreed with the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, but does a democracy lock him up and later outlaw his political party and even those who support his views?? This is old fashioned fascism. The Bolsheviks that founded the secular state have never changed their spots. The one independent news broadcasting network is closed down by the “free government.” If I wear a shirt at Ben-Gurion Airport that says “Kahane Was Right,” I can be arrested. If I even wear a shirt with the emblem of his party (a Star of David and a fist), I can be locked up. If I speak out against the policies of Sharon’s dictator-style leadership, I can be imprisoned for sedition. I have more freedom of speech in America as a Jew than I do in Israel. That is the unadulterated and disgusting truth.

Now Sharon in league with Shimon Peres and (shame of shames) possibly some religious parties that want money for their special causes, are planning to oust or ethnically cleanse Gaza and Northern Samaria. What does this really mean in human terms? It means that Jewish soldiers are going to go into Jewish homes in Jewish Land and demolish their homes, shops, businesses, places of worship, places of religious study and even their cemeteries. These citizens of Gush Katif and Gaza are not newly arrived “settlers” but Israeli citizens many of whom have been in these towns for three generations!! Historically this land belongs to the Tribe of Judah. In recent times, it has become a flourishing center of Jewish life. Sharon’s government of henchmen believe that by giving into the terrorist Hamas (who just won the Gaza Elections) and high tailing out of Gaza, that Israel will have “peace.” Why doesn’t the Israeli government take the Palestinians seriously when they openly said in their last elections that they want to eliminate the Jewish state in stages?

Imagine if any other people on the face of the earth were told that their very existence in their towns was unacceptable. Is this not ethnic cleansing? Sixty years after the Holocaust, a “jewish” government is creating areas in the Land of Israel that are “Judenrein” –forbidden for Jews! How can America support such a policy? Would we agree to this policy if any other people were involved? Would we agree to a state policy that officially banned Blacks or Asians or Hispanics from some part of the world, especially in their own nation? Would we support Armenia if they wanted to oust all the Muslims from their country? Would we have no problem if the Muslim world decided to expel all the Christians in the region? What if, to make things even, Israel decided to kick all the Arabs by force out of the remaining parts of Israel? Certainly the current policy establishes that precedent. Finally, how does the United States justify its relationship with Saudi Arabia which officially prohibits Jews on its land?

The question is what should a religious or truly patriotic Jew do who is told to leave his legal property at gun point?? The first obligation of conscience is certainly civil disobedience. Not a single citizen in Gaza or Samaria should move one inch from their home. Every obstacle must be put in the way of the illegitimate use of government force. Americans can certainly relate to this tradition of standing up for Truth against a tyrannical government. It’s time to reread Henry Thoreau’s On Civil Disobedience. If Sharon is determined to extricate Israel from Gaza, then let the Israeli Defense Forces go and allow the free citizens of Gaza to defend themselves!! Allow the citizens of Gaza to purchase armaments and establish their own defense force and self-government. If the state of Israel wants “out” fine, then at least let the citizens who are protecting all that is dear to them remain. Allow the world community of Jews, Christians and true humanitarians to arm the innocents defenders. Let a new, a righteous and a pure government arise—the State of Judea. Let a state come into being that will respect Jewish Laws and Customs. Let a state come into being that will reject the barbarous commercial and unclean culture that Israel is becoming. Let the State of Judea be truly Free in the only way a state can be free---by adherence to moral standards and self-control. May a new State of Judea bring “malchus” to the Jewish People and herald a new dawn for mankind.

There may be a time of two “Jewish” states, Israel and Judea. That is not a new situation. In Biblical times, Israel was the corrupt state that eventually led to the Ten Lost Tribes and only Judea remained and ultimately become the Jewish Nation. Let the fear of G-d be in the heart of any Israeli soldier that would destroy his fellow Jews. May the barrel of the rifle of such a man turn against him.

I pray that the thugs of the current Israeli government be replaced like dust by a wind. Let us pray that those who are loyal to the true Jewish cause will be protected by the Almighty and from the persecution of Vichyists in Likud and Labor. May G-d show mercy to any “religious” party that would desecrate the Torah by collaboration with the current government. Such rabbis are the Shin-Daleds (evil demons) about which our Torah warns us.

Yair

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