Investigation has been launched against the managers of the [Hebrew-language] Arutz-7 news website, citing a possible transgression of the law prohibiting incitement. A Hebrew-language article entitled, ?Expulsion Not Transfer? constitutes the incriminating evidence.
This breaking news took place during the week of parshas Toldos, wherein we have the famous words: ?The voice is the voice of Yaakov. But the hands are the hands of Esau.? Surely, the voice of Arutz Sheva is the voice of Yaakov, and the hands attempting to strangle the voice are hands personified by the traits of Esau.
The current conflict in Eretz Yisroel is often referred to as the Israeli-Arab conflict. But that is really only part of it. The root of the conflict is within the Jewish nation itself, between those who follow the spiritual path of Yaakov and those who would rather emulate the material existence of Esau.
This age-old conflict now finds expression in the political arena: rightists versus leftists.
I like the fact that our side is called the right. Even the label conveys the message that the left is not right.
I was not always ?on the right? and ?in the right.? In my college days, I was a liberal. I was also clueless. I was being fed overly righteous, unrealistic ideas and had no clue that reality and facts were significant. I remember my father kindly telling me there was not going to be a revolution, while on campus we were convinced we were all-powerful and our revolution was on the way.
There was a popular song in those days, which went like this: ?...there?s gonna be a revolution, ?cuz there?s something in the aaaair.? Good reason for a revolution. At least, for college kids in the ?60s it was. It turned out that what was in the air was a lot of smoke - no mirrors, just smoke.
It was back then, before I had been introduced to my Jewish heritage, that I heard the expressions, dati and lo dati. Meaning, those who understand and those who do not understand. I was told that was the term being used in Eretz Yisroel to distinguish religious and not religious Jews. I could not figure out why the religious were the ones with the knowledge. Like I said before, I was clueless.
Interesting that the knowledgeable religious people are the ones on the Right. But it does not come without resentment and hostility from the lo dati on the Left. And it is this hostility that is the real conflict happening today in Eretz Yisroel.
Eretz Yisroel is our garden. We are the gardeners. It is our responsibility to see that the garden is kept beautiful. The Arabs residing in our country can be compared to weeds. They spread very quickly and destroy what is in their path. But you cannot completely blame the weeds for unruly behavior. It is their nature. Weeds are just doing what they are created to do. It is our job as gardener to keep the garden beautiful and fruitful, which is what we were created to do. As long as we are making concessions, tolerating terror and not settling the entire land, we are not doing our job. The Left is so concerned about undermining the religious settlement movement, the weeds are out of control. For example: Tens of security personnel accompanied Noam Federman to his daughter?s Bat Mitzvah, while there are not enough soldiers to stop rocks being thrown at Jewish motorists.
Not so long ago, the term ?settler?, was a coveted title in Eretz Yisroel. The Zionists were living their dream of settling the land. But Zionism turned out to be an empty religion. Another of the many offshoot movements and philosophies that have led Jews astray over the centuries. I must admit that, were I even older than I am, had I been a young adult in the ?40s or ?50s, I probably would have been swept up with Zionism. (Even had I known that many rabbis were against it, and that the Lubavitcher Rebbes, who had encouraged settlement of Eretz Yisroel for generations, were against Zionism, albeit not against the settlement of Eretz Yisroel, but the atheism attached to it.) I doubt I could have resisted Zionism in those days. It was a powerfully attractive, passionate movement. So I am not trying to be nasty to those who were fervent Zionists back them, but it turns out that their affiliation was just another offshoot, and the law of nature of these Jewish philosophical offshoots is that they dry up.
Only this time, as the Zionist movement, that in the past honored settlers, is losing its direction and life force, as the children of the Zionist settlers are not interested in their parents? lifestyle, a new generation of settlers has moved in. This time, the settlers being rightist dati?im.
The Zionists are losing their life force, because the Zionist religion is sterile. I do not mean it is clean - not by any stretch of the imagination - I mean that, being a false religion, it does not pass down through the generations. It might survive a generation or two or three, but no more. So, on the one hand, it is losing its life force because it is not reproducing, but, on the other hand, there are many Zionists still in positions of power.
These remaining Zionists are irked. As they see their dreams being shattered, they cannot bear to see the emergence of a strong settlement movement, which is a strong religious settlement movement, and they wish to destroy it.
The above statement may seem rather absurd, but it is not my idea, so I will clarify. In an article by Avraham Burg, published a number of months ago by more than one periodical and praised as being an important piece, the author clearly states the above idea in his opening paragraph: ?As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly.?
This quote clearly states that Zionism is not being perpetuated. At the same time, Burg admits that the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisroel will remain strong. But it irks him, so he calls it strange and ugly. (Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What he says is strange and ugly, to me is familiar and beautiful. He dreads a Jewish state with Jews who live according to the laws of Torah rather than the whims of world opinion.)
That he wants to destroy the new generation of settlements, is clearly stated further in the article: ?We must remove all the settlements - all of them?.?
Removing the settlements is a battle in the war of rightist versus leftist. In reality, it has nothing to do with the war on terror. The Left are using the Arab cause as a cover-up. As they feel themselves weakening, the leftists are trying to cripple the religious settlement movement. They want to strike the vital organs, so once again? Arutz Sheva is under attack.
Arutz Sheva was not allowed to broadcast from the land, so they went to sea. They were convicted for broadcasting by sea, so they operate in cyberspace. By land, by sea and by air, they are being targeted. (If only such a comprehensive attack were used against terror.)
Arutz Sheva is a representation of the spirit of the settlers. For those of us in chutz la?aretz, it keeps us informed and lets us feel we are in touch with our brothers, who are settling our settlements, struggling our struggle and broadcasting our message.
How can we over here, help you over there? I think we can. Each one in his/her own little way. It adds up. We can introduce people to Arutz Sheva. Set goals for ourselves that every week we will ?turn on? more people to Israel National News.com.
The leftists want to stop the voice of the settlements, to silence the broadcaster who lets us know when our vehicles are being targeted on which roads, when mortars are falling on which towns, when the army is making arrests and when terror attacks have been averted. These are just some of the items reported on Arutz Sheva that do not reach the press at large. On Arutz Sheva, we hear the news from Hevron, from Gush Katif and from Tapuach. We are informed of Noam Federman?s situation and follow the efforts on behalf of Jonathan Pollard. We hear the leaders and the opinions we want to hear. We refuse to be uninformed - to be clueless - we are not lo dati.
The Left wants the voice of Arutz Sheva silenced. But the Right is going to turn up the volume - so to speak - by getting more people to log on.
As we continue to uphold the laws and values of the Torah, and express our love and respect for the land Hashem has given us, caring for it without compromise, we trust that Hashem will not let the voice of Yaakov fall prey to the hands of those who emulate Esau.
This breaking news took place during the week of parshas Toldos, wherein we have the famous words: ?The voice is the voice of Yaakov. But the hands are the hands of Esau.? Surely, the voice of Arutz Sheva is the voice of Yaakov, and the hands attempting to strangle the voice are hands personified by the traits of Esau.
The current conflict in Eretz Yisroel is often referred to as the Israeli-Arab conflict. But that is really only part of it. The root of the conflict is within the Jewish nation itself, between those who follow the spiritual path of Yaakov and those who would rather emulate the material existence of Esau.
This age-old conflict now finds expression in the political arena: rightists versus leftists.
I like the fact that our side is called the right. Even the label conveys the message that the left is not right.
I was not always ?on the right? and ?in the right.? In my college days, I was a liberal. I was also clueless. I was being fed overly righteous, unrealistic ideas and had no clue that reality and facts were significant. I remember my father kindly telling me there was not going to be a revolution, while on campus we were convinced we were all-powerful and our revolution was on the way.
There was a popular song in those days, which went like this: ?...there?s gonna be a revolution, ?cuz there?s something in the aaaair.? Good reason for a revolution. At least, for college kids in the ?60s it was. It turned out that what was in the air was a lot of smoke - no mirrors, just smoke.
It was back then, before I had been introduced to my Jewish heritage, that I heard the expressions, dati and lo dati. Meaning, those who understand and those who do not understand. I was told that was the term being used in Eretz Yisroel to distinguish religious and not religious Jews. I could not figure out why the religious were the ones with the knowledge. Like I said before, I was clueless.
Interesting that the knowledgeable religious people are the ones on the Right. But it does not come without resentment and hostility from the lo dati on the Left. And it is this hostility that is the real conflict happening today in Eretz Yisroel.
Eretz Yisroel is our garden. We are the gardeners. It is our responsibility to see that the garden is kept beautiful. The Arabs residing in our country can be compared to weeds. They spread very quickly and destroy what is in their path. But you cannot completely blame the weeds for unruly behavior. It is their nature. Weeds are just doing what they are created to do. It is our job as gardener to keep the garden beautiful and fruitful, which is what we were created to do. As long as we are making concessions, tolerating terror and not settling the entire land, we are not doing our job. The Left is so concerned about undermining the religious settlement movement, the weeds are out of control. For example: Tens of security personnel accompanied Noam Federman to his daughter?s Bat Mitzvah, while there are not enough soldiers to stop rocks being thrown at Jewish motorists.
Not so long ago, the term ?settler?, was a coveted title in Eretz Yisroel. The Zionists were living their dream of settling the land. But Zionism turned out to be an empty religion. Another of the many offshoot movements and philosophies that have led Jews astray over the centuries. I must admit that, were I even older than I am, had I been a young adult in the ?40s or ?50s, I probably would have been swept up with Zionism. (Even had I known that many rabbis were against it, and that the Lubavitcher Rebbes, who had encouraged settlement of Eretz Yisroel for generations, were against Zionism, albeit not against the settlement of Eretz Yisroel, but the atheism attached to it.) I doubt I could have resisted Zionism in those days. It was a powerfully attractive, passionate movement. So I am not trying to be nasty to those who were fervent Zionists back them, but it turns out that their affiliation was just another offshoot, and the law of nature of these Jewish philosophical offshoots is that they dry up.
Only this time, as the Zionist movement, that in the past honored settlers, is losing its direction and life force, as the children of the Zionist settlers are not interested in their parents? lifestyle, a new generation of settlers has moved in. This time, the settlers being rightist dati?im.
The Zionists are losing their life force, because the Zionist religion is sterile. I do not mean it is clean - not by any stretch of the imagination - I mean that, being a false religion, it does not pass down through the generations. It might survive a generation or two or three, but no more. So, on the one hand, it is losing its life force because it is not reproducing, but, on the other hand, there are many Zionists still in positions of power.
These remaining Zionists are irked. As they see their dreams being shattered, they cannot bear to see the emergence of a strong settlement movement, which is a strong religious settlement movement, and they wish to destroy it.
The above statement may seem rather absurd, but it is not my idea, so I will clarify. In an article by Avraham Burg, published a number of months ago by more than one periodical and praised as being an important piece, the author clearly states the above idea in his opening paragraph: ?As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly.?
This quote clearly states that Zionism is not being perpetuated. At the same time, Burg admits that the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisroel will remain strong. But it irks him, so he calls it strange and ugly. (Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What he says is strange and ugly, to me is familiar and beautiful. He dreads a Jewish state with Jews who live according to the laws of Torah rather than the whims of world opinion.)
That he wants to destroy the new generation of settlements, is clearly stated further in the article: ?We must remove all the settlements - all of them?.?
Removing the settlements is a battle in the war of rightist versus leftist. In reality, it has nothing to do with the war on terror. The Left are using the Arab cause as a cover-up. As they feel themselves weakening, the leftists are trying to cripple the religious settlement movement. They want to strike the vital organs, so once again? Arutz Sheva is under attack.
Arutz Sheva was not allowed to broadcast from the land, so they went to sea. They were convicted for broadcasting by sea, so they operate in cyberspace. By land, by sea and by air, they are being targeted. (If only such a comprehensive attack were used against terror.)
Arutz Sheva is a representation of the spirit of the settlers. For those of us in chutz la?aretz, it keeps us informed and lets us feel we are in touch with our brothers, who are settling our settlements, struggling our struggle and broadcasting our message.
How can we over here, help you over there? I think we can. Each one in his/her own little way. It adds up. We can introduce people to Arutz Sheva. Set goals for ourselves that every week we will ?turn on? more people to Israel National News.com.
The leftists want to stop the voice of the settlements, to silence the broadcaster who lets us know when our vehicles are being targeted on which roads, when mortars are falling on which towns, when the army is making arrests and when terror attacks have been averted. These are just some of the items reported on Arutz Sheva that do not reach the press at large. On Arutz Sheva, we hear the news from Hevron, from Gush Katif and from Tapuach. We are informed of Noam Federman?s situation and follow the efforts on behalf of Jonathan Pollard. We hear the leaders and the opinions we want to hear. We refuse to be uninformed - to be clueless - we are not lo dati.
The Left wants the voice of Arutz Sheva silenced. But the Right is going to turn up the volume - so to speak - by getting more people to log on.
As we continue to uphold the laws and values of the Torah, and express our love and respect for the land Hashem has given us, caring for it without compromise, we trust that Hashem will not let the voice of Yaakov fall prey to the hands of those who emulate Esau.