We are living a very exciting time in Jewish history. It is difficult to say this when the daily funerals of murdered Jews are becoming routine, but we must hold our heads high and look beyond the gates of the cemetery.
The times are exciting because the fundamental assumptions upon which Israeli society is based are collapsing like a house of cards. The public is increasingly willing to listen to a new message and whoever will provide answers and solutions will radically change the course of Jewish history.
The Jewish people has been running away from itself for a hundred years. It is not easy to be the bearer of a divine message. The seeds of self-contempt, self-disparagement in the face of foreign culture and, amongst a small group, even self-hate, have been present within us since the exodus from Egypt.
"If I thought that conversion to Christianity would solve the Jewish problem, I would recommend that we adopt this solution" declared Herzl, but the Dreyfus Affair taught him that assimilation was not the answer and thus the idea of the State of the Jews was born. If we cannot be accepted amongst the nations by assimilating as individuals, then let's assimilate together as a nation, proposed Herzl.
Herzl didn't dream about Eretz Israel and certainly not about Jewish culture. We were supposed to wear top hats, speak German, and build our capital city on the banks of a broad European river.
But the simple Jews had another dream, with Zion at its center, and it just happened that the State of the Jews was built in Eretz Israel, of all places. Now we have the Jews, we have Eretz Israel, and we even have a State, but the fundamental dream and vision for the State are still those with which Herzl set out.
In order to realize the dream of "A nation like all other nations" we need an external and an internal partner. We need an enemy from without with whom we can make peace, and Arabs from within whom we can make Israeli citizens. For if there is no hope of peace with the enemy, this spells the end of our dream of being accepted into the family of nations, and if we can't give Israeli citizenship to Arabs in exchange for their trust, then our State won't be Israeli but - Jewish, G-d forbid!
Therefore, we are crawling on all fours to the despicable murderer, Arafat, and begging him to be good enough to make peace with us. And Sharon is giving the royal welcome, at the King David Hotel, to the murderer Dahlan, who blew off the legs of the children on the school bus in Kfar Darom.
And we are conducting a humiliating enquiry into the behavior of the policemen who protected the lives of the residents of Northern Israel during the rioting of the "Israeli" Arabs.
And we are practicing a policy of restraint, necessary in order to hang on by the skin of our teeth to the dream that is disappearing in the dust of the graveyards. Because, after all, we can if we only wanted, solve the current crisis through military means, but then we will remain without the partner we so badly need to realize the dream, and will have to create a new dream. Let us therefore continue to die, and without asking for how long, proposes Sharon.
This time in history is exciting because it is forcing us to understand that it simply won't work: Arafat's amazing stubbornness to continue the war even after he received everything he demanded. The obstinacy of the Israeli Arabs to continue spitting in Israel's face, although Israel has done so much to improve their lot. The anti-Semitism in the world, which rises with every Israeli retreat, all prove again and again that we have chosen the wrong path and that we must find a new way.
Sharon desperately wants to fight Arafat. He called for the elimination of Muhammed Dahlan after the terrorist attack in Kfar Darom. Sharon has a Jewish heart and good intentions, but he is a prisoner of the classic Zionist dream. And regardless of whether you belongs to the Left or to the Right, you cannot break out of the current situation without changing the rules of the game, changing the dream.
Unfortunately, the failure of Sharon, a dear and precious Jew, is therefore inevitable. It is only amazing to see how several settlement leaders are once again willing to lend their support to Netanyahu. Some people will do anything to avoid facing the bare truth, that leadership which is not driven and motivated by the historical Jewish purpose is doomed to failure.
There are however, thousands of Israelis who are proud to be Jewish and who have taken responsibility and have joined the Jewish Leadership Movement. No one knows how long it will take to create a Jewish leadership for the State of Israel, but it will happen sooner or later because we have no other choice. The lack of alternative for our survival is clearer today than ever before, and this means that it will happen sooner than we thought. And this, is very exciting.
----------------------------------------------------------
Moshe Feiglin, founder of Manhigut Yehudit, The Jewish Leadership Movement led the campaign of mass civil disobedience against the Oslo accords during the Rabin government. Feiglin also heads the Mekimi Institute, a think-tank for Jewish-based policy. Currently Feiglin is championing the registration of thousands of new members to Likud.
The times are exciting because the fundamental assumptions upon which Israeli society is based are collapsing like a house of cards. The public is increasingly willing to listen to a new message and whoever will provide answers and solutions will radically change the course of Jewish history.
The Jewish people has been running away from itself for a hundred years. It is not easy to be the bearer of a divine message. The seeds of self-contempt, self-disparagement in the face of foreign culture and, amongst a small group, even self-hate, have been present within us since the exodus from Egypt.
"If I thought that conversion to Christianity would solve the Jewish problem, I would recommend that we adopt this solution" declared Herzl, but the Dreyfus Affair taught him that assimilation was not the answer and thus the idea of the State of the Jews was born. If we cannot be accepted amongst the nations by assimilating as individuals, then let's assimilate together as a nation, proposed Herzl.
Herzl didn't dream about Eretz Israel and certainly not about Jewish culture. We were supposed to wear top hats, speak German, and build our capital city on the banks of a broad European river.
But the simple Jews had another dream, with Zion at its center, and it just happened that the State of the Jews was built in Eretz Israel, of all places. Now we have the Jews, we have Eretz Israel, and we even have a State, but the fundamental dream and vision for the State are still those with which Herzl set out.
In order to realize the dream of "A nation like all other nations" we need an external and an internal partner. We need an enemy from without with whom we can make peace, and Arabs from within whom we can make Israeli citizens. For if there is no hope of peace with the enemy, this spells the end of our dream of being accepted into the family of nations, and if we can't give Israeli citizenship to Arabs in exchange for their trust, then our State won't be Israeli but - Jewish, G-d forbid!
Therefore, we are crawling on all fours to the despicable murderer, Arafat, and begging him to be good enough to make peace with us. And Sharon is giving the royal welcome, at the King David Hotel, to the murderer Dahlan, who blew off the legs of the children on the school bus in Kfar Darom.
And we are conducting a humiliating enquiry into the behavior of the policemen who protected the lives of the residents of Northern Israel during the rioting of the "Israeli" Arabs.
And we are practicing a policy of restraint, necessary in order to hang on by the skin of our teeth to the dream that is disappearing in the dust of the graveyards. Because, after all, we can if we only wanted, solve the current crisis through military means, but then we will remain without the partner we so badly need to realize the dream, and will have to create a new dream. Let us therefore continue to die, and without asking for how long, proposes Sharon.
This time in history is exciting because it is forcing us to understand that it simply won't work: Arafat's amazing stubbornness to continue the war even after he received everything he demanded. The obstinacy of the Israeli Arabs to continue spitting in Israel's face, although Israel has done so much to improve their lot. The anti-Semitism in the world, which rises with every Israeli retreat, all prove again and again that we have chosen the wrong path and that we must find a new way.
Sharon desperately wants to fight Arafat. He called for the elimination of Muhammed Dahlan after the terrorist attack in Kfar Darom. Sharon has a Jewish heart and good intentions, but he is a prisoner of the classic Zionist dream. And regardless of whether you belongs to the Left or to the Right, you cannot break out of the current situation without changing the rules of the game, changing the dream.
Unfortunately, the failure of Sharon, a dear and precious Jew, is therefore inevitable. It is only amazing to see how several settlement leaders are once again willing to lend their support to Netanyahu. Some people will do anything to avoid facing the bare truth, that leadership which is not driven and motivated by the historical Jewish purpose is doomed to failure.
There are however, thousands of Israelis who are proud to be Jewish and who have taken responsibility and have joined the Jewish Leadership Movement. No one knows how long it will take to create a Jewish leadership for the State of Israel, but it will happen sooner or later because we have no other choice. The lack of alternative for our survival is clearer today than ever before, and this means that it will happen sooner than we thought. And this, is very exciting.
----------------------------------------------------------
Moshe Feiglin, founder of Manhigut Yehudit, The Jewish Leadership Movement led the campaign of mass civil disobedience against the Oslo accords during the Rabin government. Feiglin also heads the Mekimi Institute, a think-tank for Jewish-based policy. Currently Feiglin is championing the registration of thousands of new members to Likud.