I do not believe another government in this world would tolerate the ideologically motivated murder of its citizens that have occurred in Israel since the September 1993 Oslo agreement. Nor do I believe the citizens of another country would tolerate such a government.
Consider the release of thousands of Arab terrorists ? the latest by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ? despite ten years of Arab massacres and PLO violations of agreements. Must we not deem Sharon and his four predecessors ? Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak ? morally responsible for the murder of hundreds of Jews?
How are we to account for this recurring culpability on the part of Israeli prime ministers? And how are we to explain the public?s apathy?
Various commentators say that Israel?s political and intellectual elites lack Jewish national pride, that they are alienated from the Jewish heritage. No doubt, but let?s go beyond the obvious.
Israel boasts of being a Western-style democracy. Does it not have periodic, multi-party elections? That being the case, then, despite their government?s tolerance of Jewish bloodshed, Israelis need only wait for the next election, hoping that a change of the prime minister or party in power will bring them deliverance. Yet things get progressively worse: more Jews have been murdered under Sharon?s premiership than the sum of those killed under his four predecessors. But this means that democracy or democratic elections anesthetize the people of Israel on the one hand, and endow their inept prime ministers with legitimacy on the other.
Probing deeper, Israel is a secular democratic state ensconced in an anti-secular and anti-democratic Muslim sea. Step-by-step, it has been retreating to its precarious 1949 borders. Why? Most people say American pressure. Wrong! The truth is that Israel simply does not know how to act as a Jewish state. Its leaders, in addition to being ignorant of how to comport themselves as Jews, have accepted Western democratic ideas and values without ever having critically examined their relevance for a Jewish state in the Middle East.
Uncritical assimilation to democratic ideas and values has long been the concern of Muslim writers, even of those who were not averse to learning from the West. Consider Muhammad al-Muwailihi (1868-1930), an Egyptian. In The Story of Isa b. Hisham, al-Muwaihili laments ?the Easterners? imitation of the Westerners in all phases of life. As if blind, they do not seek enlightenment in research, nor do they make comparisons or engage in circumspect reflection. They do not cull the true from the false, the good from the foul, but accept everything in one lump, thinking that therein lies well-being. Hence they forsake all their sound principles, their wholesome customs, their clean conduct. The truth of their forefathers they indifferently discard; thus foundations collapse, columns buckle, edifices tumble. Cut off from spiritual sustenance, they grope about in darkness.?
It has been said that a nation lives only so long as it permits its past to live again. But Israel?s political and cultural elites do not revere Israel?s past. Influenced by the cosmopolitan and egalitarian ideas of the Enlightenment, these elites regard man from an abstract point of view, as independent of ethnicity or nationality. They pose as ?pluralists? and ?secular humanists.? They foster cultural relativism or moral egalitarianism.
Alienated from the Jewish heritage, Israel?s elites are immersed in their own transient interests. Having no past they have no future. But this means they belong solely to their own egos, not to the Jewish people. To belong to a people is to have a living history, a history of great men and memorable events, a history of triumphs and tragedies informed by shared beliefs and values, a history of customs, tales, and stories that move the hearts of people to compassion and grief, to delight and enthusiasm, a history that awakens in men the spirit of initiative, but also the desire to preserve their heritage and transmit it to posterity.
The Jewish heritage is being eroded in Israel by a meaningless pluralism and indiscriminate egalitarianism. All ?lifestyles? are legitimate, all values are equal; this nihilism undermines Jewish national pride, whose only true source is the Covenant at Mount Sinai.
Jewish national pride is being eviscerated by Israel?s entertainment media, which slavishly transmit Western civilization not at its best, but at its worst. The idiocy and violence, the raucous music and pornography purveyed by television and Israeli theaters, cannot but sever Jews from their heritage. This imported vulgarity lowers aesthetic and moral standards. It corrupts Jewish youth by fostering self-indulgence, prompting them to chase after every novel object or desire.
Notice how sports now play as large a part in the minds of people as religion did in former ages. Notice how the shopping center has become the temple of the West. The West can boasts of its progress in science, but we see no progress in wisdom and virtue ? quite the contrary! Does Israel?s government have even the inclination to foster wisdom and virtue? Impossible without knowledge of Torah Judaism, the source of wisdom and virtue.
In the name of democracy, Israel?s secular elites would relegate Judaism to the home and the synagogue. No longer would Judaism be relevant to public law and statecraft. Democracy would thus be severed from wisdom and virtue. This is what makes all the talk about ?pluralism? and ?secular humanism? mere drivel. This drivel stultifies and emasculates the people and prime ministers of Israel. Pitted again Israel?s relentless foes, is it any wonder that Jews today can be murdered with impunity?
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Professor Eidelberg is the President of the Yamin Israel movement.
Consider the release of thousands of Arab terrorists ? the latest by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ? despite ten years of Arab massacres and PLO violations of agreements. Must we not deem Sharon and his four predecessors ? Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak ? morally responsible for the murder of hundreds of Jews?
How are we to account for this recurring culpability on the part of Israeli prime ministers? And how are we to explain the public?s apathy?
Various commentators say that Israel?s political and intellectual elites lack Jewish national pride, that they are alienated from the Jewish heritage. No doubt, but let?s go beyond the obvious.
Israel boasts of being a Western-style democracy. Does it not have periodic, multi-party elections? That being the case, then, despite their government?s tolerance of Jewish bloodshed, Israelis need only wait for the next election, hoping that a change of the prime minister or party in power will bring them deliverance. Yet things get progressively worse: more Jews have been murdered under Sharon?s premiership than the sum of those killed under his four predecessors. But this means that democracy or democratic elections anesthetize the people of Israel on the one hand, and endow their inept prime ministers with legitimacy on the other.
Probing deeper, Israel is a secular democratic state ensconced in an anti-secular and anti-democratic Muslim sea. Step-by-step, it has been retreating to its precarious 1949 borders. Why? Most people say American pressure. Wrong! The truth is that Israel simply does not know how to act as a Jewish state. Its leaders, in addition to being ignorant of how to comport themselves as Jews, have accepted Western democratic ideas and values without ever having critically examined their relevance for a Jewish state in the Middle East.
Uncritical assimilation to democratic ideas and values has long been the concern of Muslim writers, even of those who were not averse to learning from the West. Consider Muhammad al-Muwailihi (1868-1930), an Egyptian. In The Story of Isa b. Hisham, al-Muwaihili laments ?the Easterners? imitation of the Westerners in all phases of life. As if blind, they do not seek enlightenment in research, nor do they make comparisons or engage in circumspect reflection. They do not cull the true from the false, the good from the foul, but accept everything in one lump, thinking that therein lies well-being. Hence they forsake all their sound principles, their wholesome customs, their clean conduct. The truth of their forefathers they indifferently discard; thus foundations collapse, columns buckle, edifices tumble. Cut off from spiritual sustenance, they grope about in darkness.?
It has been said that a nation lives only so long as it permits its past to live again. But Israel?s political and cultural elites do not revere Israel?s past. Influenced by the cosmopolitan and egalitarian ideas of the Enlightenment, these elites regard man from an abstract point of view, as independent of ethnicity or nationality. They pose as ?pluralists? and ?secular humanists.? They foster cultural relativism or moral egalitarianism.
Alienated from the Jewish heritage, Israel?s elites are immersed in their own transient interests. Having no past they have no future. But this means they belong solely to their own egos, not to the Jewish people. To belong to a people is to have a living history, a history of great men and memorable events, a history of triumphs and tragedies informed by shared beliefs and values, a history of customs, tales, and stories that move the hearts of people to compassion and grief, to delight and enthusiasm, a history that awakens in men the spirit of initiative, but also the desire to preserve their heritage and transmit it to posterity.
The Jewish heritage is being eroded in Israel by a meaningless pluralism and indiscriminate egalitarianism. All ?lifestyles? are legitimate, all values are equal; this nihilism undermines Jewish national pride, whose only true source is the Covenant at Mount Sinai.
Jewish national pride is being eviscerated by Israel?s entertainment media, which slavishly transmit Western civilization not at its best, but at its worst. The idiocy and violence, the raucous music and pornography purveyed by television and Israeli theaters, cannot but sever Jews from their heritage. This imported vulgarity lowers aesthetic and moral standards. It corrupts Jewish youth by fostering self-indulgence, prompting them to chase after every novel object or desire.
Notice how sports now play as large a part in the minds of people as religion did in former ages. Notice how the shopping center has become the temple of the West. The West can boasts of its progress in science, but we see no progress in wisdom and virtue ? quite the contrary! Does Israel?s government have even the inclination to foster wisdom and virtue? Impossible without knowledge of Torah Judaism, the source of wisdom and virtue.
In the name of democracy, Israel?s secular elites would relegate Judaism to the home and the synagogue. No longer would Judaism be relevant to public law and statecraft. Democracy would thus be severed from wisdom and virtue. This is what makes all the talk about ?pluralism? and ?secular humanism? mere drivel. This drivel stultifies and emasculates the people and prime ministers of Israel. Pitted again Israel?s relentless foes, is it any wonder that Jews today can be murdered with impunity?
--------------------------------------------------------
Professor Eidelberg is the President of the Yamin Israel movement.